Ten laws of business for success

           

         1. ESTABLISH AN IDEA

Business establishment is a project you want to achieve. That you want to achieve it, implies that you have developed the desire or passion to pursue business. This is important, for only if you want to commit to the pursuit of business can you. Business establishment and management requires steps and sacrifices. Only if you are determined can you be willing to make them. If you are not passionate, there is no way that you can give your best to the management of your business. Efficient management can be done by only one that is passionate about business. It is the key to success in business. Success in business sometimes is dependent on how you remote your business. So, if you cannot be a good manager due to lack of passion you are bound to fail. 

Having determined to establish business, you would want to know how to go about this concern. But just what kind of project can we liken this one you want to achieve? Let us liken it to a building project, in order to draw out some lessons. 

There are different kinds of building. Each having different size, structure and nature. You cannot build all at the same time. You can only build a certain kind of building. 

To achieve this you would make a plan of the type that you want to build. A plan can be likened to a picture; that is what the building would look like. When this is achieved then steps would be taken in order to ensure that exactly that kind of building is built. Every building requires different step or plan. So, the steps to be taken would be in accordance with the plan. When this is done, the exact building you want to establish would be built.

It is the same with business. You would need to come out with a business idea. That is to say, you should define the exact business you want to start; its niche, structure and size. When you have defined it. You have created a picture, or plan. Then you would take the appropriate measures for building that kind of business. Each business has different startup requirement. There capitals vary. Their legal requirements vary. When you take the correct step, it would surely lead you to the establishment of that business. Whenever the step required to create a business is taken, it would be created. 

If you do not come up with a specific idea you would lack target. Lacking target, you would not have any specific direction to follow. Then you cannot really start a business. 

      2. ACQUIRE MANAGERIAL SKILLS

You have decided to pursue business. You have chosen a niche for yourself. You cannot wait to establish your business. No one knows the kind of business that you want to establish. As you know, your business must be managed after it is established. Business does not manage itself. Someone has to manage it, to exercise sovereignty over it. Some choose to employ others to manage their business. But some choose to manage their business by themselves. Weather or not you would manage your business is dependent on the kind it is. Some business like sole-proprietorships are managed by the owners. But partnerships employ others to do it for them. It is not completely a matter of choice. Though there are exceptions. You could choose to be both the owner and manager of your business. 

Management is like sailing. If the captain of the ship is good, he would drive the ship well; has little chance of driving to the wrong direction. 

Good management is considered one of the key, infact the major key to effective success in business. So, if the manager is good like the captain, there would be little chance of failure; he would always take the right decisions, influence the team very well, leading to success. 

But if on the other hand he is not adept, chances are that he would lead the business to failure. 

Since you have chosen to ride your business yourself ensure that you acquire managerial skills, so that you can be better qualified to manage your business, ensuring it's success, reducing it's chances of failure.

If you opt to employ others to manage it yourself, do not just employ anyone. Employ only those that are good; those that possess managerial skills, that have experience and are very adept at management. So that they could manage your business very well. 

                         3. PLAN

If you want to start a business you have a target. Your aspiration is business formation. Business formation requires many processes. You must take those steps to achieve your objective. Some of the crucial steps includes; capital securement, office or space securement, equipments securement, securement of staff etc. To succeed in doing those you would need to plan. To bring out ways you want to achieve those. Each of those concerns requires certain steps to achieve them. So therefore a plan is your unique strategy to achieve your startup concern.

A plan is simply how to tackle all the concerns that you have about establishment. One of those concerns is securement of capital. You would need to think out how to secure capital. 

When Dangote wanted to secure capital to start a business, he thought about how to secure it, lacking the money. He decided to borrow the money from his uncle. That very way; borrowing was to him a plan. It was how he wanted to secure his money. A plan for capital securement includes ways that you think you can achieve it. 

You may choose to write down those ways or unique principles. Then when you have, the plan can serve as a guide to achieving each of those concerns. If you have indicated on your book that you would secure capital through loan from the government by writhing to them to seek for it, then you would stick to it by doing so. 

A plan would include not only a suggestion or principle to adopt to achieve an objective, but also when to do so. 

It helps you to be able to tackle any challenge that you might encounter trying to achieve those goals. Because you would weigh every option; every method involved in achieving your goal and the challenge you might likely encounter from each of them, choosing the best, and also prescribe how you could tackle them.

But if you do not plan; it is difficult for you to achieve those concerns. Planning helps you to think and come up with solutions to them. But when you do not, you would be void of the routes to follow to achieve them. 

You would be like a man that wants to build, but refuses to plan how to get resources for building. How then could he ever get resources, hence he needs to take practical steps to secure resources? 

Traditionally all those who wants to start business plan how to achieve it. They would write all the steps and requirements they ought to fulfil to create it. Then come up with suggestions; strategies of achieving every requirement. This makes it easy for them to fulfil those requirements. Their are different strategies or ways of achieving them. Each having challenges and benefits unique to it. They consider the challenge unique to each one. Then they decide on which of them is the best to follow, which has a higher chance of success, and less benefits. Because they anticipate challenge they prescribe possible solutions to them. Then when using any of the key to fulfil their requirement, they are able to tackle any challenge, because they are not caught off-guard, and have written down solutions which they would apply. Tackling the challenge, and the key being potent enough to help them fulfil their requirement, they are able to fulfil their requirement. 

Imitating them, is a wise thing for you to do. Jesus' himself implied that one who wants to embark on a building should calculate the cost. Implying that such a person should think and plan, to enhance his success. 

Planning isn't only for those desiring to start a business. At every point in the history of a business, there would always be new objectives it wants to achieve; change of equipments, recruitment of staff, expansion of company etc. Through planning it would secure an effective way to achieve its goal; prepared to tackle a y challenges they would encounter doing so, lessening their chance of failure and increasing their chance of success. 

               4. SECURE CAPITAL 

If capital is no necessity for business start-up, you could do without it. But as we know, human experience have shown that business establishment cannot be done without capital. All businesses were started with capital. None was started without capital. It is an intrinsic start-up requirement. It is defined as the original funds used to start a business, implying that a business is started with funds. 

All business irrespective of its kind, structure and niche requires steps to create. Those steps are carried out with resources. 

One of the general step required to start any business is registration. This as we know requires money. One must pay for permits to the government. And so is it applicable to every step one has to take to start any business; securement of office, pursue of equipment, installation of equipment, purchase of space for building company or renting of office etc. All of those always requires money to achieve. 

Since business cannot be started without capital, you need capital. Therefore treat capital as you would every need you have. Work to meet this need. Do this by securing capital which you would use to start business. If you do not, you cannot start a business; because you cannot take the steps needed to start it without making one expenditure or the other. This should discourage you from not securing capital but motivate you to do so. If you do, then, you would use the capital to start a business. When you succeed in securing capital, then you are half-way to achieving your creation goal. Therefore get capital! Secure capital! Acquire capital!

                      5. BUILD

A business does not build itself. It is built by someone. Except you build a business you cannot be an owner. Since you are in possession of capital and managerial skills for running business and is willing and capable to own a business, it is time for you to build one. 

Each business has requirements for building it. The steps are like ladders that leads to them. When you climb them, they would lead you to the business. 

So, when you take the steps that leads to the creation of any business, it would lead you to creation.

It is like building a house. Every plan taken may be important, it you come to own one by building it. Likewise employing contractors to build a company for you is a crucial step to establishing a business. And we all know that what you build is yours, therefore if you succeed in building a business you become an owner an achieve your dream of establishing it. 

If you do not want to build one directly, you can choose the option of buying a business. The arrangement for transfer of ownership makes it possible for one to sell his ownership of business. You can secure your ownership of business through purchase of an existing business. When you do, you are the same as one that built a business. The business like one that build himself, would be yours. Though you didn't build and cannot take credit for building, you would be certified as the owner by virtue of the fact you purchased it. You would have equal sovereignty over the business like he.

You can still make as much profit from it as one that built himself. 

                 6. REGISTER 

Business registration involves meeting every legal requirements for business in a country. The requirements vary from country to country. Each country mandates those who want to start business to register with the government. Traditionally those who establishes business are the ones expected to register. They are those that registers. When they register they are usually assigned a document that certifies them to be owner of the business. Those who do not establish business are never issued documents of ownership. The document is thus the gap or distinguishing feature between the owner and non-owner. It shows that you are a business owner if you possess it, since only through establishment could you secure it. 

Business registration is therefore a way for you to secure your identity as the owner of your business. In the event of claims by another person as to ownership of your business, you can use it to attest to your ownership of business, disproving his claim, securing your rights to exercise sovereignty over your business. 

The government carries out serious scrutiny before they issue permits. They are careful not to issue permits to illegal business. Only business that are legal are accepted for operations. Whoever has a business permit therefore is running a legal business. It shows that the government recognizes and approves of his business. So obtaining a permit is one way to prove that government approves of the business you are doing. In the future if government wants to favour businesses they could favour you since the business you are doing is legal.

You would find this arrangement beneficial hence it helps you to acquire certificate as an owner. Therefore do not hesitate to acquire government permit through registration. After all it is not difficult to do so. 

              7. START OPERATIONS 

When one finishes building a house, what happens next? He would move into it and start living in it. How can someone build but not occupy it? Does it make sense? The reason he built is to occupy. So he has to fulfil that I receive by doing so. 

After you have built and registered, it is now time to start operations. The reason why you built your business is to achieve your objective. There is a correlation between business operations and achievement of the objective. For instance if a business has production as its niche, and has money as its goal not charity. They can achieve this goal only if they produce their brand and sell it. Production involves activities such as raw materials purchase, mixing, etc. Only by indulging in those activities can one produce and sell and achieve its objective. If they do not, nothing can be achieved.

If the business stays idle without activities, then the plants would soon spoil due to lack of usage. Productivity would never occur due to lack of steps and the goals would never be achieved. 

Business isn't meant to be idle. It is a vehicle that should be ride to your destination. Continue to stir it towards your objective by driving it into actions that would lead to it.

Do not waste time in employing people who would engage in the activities of the business. Such activities as production, packaging, marketing and distributing has to be kick-started on time. 

The sooner you do, the earlier you would realize your profit. 

                   8. ADVERTISE 

Your new business that you have registered to your name is yet to become known. No one has recognized it. It usually takes a long time before a business is known. 

When people are ignorant of your business they cannot patronize it; they cannot patronize what they do not know exists. The business title and address for instance is unknown to them, so how could they even locate it?

A brand remains a mystery to the public if it has not gained recognition. 

When it gains recognition, when it is known, people can patronize it. All the brands people patronize are known. They could tell the name of the brand. They could locate it, making patronage possible. 

The easiest way to make your brand known is through advertising. Through it, you can create awareness to people about the existence of your brand. 

People the world over have used advertising to let people become aware of their brand effectively, resulting in turn-over from the public. 

Advertising is more than an effective key to creating the fame of a brand. 

Sometimes some people have confessed to purchasing a brand due to the way they were persuaded by advertisers to buy it. Through advertising businesses make their products appealing by revealing and exaggerating it's benefits, so that the public finds it to be irresistible and then, left with no option they commit to buying it. It is thus a key to persuading people to buy your brand. Increase in sales have often succeeded advertising. 

Weather your brand is new or not, advertising can be employed by you to enhance the fame of it, and persuade people to buy it, which could successfully lead to increase in turn- over. 

           9. COMPETE AND WIN 

All business men are like power seekers. They are not the only one that aspires to assume the throne. Besides you, there are many others that wishes to grasp power. 

Everyone seeking is willing to become the one that wins power. So, then they have competitors. Likewise do business men have competitors. Their are many that are dealing on the same brand as you. That may be in the same environment as you. Both of you have the same target- to be leading in turnover. You want to have more patronage, if possible all patronage, and lose non to your rivals. 

They are willing to take any steps so that they achieve this, just as you. They may reduce the cost of their product, so that people would find your own to be expensive and purchase theirs. They may be willing to give discounts just to have more customers than you. 

You could out-compete your competitors by standing out. By making your brand to be superior in quality to theirs. Superior qualities are prefferd to inferior ones. So being more superior, people would prefer yours to theirs. The result would be more patronage than theirs. 

Another effective strategy to outperforming your competitors involves reputation. Project their brand through advertising to be inferior, and bad to the health of the public, and put your own in good light. When people finds the brand of your competitors to be bad, or perceives them negatively, they would naturally flock to your side, since you put your brand in good light. Anything at all that you could do to make people to see the business negatively can help. 

You do not have to do this directly. If you unnecessarily criticize your rivals, people would perceive you to be desperate. They would prefer your rival, since they know you are merely jealous. Instead employ people to testify that your brand is good and better than your enemies. Make people reveal that when they consumed the brand of your enemy they found something bad about it. Then everyone would believe it, without even verifying and naturally would flock to you, giving you more patronage. 

                   10. STAND OUT 

You want to succeed. This is good. There is nobody that starts a business that wants to fail. We generally hate failure at anything. When you fail, your sacrifices and capital becomes wasted. This is bad and shameful, we do not want this to happen. When you succeed, your goal becomes fulfilled, and you become richer. This is pleasing and desirable to us. 

Our chances of success is dependent on the patronage that we receive. When we receive much turnover, we would make lucrative profits, fulfilling our goal. With it we could expand our business, boost production or add to our capital. 

But when turnover is low, or does not occur, the products we produced may lose their value, or become out dated, or perish if they are perishable. And then we may be forced to tap from our capital to produce goods, since we lack profit which we would have used. The more we deduct from our capital due to lack of patronage, the more it becomes less, and less until it becomes no more or finishes. At that point we are no longer in possession of funds to run our business with; buying of raw materials, payment of staff and day to day expenditure. It may seems as if the only option may be to secure loan, but this is usually at the detriment of the company because the interests we would have to pay for it must be charged from the interests the business would generate, which is usually too high, capable of lessening the purse very much; something we do not desire. And the business risks not being able to pay it, in the event of continuation of lack of patronage. 

The business should critically look into why it is unable to make turnover. When it realizes it, it would be easier for them to solve the problem of turnover. 

It may seem as if the key to achieving enormous turnover is reduction in cost; selling at a cheap cost. One may reason that lack of patronage on the part of customers is due to the fact that they find articles to be very expensive. They are unable to afford to buy it because they have less or lack money. Many are not always rich enough to buy expensive articles. There are always people with less to buy than rich. So if the cost of an item is expensive one would have less customers to patronize it. When it is cheap there would be more to buy it, leading to high turnover. This may seem so, but it is not always so. 

No matter how expensive an item is, if it is a necessity or of standard, people would surely patronize it. Items that are of quality are irresistible. No one that seems them does not wish to buy them.

 When they buy an item that is cheap but not up to standard they usually find out it does not last and solve the purpose it was meant for, so they conclude it is a waste of money on their part. They learn from their experience to refrain from buying such. Since they are not durable they would always need to buy them sooner after they buy them, often and often, which takes out money from their pulse that sinner adds up to a huge amount of wealth. A waste of wealth actually because they do not serve the purpose they are meant for effectively. It is like buying something that does not work well. It does you no considerable good.

But when they buy ones that are of quality they find out that it is durable and serves the purpose they are meant for. So they appreciate such ones. Due to their durability they do not have to buy a new one sooner. The ones they bought takes a long time before it spoils, so they wouldn't draw out money from their purse every now and then for purchase, which is economical for them. And such also serves the function that they were meant for effectively. Their efficacy boosts their appreciation for them. When you buy something that works well you would enjoy it. That is why the world over people have appreciation for items that are of quality. It is such that they often buy no matter the cost. 

When they go to shops, they not only ask for items if quality. They take steps to ascertain if the one you give them is of standard.

If therefore your brand is of quality, it would be the kind that people would add to their purchase menu. No matter how expensive it is, they would have preference for it. 

Since it is the key utilize it to the maximum. Do not just stop at adding value to your product. Remember that you have competitors. Those whom are on the same niche as you are. They are also aware of this key, trying to ensure that their brand is void of any inadequacy on standard. If though your brand is of standard but theirs is more of standard than yours, then they would still be preferred by customers. The secret to success therefore is to make your brand to be the most standard, to be the best in wherever it would be availed. Then wherever it is availed people would always have preference for it, no brand would sell more than yours.