You're Either a Dreamer or a Millionaire by Jake Findi - HTML preview

PART III

CHAPTER 8 Starting a business

 

You want to come out of your comfort zone to start your own business but fear the risk, the competition, the economy, quitting your regular job, among other factors? This book is meant for people like you with these exact needs. I will explain in detail how to improve your life, by challenging you to take calculated risks. I’m not a big fan of the “he get rich quick” books you can find all over the place that promise you heaven (that we can’t see now), but cannot give you the Earth!

 

One American economist said there are no 500$bills on the sidewalk. Experience shows us that money is never just laying around on the sidewalk. If you find one, thank your lucky stars but it is probably not deliberately meant for you. A good rule of thumb is that if you want to start a business, it should not just be as a way of making money but as a means to career satisfaction. Feel good going to work, and not with a frown on your face.

 

While it is true that no book can guarantee you business success and that at best they can only give you some good pointers, books on business can also help you avoid some egregious errors. None of these books have a 1000$bill inside them, but books can tell you the rules of the business game. Keep in mind that many of these business rules are meant to be broken. You have to find ways to make the rules work for you.

 

 The difference between an entrepreneur and a dreamer is basically the fear factor. The entrepreneur knows the risk is there but doesn’t let the fear of failure cloud his judgment. Speaking about failure Simon Woodruff said:

 

“I have never met anyone who went out to follow their dreams. Who did what they wanted to do, and end up regretting it regardless of whether they succeed or failed. But I have met many people who said “I wish I’d taken that chance when I had it”

 

You can turn failure around - all you need to do is to look at it from a different angle. It is an opportunity to be completed. If you believe you can ski then you will persist in failure until you can ski. On the other hand, if you believe that you can’t ski, you are right. Thomas Edison had a great way to look at failure, he said:

 

 “I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”

 

Sometimes an idea may not work but it opens up an opportunity gives you more experience than running a successful business empire would. The fact that it did not work the first time does not mean you are a failure– you just have to make a bold step forward. Many people will not venture to do this in their lives. When you fail it gives you an opportunity to unearth what you have left behind. In other words it gives you a second chance to start over but starting over in a more cautions and intelligent manner.

 

Resist that temptation to shift the blame on to other things or people for any of your failures. Regret is the secret time waster, so don’t look back to the past. Take responsibility for your own actions and in actions, and learn quickly and move on! A common denominator among successful entrepreneurs is that they are not afraid to fail. If you fear failure, then you either won’t try or your fear will become a self-fulfilling prophecy–psychologists will back me up on that.

 

 Business and age

 

Am I too old or too young to make it in business? I suppose you are reading this book to find answers to these kinds of questions– so let’s keep going. What is the largest country in the world? It’s not Russia, China or the US. It’s not even all of the EU and the NATO allies combined. In fact, the largest country in the world is you! You heard me right! You can also choose to be the smallest country in the world! It’s all about how you can visualize it. If you think big, your idea will manifest itself in the same manner. Whatever your mind can think of, conceive or create, if it is backed by belief, you can achieve it.

 

Age is all in your mind. If you think you are too old then you are already older than Methuselah.

 

 Before I start to write on this topic, I would like to share with you what the yet to be teenagers can do. There’s no excuse why you can’t do it either. Henry Patterson, a young entrepreneur and ambitious British youngster has set up his third business at the age of nine. He started his first venture at the age of seven selling bags of manure for £1. Thinking he was not doing enough, he moved on to set up his own eBay store where he sold items he had bought from charity shops and made himself £150. His latest venture is his online youngsters sweet shop called “Not Before Tea”.

 

His already has plans for the future, to direct his own film after writing a screenplay featuring the characters from his sweet shop. I want to try and carry on with this for the next ten years, but I want to set up more businesses after this one. I made a film about a tadpole that can't swim. I think I would like to be a film director when I'm older” said Henry Patterson.

 

Another similar example is a 12-year old schoolboy slicker, who launched his own social network for kids. The idea came to him when he was kicked off of Facebook twice because of the age restrictions. The boy borrow $2500 US from his brother to finance his endeavour before he even turned 12. We don’t know, probably he will be the next Mark Zuckerburg, (the Facebook founder). There are countless examples of teenage entrepreneurs out there. Business does not respect age.

 

 So what are you waiting for then? Do you have you any tangible reason why you can’t start your own business? You have none. So therefore jump on board and learn how to swim if you’ve never swum before.

 

You’ve probably heard or read about the restaurant chain KFC and its founding legend, Colonel Sanders. At the age of 65 he was living on a tight budget. He got his first Social Security check for $105. He thought to himself “What on earth can I do with this small Social Security check for$105?” He sat down to think about how he can make a multiple of his $105. He was upset, just like any of us would be. He realized complaining was not the solution and that the answer was his chicken recipe. He came up with the idea to sell his fried chicken to a restaurant for a percentage of the sales. He drove to different restaurants and cooked his fried chicken on the spot for the restaurant owners thinking that they would like it and enter into a handshake agreement to sell his fried chicken recipe. But he always got ‘no’ answers. He received 1009 nos. It is easy to imagine some people giving up even after two attempts. But the Colonel, a pensioner, was so enthusiastic about achieving his dreams that he kept trying. People even laughed at him. But he was focused on his goals. Finally, he reached a turning point.

 

Colonel Sanders and his wife were on their way to Australia, and stopped over to visit a friend in Salt Lake City called Pete Harman, who was 32 years younger than him. He had a great time visiting his friend. Just by chance Pete mentioned to Colonel Sanders that he was looking for a specialty dish for his restaurant. The colonel quickly jumped at the opportunity and requested to prepare dinner for the Harman's family. The colonel quickly tracked down a pressure cooker and garnered some spices from a local store. Harland Sanders, his wife, worked feverishly into the evening, finally finishing at 10 p.m. From the moment Pete and his wife first bit into the chicken Colonel Sanders had fried for them, they were hooked. The next day Sanders left on a train for San Francisco to catch his flight to Australia, his good fate sealed.

 

Another similar story is Roger Waters, formerly of the rock group Pink Floyd. He was the creative engine behind the classic album “Dark Side of the Moon” and was in all the UK newspapers. He talked about his early years and how he’d always been told that his childhood and adolescence was some kind of preparation for life. In his twenties he begin to realise that if he sat back and only worried about how his life would begin, it might never start. He went on to create “Dark Side of the Moon”. It was one of the most successful and well sold albums ever. The lyrics actually reflected some of Waters’ negative problems he experienced in the British school system. He turned childhood trauma into massive success! Now let’s take a look at the key factors to a successful business in light of these facts.

 

 Get an idea

 

I would prefer to say you have to have a business opportunity rather than an idea. I will be using these terms interchangeably in the pages ahead. In any case, you have to start with something, an idea, a product or service. While some people prefer to start a project with a fresh idea, others opt for an existing and proven business model or product. The two go hand in hand with the goal and the chief factor is you! You don’t have to conjure the idea from thin air - it is usually right in front of you. It is just that you haven’t realized it yet. Business ideas are like sand on the beach. We see, listen, read and even talk about opportunities but never realize that they can skyrocket. There is power driving and excitement when you conceive an idea out of your thinking or research.

 

 Let’s take a look at the turning point of a well known business man. He wrote a business book called “Anyone can do it”.

 

 Case study

 

 The life changing experience of Duncan Bannatyne.

 

“The turning point came one Sunday morning, after yet another Saturday night partying. I was sitting on the beach with Gail, looking out at the waves rolling in, when it was dawned on me that I had been the oldest person at the party the night before. There is no way I wanted to become the oldest swinger in town and I realized the time had come for action.

 

Earlier that morning we’d picked up the papers to read over breakfast and I‘d read a story about a man who started a business on a shoe string and went on to become amillionaire. (I’m pretty sure it was an article about Alan Sugar). It was a real rags-to-riches story and as I sat there looking to a sea, I could come up with a single reason why I couldn’t do exactly what he’d done”. Duncan Bannatyne

 

From this approach, it is easy to get inspired and model a successful business idea which has already gained market share, taking into consideration geographical factors of course. It is not an automatic thing that a business model which works in one geographical location will work in another. I earlier said entrepreneurship is all about doing. I believe thoughts are already filling up your mind as to where to get a business opportunity. You definitely don’t need to think 24/7 hours about it.

 

Ideas will come when you least expect them and only if you are on the hunt.

 Take for instance Duncan Bannatyne’s case. He wasn’t expecting to read about a life changing article nor follow the business model but he got inspired and just went for it. If somebody could do it, you can do the same and do even better. Many people cannot go ahead with their idea because they see the leader far ahead in the race and they are discouraged that they can’t close the gap. It is never too late or too early to start.

 

 Where to find ideas?

 

 “A pessimist sees the difficulties in every opportunity. An optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty”. Winston Churchill.

 

 People who look for ideas wear idea glasses. It is like a spider’s ability to sense where the bugs landed in its web. You must be looking for an opportunity otherwise you wouldn’t notice there is an opportunity there.

 

 Around your backyard

 

Let’s take a practical example. How often have we searched for a lost phone, portable device or some other little thing? We can accuse others of theft, shout a tour kids and get frustrated only to discover it is in our other hand or pocket. That is how ideas are. That reminds me of a paraphrased story told by Russell H. Conwell, in Acres of Diamonds. The story is told of Ali Hafed, a wealthy ancient Persian who owned a lot of land and productive fields, orchards, and gardens and had made money off the interest. He had a lovely family and at first was content because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was content.

 

An old priest came to Ali Hafed and told him that if he had a diamond the size of his thumb, he could purchase a dozen farms like his. Ali Hafed said, "Will you tell me where I can find these kind of diamonds?" The priest told him, "If you will find a river that runs over white sands, between high mountains, in those white sands you will always find diamonds."

 

"Well", said Ali Hafed, "I will try to find one." So he sold his farm, collected his money that was stashed away collecting interest, and left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search of diamonds, travelling through many lands in Asia and Europe. After years of searching his money was all spent, and he degenerated into a state where he was walking around in rags and wretchedness.

 

Meanwhile, the man who purchased Ali Hafed's farm one day led his camel out into the garden to drink, and as the animal put his nose into the shallow waters, the farmer noticed a curious flash of light in the white sands of the stream. Reaching in, he pulled out a black stone containing a strange eye of light. Not long after, the same old priest came to visit Ali Hafed's successor and found that in the black stone was a diamond. As they rushed out into the garden and stirred up the white sands with their fingers, they came up with many more beautiful, valuable gems. According to the story, this marked the discovery of the diamond mines of Golconda, the most valuable diamond mines in the history of the ancient world.

 

 Mr. Conwell used this simple story to illustrate a point and to teach us all a valuable lesson. Abundance begins inside each of us and opportunities await us, right where we are, sometimes right in our own backyard.

 

What lesson are you learning now? Whatever your dreams or ambitions maybe what it will takes for you to achieve them is already inside of you. It is a truism that we have to lavish attention, loving care, labour, blood, sweat and tears on our dreams; invest our passion to see those dreams come to pass. It is close to you, take a careful look around you and you will unearth ideas to fulfil your dreams.

 

They are not far from being conceived. Sometimes a book or a TV documentary you are watching can inspire you. Or maybe that friend of yours with the creative ideas park can spot the idea. You may not have to look far at all. Thomas Edison advised entrepreneurs ‘to find out everything everybody else knows and begin where they leftoff’. Seek advice from people who have experience in the market you are about to enter. In my opinion one of the most reliable sources to get a business idea is to read about successful businesses for ideas you can find to get some inspiration and to kick start your own.

 

 Explore the power of internet

 

The second useful source is the internet. The internet enables us to scan the entire market within a couple of minutes. There is a flood of information available on every market. Search for trends and technologies on the horizon and how you might apply that information to your field area. Almost all the information we need in our daily lives is available online. Many people do not know that internet can be addictive - just like a drugs or sex. The only difference between the two is that the second type of addictions makes a person lose their humanity. Still, spending a chunk of your time surfing internet without any purpose is a great catastrophe. Time is the most precious commodity you can ever have, so make very good use of it. Your success in life and in your business depends on your daily routine. I can give you an example. I spent a full year developing a project for a leading telecom giant. But it turned out that they turned us down when we were almost certain the deal would go through. I was frustrated and my bank balance was gradually diminishing. My girlfriend managed to persuade me to take a rest. But if Idon’t achieve my goal I never settle down. We left the city for a rest. While surfing the internet about business trends I came across a interview conducted by Peter, a young entrepreneur who had just set up his online furniture store from the scratch. I said to myself“that isit!” I’m going to set up a web-store, with a different business model. But what to sell was also another problem. I had no idea how e-commerce worked, no idea about the market and even the kind of goods to sell. I had to learn, conduct intensive research on the issue before I came up with fanada.ru– an online store.

 

 Your natural skills and hobbies already exist and are proven

 

 The third source is to look at what you are good at. Sometimes what we do as a hobby, is a fledgling business empire crying out to be born into the world. Of course not all hobbies are projects worth it.

 

Have you thought about something that you are good at doing, more than others? Everyone has these types of special skills. There is something which always knocks at your door, give it a chance and it won’t be called just “luck”. Follow your heart!

 

 We mostly tend to talk about work based achievements. It is just the tip of the iceberg. Look at yourself in a more rounded way. I can help you. Try dividing a sheet into three columns and label each column: social, practical and work. In each write at least four (4) things you are very good at.

 

Do you still need some help? I will share this secret with you for the fee which you have already paid for by purchasing this book. Every time I hold meetings with both business minded people and other circular meetings with peers, even parents and loved ones, I always take note of the compliments they say about me. And I write them down somewhere in my jotter for reference. Don’t ever underrate that.

 

 Reflect back on compliments people have given you. Select three of the most convincing and important ones and work to perfect them. Have I helped?

 

 Take a rest

 

I don ’t know if you are believer but the good book tells us that even God rested. Rest is a command. Are you running everywhere daily? Stop! I said, stop! Just take some time to review your typical workday. Let me ask you a couple of questions:

 

– Before you get out from bed in the morning, do you always negotiate with your alarm clock for some extra minutes?

 

 – Do you read your e-mail before you get out of bed?

 

 – Do you skip breakfast or grab something on the run that’s not particularly nutritious?

 

 – Do you eat your lunch from your desk?

 

 – Are you running from meeting to meeting with barely any time in between to rest?

 

 – Do you receive voluminous e-mails that you can’t keep up with?

 

 – Do you leave work later than you’d like, and still feel compelled to check e-mail in the evenings?

 

 – Do you spend lots of unpaid extra hours on the job because of unaccomplished tasks?

 

Do not deceive yourself that you are resting while watching TV. Whatever your mind sees, it is fed into your mind, which releases energy. When the energy flows that means your mind is at work and not relaxing. The next time you want to take a rest do it without watching TV and compare the difference. The human mind is such that if you stress out too much you don’t receive the result you intend to get.

 

You could choose to take a vacation or find a quiet place to just relax to refresh your mind. A recent survey by Harris Interactive found that Americans left an average of 9.2 vacation days unused in 2012– up from 6.2 days in 2011. The most precious commodity is time. It also finite and we doing everything possible accomplish a lot with it. When there’s more to do, we spend more hours to cover up the lost time or the unaccomplished tasks.

 

Allow your mind to relax. Assume nothing is happening. When you are relaxing many ideas present themselves when you are not expecting them. Many people, including me, have a problem relaxing -but it’s worth it. While they’re resting with the notebook, it is beside them. A recent Harvard study estimated that sleep deprivation costs American companies $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity. I love the French expression “biendans topeau” which means “be comfortable in your skin”. Being comfortable in your skin at any place in time is very important to accelerate your mind for greater works.

 

 Going with the flow is better than no direction at all. But it will be great to use a business model that is working in different countries. Business modeling is the fastest value creation.

 

 Create what you can’t find in the market

 

A good place start is to capitalize on what bugs you. If you are looking for stuff and cannot find it, why don’t just make it? Many companies like zappos.com, Bookrenter.com and many others started like this. The founders were not pleased with what was already on the market so they created a solution. In other words, look for what is missing or what the major players have missed out on when you look at the market. You can find your niche that is not being filled.

 

 Play the game smart

 

Try to combine two business ideas that look similar. That should spark quite a few ideas and you will come up with something new–there’s a brilliant idea out there which could make you a genius. I mentioned modeling earlier as a means of providing a business idea. If you want to create greater value, the quickest way is to move a model that creates value elsewhere.

 

 Foresee a need

 

Take Steve Jobs and Wozniak for example, who anticipated the mass need for an easy-to-use and friendlier computer. They anticipated that the world would like easier computers that provide visual cues and mimicked that world. Their anticipation went from PCs to iPhones, iPads and their other products. See a need, fill it up.

 

My thoughts. If you're interested in getting involved in an e-commerce business, consider sending an online survey to potential customers to learn about their needs and interests that are not met by major players. Find out their complaints and try to meet the needs with your new idea. If you are interested in fashion, hang out in the aisles of the shopaholics and boutiques and ask customers what they wish they could find in the marketplace which is not there now.

 

 Re-invent the wheel

 

You definitely don’t need to be rocket scientist to become an inventor. Thomas Edison is perhaps one of the most famous US inventors. He wasn’t a very good student. School teachers even called Edison “slow”. His mother, an accomplished teacher, was furious with the way the school treated her son and took him out of school. She decided to teach her son herself, at home. He read books about R.G. Parker's School of Natural Philosophy. At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and for chemical experiments. He was once a newspaper seller on the road, and he became a telegraph operator. After that he moved on to invent the first commercially practical incandescent light. That wasn’t all - He then invented the first commercially available fluoroscope, a machine that uses X-rays to take radiographs. Do you ever think of making something better? If so, maybe you should give consideration to becoming an inventor. Never mind the title– it is not as ominous as it sounds. Every day thousands of products, formulas, and methods are being invented to make life's tasks easier, or to assist mankind in general. Inventions do not have to be ground-breaking discoveries, they do however, have to have a practical use and be innovative and unique.

 

 If any product does not function as you want it to, then try to add some new ideas to the mix, just a little bit of creativity and curiosity will do the trick.

 

Take George Carruthers, of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. He is best known for developing the first moon-based space observatory, an ultraviolet camera sent to the moon with the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. He started building telescopes and model rockets from an early age and has become known for his community outreach to inspire African-American youth to be excited about technology.

 

The potential to profit as an inventor is as varied as the start-up cost of the invention itself. Sometimes its capital intensive but that shouldn’t scare you at all. If you are able to invent you can invent funding too. First give a try and you will realize the potentials hidden in you.

 

 Take a trip

 

It could be local or overseas. In 2006, Blake Mycoskie travelled to Argentina to take some time off from his fourth startup and explore the culture of another country. Never knew he is going to spot what could possibly make a good fortune. What he found was a great need amongst the children’s charities there for shoes. Mycoskie knew he had to help, and the idea for Toms shoes was born. The concept for the company is simple: Sell a pair of shoes today, give a pair of shoes to a child in need tomorrow. Blake Mycoskie shares with readers lessons learned while creating Toms, how to develop and tell your company’s story, and how to be resourceful without having resources.

 

 My personal advice is, you’ve got to do your own homework, research, think and be creative.

 

 Leave your comfort zone

 

Leaving your comfort zone is never pleasant. You have a little country house, a car to drive around in town. Yearly summer vacations to the Caribbean and a reliable job and a stable salary. Something you have been doing probably for some years or the whole of your career. To say good bye to Mr. Comfort-zone doesn’t come easy.

 

Do you have a dream to follow? You have to be the first to believe in it and the last to doubt it yourself. Do this and the world will back you up! I’m not here to tell you to quit your job tomorrow. I will only suggest to you to think it through and make your own decisions. I’d like you to answer one simple question: Do you want to own your own business? If your answer to this is yes then you have no choice but to quit your regular job. As the old adage says “You can’t look into a bottle with two eyes” - a Togolese proverb. You either close one to be to look inside the bottle or you don’t see anything. Do you want the freedom, responsibility, challenges and rewards that go along with being an entrepreneur? Then this will require some subjective decision making on your part.

 

I suggest you compare and contrast why you should stay or leave. Get a piece of paper, drawn two columns and label on each side of your sheet why you should quit and in the other column heading why you should stay. Then cross the things out that matter the least to you against those that matter most to you.

 

“ If life came with a guarantee, would you buy it? This guarantee will promise that as long as you live according to certain strict rules, nothing would go wrong. If that meant that you could never take a risk or feel the highs and lows of what it means to be human, would you still want it? There would be no despair but the would be no joy either”. John Bird

 

 Do you enjoy your work?

 

 “I always worry about people who say ‘I’m going to do this for ten years; I really don’t like it very much. And then I will do this...‘That’s a little bit like saving sex for your oldage”. Warren Buffett.

 

If your answer to the above is no, perhaps you may want to work where you enjoy it the most and see the night always longer than the day, feeling reluctant to go to bed. Do you leap up from your bed every day and run through your day with so much enthusiasm that you are going to knock the socks off people? Is there something exciting about your job? Or do you wish Monday had not come? You either enjoy your work or your work “enjoys” you. When your work works you instead of you working, that is a disaster of life. If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, trade it.

 

I want to enjoy everything I do and take charge of my own decisions in life, bear responsibility and give myself a pat on the back for achievements. Some people hate their jobs but fear to call it quits. They are neither moving up the ladder nor retrogressing. I am here to guide you towards making decisions that will reflect positively on your life.

 

You have been working for your superior and have turned his company fortune around for the good. He’s been getting richer and richer while you’ve been getting poorer and poorer. I am here to inform you that you can run your own company too, even bigger and better than your boss. If you want life to be at peace with you, do what is difficult and life will carry you forward. In other words unpack the difficulties life has pre-packaged for you. You have been thinking long and hard about the type of business