Continued...
How we got out of the financial mess that the government's decision brought upon us, is a story I'll probably tell you another day. But learn in the meantime the very important lesson that even when you know where to reach your customers before you launch a product, it is not a reason to believe that something cannot still go wrong.
If a method that pushes up your success rate by as much as 95% can leave you gasping for breath, then deliberately going into a market where you have no idea of who your customers are is nothing short of knowingly drinking acid and expecting it to refresh you like cold water.
That is by the way. Let's get back to the "Beginning Entrepreneur's Nightmare Zone" or BENZ as I will refer to it from henceforth. BENZ was decreed into existence in Genesis Chapter 8 verse 22. That is where God said, "while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest shall not cease. "
The All-knowing God, who created heaven and earth and everything in it, gave us an important key for succeeding in business here. Being our Creator (manufacturer), He knew we needed the key. But out of ignorance, we didn't find it early enough. That's why God said "my people are perish for lack of knowledge" (information).
Now, this important key in Genesis 8:22 brings to our attention the reason why we must have a seed and sow it at a right time and in a good soil. We satisfy this condition when we establish a business. What we are doing when we launch a new business, is sowing a seed at seedtime.
And as we are assured by this immutable law, seedtime will always be followed by harvest just as night follows day and winter is followed by summer. That means when you plant at seedtime (start a business), then harvest (profit-making) shall follow.
Problem arises, however, when we plant a new business and expect our harvest almost immediately, irrespective of the type of plant that we sowed. The answer to this puzzle is found, not in a business management school (they don't teach it there!) but at the farm. Yes, it is in the farm that you will discover the mystery of seedtime and harvest.
The farmer knows the secret. Years of planting and harvesting have taught him to know how this great mystery, which still confounds a Beginning Entrepreneur and makes him to suffer needlessly, works. Now, let's observe a farmer at work.
The knowledgeable farmer knows there is a particular time to clear the bush and plant the seed. The seedtime must be prepared for. Planting must be done in season. And each seed has the right condition or planting it. I learnt a bit of this myself when I was growing up and I followed my father to his farm at Osogbo. I watched him as he planted cassava, beans, corn, pepper and yam. Trouble was, I never connected what I observed my father doing at his farm to what I've to do when I went into business for myself. Oh, how I wish I made the connection!
So the farmer plants his seed. Although he knows that there's harvest to come, he doesn't go home and look for a cosy bed to lie on while waiting for that harvest. No. Rather he invests the time in-between to care for the seed he has planted, weeding the grass and, in case locust or other crop destroying insects invade his farm, using the right chemical to get rid of them.
This is what he continues to do until harvest time arrives. And he'll be rewarded for his care for the crop and his patience with a bountiful harvest.
A Start-up Entrepreneur is supposed to do the same thing. He should start his new business and continue to nurture it until it grows to the point of harvest. He must be as industrious and as patient as the farmer. If he's not, then he won't have a harvest.
Starting a business, for most Beginning Entrepreneurs, takes a lot out of them. Because capital is not easily available to take off, by the time a BE arrives at the marketplace, he's all stressed up as a result of all the efforts he had to make to raise the seed money.
This condition makes it extremely difficult for him to exercise the necessary patience before harvest arrives.
How then can any BE, who finds himself in. this condition, cope? We shall go right back to the farm to seek a solution. Let's go over to the next chapter as I show you what I learnt while I was almost grounded in the BENZ.
That is by the way. Let's get back to the "Beginning Entrepreneur's Nightmare Zone" or BENZ as I will refer to it from henceforth. BENZ was decreed into existence in Genesis Chapter 8 verse 22. That is where God said, "while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest shall not cease. "
The All-knowing God, who created heaven and earth and everything in it, gave us an important key for succeeding in business here. Being our Creator (manufacturer), He knew we needed the key. But out of ignorance, we didn't find it early enough. That's why God said "my people are perish for lack of knowledge" (information).
Now, this important key in Genesis 8:22 brings to our attention the reason why we must have a seed and sow it at a right time and in a good soil. We satisfy this condition when we establish a business. What we are doing when we launch a new business, is sowing a seed at seedtime.
And as we are assured by this immutable law, seedtime will always be followed by harvest just as night follows day and winter is followed by summer. That means when you plant at seedtime (start a business), then harvest (profit-making) shall follow.
Problem arises, however, when we plant a new business and expect our harvest almost immediately, irrespective of the type of plant that we sowed. The answer to this puzzle is found, not in a business management school (they don't teach it there!) but at the farm. Yes, it is in the farm that you will discover the mystery of seedtime and harvest.
The farmer knows the secret. Years of planting and harvesting have taught him to know how this great mystery, which still confounds a Beginning Entrepreneur and makes him to suffer needlessly, works. Now, let's observe a farmer at work.
The knowledgeable farmer knows there is a particular time to clear the bush and plant the seed. The seedtime must be prepared for. Planting must be done in season. And each seed has the right condition or planting it. I learnt a bit of this myself when I was growing up and I followed my father to his farm at Osogbo. I watched him as he planted cassava, beans, corn, pepper and yam. Trouble was, I never connected what I observed my father doing at his farm to what I've to do when I went into business for myself. Oh, how I wish I made the connection!
So the farmer plants his seed. Although he knows that there's harvest to come, he doesn't go home and look for a cosy bed to lie on while waiting for that harvest. No. Rather he invests the time in-between to care for the seed he has planted, weeding the grass and, in case locust or other crop destroying insects invade his farm, using the right chemical to get rid of them.
This is what he continues to do until harvest time arrives. And he'll be rewarded for his care for the crop and his patience with a bountiful harvest.
A Start-up Entrepreneur is supposed to do the same thing. He should start his new business and continue to nurture it until it grows to the point of harvest. He must be as industrious and as patient as the farmer. If he's not, then he won't have a harvest.
Starting a business, for most Beginning Entrepreneurs, takes a lot out of them. Because capital is not easily available to take off, by the time a BE arrives at the marketplace, he's all stressed up as a result of all the efforts he had to make to raise the seed money.
This condition makes it extremely difficult for him to exercise the necessary patience before harvest arrives.
How then can any BE, who finds himself in. this condition, cope? We shall go right back to the farm to seek a solution. Let's go over to the next chapter as I show you what I learnt while I was almost grounded in the BENZ.
Sunny Obazu-Ojeagbase is the Chairman of SADC, Publishers of SuccessDigest. He is also the founder of Complete Communication Limited, publishers of Complete Sports.
Visit: www.sadcnigeria.org
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