Nothing works in life without
adequate planning. A great philosopher once said people fail in life not because they planned to fail, but because they
failed to plan. Another important thing in planning is your working group,
which helps in the execution of your plans. Solid plans can never be achieved
alone; this is why you need a working group if you must succeed in climbing up
to the top of that ladder of life. This was proved to us in the Bible in
Genesis Chapter 1:26, when God said “Let us create man in our own image and
likeness…” Ask yourself, who are the ‘us’, and why didn’t God do it alone?
The second lesson we should learn
from the creation process is planning. God made adequate plans before creating
man, He wanted man to rule over all creations, so He didn’t first create man,
which was His final destination in creation, so He first paved way for the
arrival of man. Had He first created man, when there was no light, no heavens
or earth, and no food, may be man wouldn’t have survived it, so He planned to
make provisions for the survival of man first, before creating him. And today,
we see some couples making big mistakes in life, by not planning for the
children they want to bring into this
world, all they know is to sleep together and manufacture kids without adequate
plans for their welfare, it is highly uncalled for.
Even God himself, who has the sole
power to do all things, both the possible and the impossible, made adequate
plans before creating man. He made consultations, and made sure everything was
properly put in place before the arrival of man. He also taught us that we need
adequate planning in whatever we do, during the coming of his son Jesus Christ,
He first sent John the Baptist to come and pave way for Christ (Mathew
3:3).
What is your target in life, may be
to own a prosperous business? Then how far have you gone with the plans of
getting to this target? Planning is the first step towards achieving great
things in life, if you do not plan, things will surely hit you by surprise.
Okay you want to own a prosperous
business outfit? In what sector of business? Because we have so many sectors;
agriculture, commerce, building, etc. why do you prefer this sector? What
special skill or service do you have to offer in this sector that others
previously in it has not yet offered to the market? How much capital do you
have at hand or within your reach to venture into this business? Then, how
profitable is the business and how sooner will you recover your investment
capital?
Haven answered those vital
questions, you aren’t done yet, go further and ask yourself, what are the
manpower requirement for this business, is it one you can bear? What about the
location, will it favor the success of the business, in terms of patronage?
Does the profit justify the time input?
All these, you must put down on a
paper, in a carefully thought manner, examine each question critically before
jumping into answer because, the answer might be simple but far from what you
may think it is.
It is a very common practice in
Nigeria today for people to go financially stressed during the month of
January, why? Because they do not plan well, haven known the fact that this
month has always proved to be the most financially stressed month of the year,
why then should you spend your life savings on the celebration of Christmas
that will still come again and again.
I know quite sure that many people
reading this book, will not fancy this part of the book, but that is the truth
that I am telling you, don’t spend your whole savings on a merriment. Plan
ahead of time; always plan for days like the January period.
In a summary, let us now examine
how one can plan getting to his or her life target. Follow the model below in a
very careful manner and try to replicate it wisely in your life, best of luck!
Mr. John has a dream of owning a prosperous business outfit.
-remember, he has no particular
business in mind, but he desires owning a successful business outfit, and he is
definite about this. And again, Mr. John has less than twenty thousand naira in
his savings.
Step1: Mr. John has defined his life desire, to own a prosperous
business outfit.
Step2: He needs to define his target now, because owning a
prosperous business is not just a target, it is too big to be a targeted, so he
needs to define the sector or field he would own this successful business. So
what does he do?
HIS ACTIONS:
To make this dream a reality, he
needs to put his sleeping brain to work. So Mr. John starts to look around his
environment (his residential area) for a likely business opportunity, this he
did for a week, two or even months, depending on his ability to identify
opportunities.
Finally, he finds one. Guess what?
There is always an intermittency in the supply of electricity around his
environment (may be once a week), and the residents in this place love partying
and stuffs like that, though they hardly own big generating sets. There are a
lot of beer parlors and mini shops that sell soft drinks too.
Mr. John goes to one, two, and
three of those beer parlors and asked them how they keep their drinks chilled
because every time he went to buy drink from them, it was always chilled
despite the fact that they have poor electricity supply. One of the owners of
those beer parlors told him that they usually buy ice blocks from a far away
town. So why don’t you buy it from within? Mr. John asked, “Because we don’t
have any of such places where one can buy ice block here, in fact people here
don’t see the need to establish one since we can always buy from there, and at
a cheaper rate, because they deal in large quantity”.
“So how much do they sell one for
you, I am sorry if I may ask?” “You are asking like you are planning to
establish one here, are you?” “not really madam, I just feel like knowing
because I love the way your drinks are, always chilled” “anyway, thanks Mr.
John but, if you are considering establishing one, it might not move because
the one I am talking about has dominated the business, in fact people love
buying from them, so it will be difficult for you to win their patronage plus,
your own will be costlier because I know you will start small while running
constant generator which consumes a lot of petrol” “oh that was a wonderful
advice madam, but please how much do they sell one block to you, I want to
know?”
The woman pondered a bit before
replying, “it depends on the size, like the size of this one over there…”
pointing at a huge ice block in a container, “…is sold for a hundred and fifty
naira, and that is the medium size, as for the biggest size, it goes for two
hundred and fifty naira” “thanks madam, glad discussing with you, may be during
the weekend, I will bring my friends here for a drink” “you are always welcomed
Mr. John” he left.
Note: Mr. John has identified a good business but there is a strong
competitor he must beat if he must make it in this business, so watch out his
next step.
Mr. John has to trace the location
of this ice block outfit that supplies ice to people around his environment. He
finally got there impressed, with the size and prosperity of the business; in
fact they had up to eight workers; five guys and three beautiful young girls.
He befriended one of the girls.
Through the girl, he gets to know
the machines needed to start the business, the cost, and even the processes
involved. Do you see why you need a working group if you must succeed in your
plans? Remember, Mr. John has two working groups now, first the Bar woman and
secondly, the ice block girl. In summary, he needed at least two hundred
thousand naira to start the business, and he has less than twenty thousand
naira currently.
The next thing Mr. John needed to
know was the profitability of the business before he ventures into it, so he
approached the same girl, who now assured him of huge profits if he will be
able to establish it. “But the start up capital is too much, are you sure you
gave me the right statistics?” Mr. John inquired, “of course it is, that is why
I have not established one myself, it is even costlier than what I told you if
you want it bigger as ours.” So how do I raise the money, was the next thought
that ran into John’s head, watch out!
Step 3: The search for the
startup capital
Remember, John just graduated from
a Polytechnic and has no job at hand. So he has the following options to raise
his start up capital:
Option
1- getting a job so as to save from his salary
Option
2- obtaining loan from a bank
Option
3- borrowing from friends and relations
Option
4- seek for a business partnership
Considering option 1, John knew it
will be a bit difficult for him because it has never been so easy for him to
secure a job since three years that he passed out from NYSC, so it wouldn’t be
easier now that he needed it urgently, so he scrapped that option, though he
kept on sending his CV’s to firms.
Option 2, John knew for sure that
this option was completely impossible for him to achieve at the moment, because
he has nothing to offer as collateral to bank, so he is not eligible for that
option. The next two options are, borrowing from friends and relations, and
partnering with somebody.
These last options seemed more
suitable than the rest for John, so he went for the two. First, John approached
the girl at the ice block investment; because he heard her mention that she
would have loved to own one herself had it been she had the capital to start
it. So John approached her, and she agreed to partner with John on 70% to 30%
agreement. That’s to say, John will provide 70% while the girl completes the
remaining 30% of the business capital, and same way, profit and loss (if any)
will be shared.
Yet, John has not up to a hundred
and twenty thousand required from him. He had to approach one of his cousins
who worked with a firm in Lagos
Step 4: Setting up the business
Before setting up the business,
John went back to that bar woman to inform her of his final intentions, and to
assure her of good service delivery, at the same time seeking for her
assistance in advertising the business, while he promised her of good discounts
on purchase. Not only that, he also told his neighbors, neighboring beer
parlors, restaurants and drink shops about his business. Finally, he set up the
business.
Step 5: Conquering his competitor
Remember, before John ventured into
this business, he knew his strongest competitor, and he researched about his
weakness, and now he has one of them on his side. What next, price and
consistency?
Price- instead of selling
his own for the usual hundred and fifty naira per medium ice block and two
hundred and fifty for the biggest size, to make a profit of fifty naira and
seventy naira on each respectively, John decided to sell his own for a hundred
and thirty naira and two hundred and twenty five naira respectively.
Don’t forget, he has saved his
customers a lot of money; transportation cost plus a discount, and even the
comfort. Though, his profit was small, but he had a huge turn over in a day. He
even made provision to sell smaller ice blocks for kids and teenagers who love
licking ice. Shortly, he introduced the sell of ice cream and yoghurt.
Gradually, customers withdrew from going to that far away town to buy ice
block, and they were all diverted to John’s Ice Block.
Step 6: Daring for more success
John didn’t relax, because owning
just an ice block making investment was not enough to take him to his financial
dream, because he knew that one day, someone else could open up the same
investment or the supply of electricity might improve or something else, so he
needed to venture into something else, but in the same sector he is, so he
incorporated a cold room for frozen foods like; chicken, turkey, fish, etc.
As if that was not enough, John
started fish rearing and poultry, and gradually into making of sachet pure
water, and as I am talking to you today, John has a flourishing cold room, ice
block making investment, a prosperous fish pond, poultry farm, bottled water
industry among other smaller investments.
Question
What did you learn from the above
example? I know that you are inspired to start something by now, but if you
still lack the courage, please don’t give up, read on as we continue on the
next discussion.
Note: this is an
excerpt from my book titled: ‘How To Create Wealth From Nothing’
No comments:
Post a Comment