Why you can succeed in business

There are two kinds of people when it comes to business establishment. The people that are ready to start business and are qualified, having nothing holding them back, and those that withdraw from doing so.

For those who are qualified and motivated, nothing stops them from starting business. That is why do not be surprised to discover a business registered to their names, after you have discussed business with them and heard them indicate interest.

For those that are motivated, desirous, appealed by the benefits of business, to want to start one, but have a reason not to venture, they may not establish one.

Business being lucrative not only to the starter but to the public, is encouraged. And so those who have a reason for holding back, would want help. How can we help those ones to achieve their goal?

For such ones the reason they hold back, may be due to fear of failure. They fear lest they fail, so they hold back.

It is true that business is one route that many have plied and succeeded in. Their are many and many people that started business, and made money thanks to their business. An evidence that one can succeed in business. But there is also another group of people. Those who started business but failed. Because they failed, one could conclude that failure is possible in business. Thus those who fear failure, and withdraw from establishment of business have good reason not to establish business. 

But fear of failure should not make them to stop. It should not make them to stop only at being motivated. They should do more than that. 

It is because even though they entertain that fear they could excell. Remember that some excelled, though they had fear of failure. What does that tell you? It is to you, an evidence that success is also possible just as failure is. 

The wise thing to do then, is to discover how one can enhance his chances. How he can succeed instead of failing. A key to this discovery is to x-ray the successful. How did they succeed in business? 

They succeed by utilizing certain steps, resources and opportunities, that can help one to succeed in business. What are they? 

THE STEPS THAT CAN HELP YOU SUCCEED

1. Secure Capital: There is something indicative about business from the definition of capital- one of the terms in business employed by people often. When you come across that word and became hungry to know the meaning and consult your Dictionary, you would discover that it defined it as ''the resources used in starting business''. 

What does that teach us? It suggests that starting a business requires resources. The definition is propounded by authorities, which makes it reliable. 

What gives boost to the authenticity of the definition is that teachers and experts on business have also implied that business startup requires capital. We would agree with them, especially when we take a consideration of the many business that exists. There are many of them but all of them required resources to establish, and were started with resources.

If you mention Nigeria amongst the countries you would find notable business men, you are correct. It is among the country in Africa, that has the richest business people. In this place, Nigeria, no one is more synonymous with business than Dangote. He is rated as the richest man in Nigeria. You would find him alongside the richest blacks on the Earth. 

Many years ago, Dangote was not a man of this status. But instead a desirous man. Not of anything else but the establishment of business. He was motivated, by his desire for profit, to create employment and other benefits he could derive from business. 

The business he wanted to establish is not unknown. He wanted to become an importer of agricultural products. To achieve this he needed money. He would have to buy abroad the products. He would have to pay for the importation. He would also have to pay for space of office or shop where he would sell it when it arrives. All of this required money. Supporting the claim that business establishment always requires capital. If Dangote had money, he could draw from his personal savings. But he had not.Though he hailed from a background where he had rich relatives, he was not precisely rich himself. He was not.

What could he now do to get the capital? Dangote has an Uncle who happened to be very rich. He approached him for a loan to start a business. 'His uncle would give him the money, he would use it and repay him'. To this, his uncle consented. And he gave Dangote the money he used to begin his business of importation and selling. Dangotes biography is a popular tale, and the loan he gave him is not just a claim but authenticated by history. It helped Dangote to start a business. 

You may be desirous of starting a business. But lack capital. This could make you to change your mind. But as Dangotes examples shows lack of capital cannot stop you from starting a business. You can secure loan which you would use to establish a business.

It must not be from your uncle. Dangotes uncle is simply an illustration of the fact that a person seeking loan or money could draw it from someone who has it and use it to start business. It goes further than being an illustration but a real example in history where a person who wanted to start business secured loan and used it to start business. 

You can utilize the opportunity of securing loan to draw the resources that you would use to establish a business. So, is it really capital that makes you think you can fail? Then fear no more for it cannot make you fail. Since it is possible to draw loan, you can draw and start business. There are numerous sources of loan for business men. 

You can draw from the Bank. There are banks that give loans to people, requiring of them collateral for the exchange. You can also draw from institutions specialized in giving loans to people. There are many of such. And the good news is that the Government of some countries sometimes offers loan to citizens to start business. You can draw from them. 

2. Learn the art: Your chances of success is seriously affected by your expertise, level of experience and knowledge. Generally those who achieve exceptions at anything are those that are versed in experience and knowledge and expertise. Those who know too little, who have little experience and skill, do not always achieve proficiency. If anything, they fail. It is not always the case though that you must be versed to succeed in business.

Business as we know is a field of human endeavour. If you want to pursue it as a discipline at school, you do not need to have knowledge to succeed at it. The purpose of your education is to instill both the skill and knowledge of business to you. But if you want to pursue business as an activity or venture, you surely need to be versed to succeed. Take for instance the business venture concerned with, production of bread or a bakery.

Suppose you want to run a small scale bakery. You would require knowledge of using baking equipments to bake. The more knowledge of it, and experience you have in handling the equipment to produce, the more efficient you would be at producing. But suppose you are not skilled at it, could you even produce bread? 

You cannot. It illustrates why business have the preference for those who are experienced, for jobs . So weather you would like to establish your own business or manage those of others you need experience. This is particularly true if you would work as a staff or help to manage those of others. A person who wants to establish a but have others run it needs experience and knowledge, as it would give him advantage of administration of his business, but he could excuse himself by employing others to. If you are not experienced you have no high chance of excelling. 

Since your chances of excelling is higher when you are experienced. You can boost your chances of succeeding by acquiring expertise. It simply means qualifying yourself to run business. 

How can you do this? Firstly, learn that it is possible. It is very possible. There are schools meant for business. Where business knowledge and skills are imparted to those desiring. You can enrol yourself to learn from there. Some of the best business owners and managers and staffs are those whom were once students of those schools. By imitating them, you would gain expertise at school which would succeed. 

There is also another way to do it, which is through apprentistship. In other words it means substituting the business owner or skilled person as teacher instead of school. Imagine learning fishing from a fisher directly. You could also learn how to fish. He would impart and teach you all you need to know about the art. Then you would become qualified to fish. Likewise when you become an apprentice and learn from those that have the expertise you would come to become proficient yourself, able to run a business.

Just imagine that you are a skilled person at business, you can successful run the business you are skilled at. What then would stop you from succeeding? When you apply to a company for working with them, what would prevent them from employing you? 

3. Advertising: A mystery is something that we do not know. Every business remains a mystery to the person that does not know about it. And the truth is that if someone is ignorant about a brand, he cannot patronize it. Only when he is aware it exists can he buy it. 

Lack of knowledge of a brand therefore could lead to failure in business. The goal of the company is to receive patronage, which would enable it make revenue. When patronage is not received the company's goal is not achieved. 

To avoid failure therefore, you must make your business known. You can do this through advertising. Advertising means creating awareness about the existence of a certain product or brand. When you advertise, your product becomes known. And because it is now known, people can buy it. 

How do we know that advertising can be effective in increasing patronage? Well what usually happens when adverts are made? What usually follows is patronage. Advertisers have the power of convincing someone that they need your product, and arousing their curiosity which would make them buy your product. Consider adverts to be charms that draws people to your business. 

So if you fear that people may not patronize the brand you want to develop and it makes you refrain from developing it, remember that advertising can lead to the success of your brand sale, by letting people know it's existence and usage to them which would propel them to buy it. Let the examples of many that have achieved in using advertisements to gain patronage make you to consider it an effective key to excelling in business. 

4. Meeting consumer needs: Businesses are producers. They produce things they specialize in. Examples are companies and industries. They are concerned with production. What they produce varies from one business to the other. Some produce one items, while others two or more. Companies are synonymous with the items they produce. When we hear the word company what usually comes to our mind is the picture of a large series of buildings where an item is produced. Those who are not producing are rendering one services or the other. Now we can call businesses those who created brands. It is because without them, the products they produce wouldn't come into existence. And if they are not created we wouldn't know them. But because they create products are introduced into the market. Now, everybody who is not producing can be called a consumer. He or she has needs. For instance a consumer may need Tea, or Toothpaste or Soap. He cannot do without those items. They are infact necessities to him. So, he must buy them and use them. What would he do?

When he discovers the products he needs are in the market, he would have to purchase them and use them. Remember they were produced by the producers. That is what usually happens. The relationship between the producers and consumers is characterized by production- by the producers, and consumption by the consumers. If the producer produces what the consumers needs, they buy from him. Just think about a business that specializes in producing Toothpaste. You would believe that humans need Toothpaste, because they need to brush their mouth everyday to keep it clean. This needs makes the purchase of Toothpaste a necessity. Humans must buy it. That is why you find him buying Toothpaste. As the one they have finishes they buy another one. It is just but one example to use to illustrate that humans buy products from the producers.

Since you want to start running business. You can succeed in making profit by simply producing the items that consumers needs. When you do, production would become inevitable because the consumers needs them. And because they would, their purchase would help you to make revenue and profits. All you have to do is to carry out a research of what products the public needs, in your country. Then produce for them. The higher the demand of a product the higher your chances of selling them. One way to know a product that would sell very well is to know which one people buy the most. Since people patronize a product much, it means that they would buy it because they need it. Such is the one you should produce. The second method of knowing a product that would sell very much is to carry out a research on which of the products people very much need but lack in your country. Due to lack of producers of that product. Since the product is in high demand, because of the need it would serve, but is scarce, people would very much buy it when you produce them. They would even be willing to pay any amount to buy it from you. 

By producing the product that people need, you would certainly succeed in business because it is very certain they would patronize you. You are very important to the consumers. As a producer, the role you play is very important to meeting their needs. The fulfilment of it is dependent on you. When there is a need, for a product there would be demand for it. This demand makes it possible for you to succeed in business. It is one of the reasons you can base your confidence of succeeding on. 

If you are not sure that you would receive patronage, then you could fail in business. But since you are, then you would surely succeed. This step therefore is important to you.

5. Meeting the standards: When products are accessible, consumers can buy them without difficulty. If for instance a product is available in America, it would take a long time for people who need it in Nigeria to buy it because of distance. Important may take time, it may not arrive when they need it. But if the product is available in Nigeria it would be easier for them to access it because of proximity to it. So therefore, by making your product accessible, you can gain patronage from people. This can ensure that you succeed in business, because it enhances the chances of purchase of your product. When you finish producing, sell to distributors whom would sell to retailers, ensuring that it would be found at stores. Not everyone can locate your company, because of distance. If your product can only be found in your company then it may not sell much, because there are those that would not live around your company. By introducing it to various shops, you make it possible for many to buy it. Because people do not buy from the same or one shop or market. 

If a product is cheap, people would buy it because it is affordable. People like it when they can use money to buy a product that would give them so much benefits. When you check a products pack and discover the many benefits you could derive from it, you would be tempted by that prospect to buy it. 

But your greatest key to success in selling your product is making it to be of high quality. Consumers have preference for quality products. It is to them disappointing to buy a product and discover that it offers less value than it promises. They would not buy it next time. But if it is of quality it is worth the money used in purchasing it. They would always buy it. The desire for quality products, therefore requires such, and peoples preference for it, is an assurance that you can succeed when you produce quality products, therefore make it your target to meet the standards of your consumers on the product you are producing.

6. Having a mentor: Successful people were once unsuccessful. Business establishment begins with a dream. At the point when it is not yet established, when it has not gained recognition and patronage it is not yet a success. The person is still dreaming. The dreamer would take certain steps to build his business. And the result of that step is establishment of business. Therefore if you follow the steps that someone successful took you would also arrive at the establishment of a business. Sometimes the difference between successful and unsuccessful is caused by difference in methods by both parties. While the unsuccessful gives his business approach that may be conventional but ineffective or effective but not suitable for the business, the successful approaches it with a method that is unique and suitable for his business, leading to a difference in his business. Success can sometimes result when we are unique with our ways. So it may be that the reason you are not yet successful at business, may be your methods of running it. As experience shows, those who do things differently and rightly always wins. Stop imitating the methods of the unsuccessful. When you embrace the methods of the successful you would surely become successful. Business is like a road, with the right road leading to success, while the wrong leading to failure. You have to task yourself with the duty of studying successful businesses in your environment. Discover who owns the business and how he runs it. His unique ways of running the business is your effective key to success in business. Then when you have discovered, you can then replicate his strategies in your pursuit. It has to be someone run the business you have in mind. Not someone doing a business you do not want to run. Because the right steps may vary depending on the business. 

7. Forming partnership: Partnership is a business established by many persons. Such have different talents and strengths, and bring, their various resources and expertise into the pursuit of the business. This gives the business advantage in numerous ways, enhancing it's success. Let us talk about three ways in which partnership has a chance of affecting business growth. 

a. Capital: The different parties would contribute the capital that would be used to start the business. This would lessen the load on one person if he were to contribute it, and likely lead to an increase in capital, allowing for business establishment easily, increase in quality and quantity of production, and also in running of the business.

c. Risk: If one person were to run a business, he would bear the risks that could occur alone. But if many are involved in the ownership they would all have a share in the risk. This would lessen any effect it would have on one person. Since many parties would bear it it would have less effect, making it possible to avoid bankruptcy on the part of an individual.

b. Expertise The parties involved have different strength. They have different experience and knowledge and expertise. So all of them would contribute it to the pursuit. For those who lack certain skills, others who have the expertise would would compensate for it with theirs. 

Business is like building. When one person one is to build, it is difficult. But when many hands are involved, it would be easy. So building and running your business with many parties ensures that you would succeed. It is infact one of the forumalas for success that is recommended. I always tell people that if partnership cannot enhance success, it would not be recommended by experts. Use partnership therefore to enhance your success. All you have to do is to find those who are willing to establish the same kind of business you want to run. Such people should be qualified, because if they lack expertise they would not be useful to the pursuit. You are like someone that wants to build. So you would employ the very skilled and experienced to run your business. Not those who are the opposite. You have to also forge with those who are willing. Unless they are willing, they would not be willing to engage in the process of establishment with you.