Business beyond today.

Businesses spring up everyday and the drive to empower small businesses has become a global means to building dwindling economies. Small businesses have become the sure route towards sustainable and thriving economies. Every enterprise has a visioneer/founder, Directors/decision makers, team, clientele, vendors and etc. These groups of people are stakeholders involved Business in the success of any enterprise; they have defined contribution, stake and reward geared towards the success of the enterprise. When organization succeeds, these stakeholders benefit and when it fails, crumbles or go bankrupt, they are affected also.

Personally, it grieves my heart that indigenous organizations that are a century in age are scarce in this clime. It is worrisome as there's no certainty that the existing organizations will survive the next century if drastic measures are not taken. In this clime, the rate at which businesses spring up is as remarkable as the rate at which businesses fail, fizzle out or go bankrupt. Looking back, I can't count many companies that I knew as a child that are no more, these were businesses with high potentials and business performance but today, they are no more!

Below are critical points to be assessed and reviewed either before a venture starts, as it is starting or thereafter :-
▪ How long can this business last and How long do I want it to last?
▪ What's the vision of nearest future and the desirable future with feasible timelines
▪ How soon can this business be weaned off me as a business owner?
▪ What does succession mean to my venture and how soon can succession plan be put in place?
▪ Is there room for diversification in the future?
▪ What I'm I putting in place for sustainability?

Why do businesses fail? Every aspiring entrepreneur/business owners/visioneers must be a researcher in this field, to identify the points of failure of the previous generation and determine how to avoid them. Businesses fail for many reasons which includes personal interest, personal weaknesses, leadership failure, mismanagement, lack of structure, lack of innovation, lack of infrastructure, lack of financial aid, policy change and etc. It's therefore important to define sustainable path to follow what will suit our economic and peculiar conditions.

Answering these questions will help to determine how the business will be run, how flexible to be, how to manage scale of operations to ensure sustainability, how to identify opportunities for growth and expansion, alternatives when the unforeseeable happens.

The clarion call is for our generation of business owners to become dogged, learn from the mistakes of last century and build our enterprises as legacies that will live long after we are gone.

Olubamike Oluyemisi Fadipe is a writer with a passion to inspire, impact and motivate.
Email: bankysanya@gmail.com                   Twitter: @Bankysanya

Life in steps. . .

Happy new month.

Wishing you a fabulous February.

As the journey of 2016 doubles up and moves at a high speed, the picture of the desirable, the big dreams, visions and goals remain alive and huge in our minds.

Life journey has many routes and paths that pop up on our drive to the desired end. Sometimes the first path to take is an unusual, unsure, undulating and untarred pathway that differs from our pictured luxurious desirable future. Other times, reality can feel like wilderness experience with cactus plant scattered all over as the only evidence of life on the sand. In the midst of all these are opportunities lurking around, in the worst of all negative situations, there are hidden positives.

Grab every little opportunity that comes your way, nothing is ever too little to start with. Life is progressive, succeeding on one level is usually a precursor to attaining the next level. Every stage of life should lead to an advanced level. While you're waiting for that "big catch" job, start with a volunteering opportunity or a job in a corner with little pay. While you hope for a means of livelihood, look around, meet a need, sell something in exchange for returns. While you search for that big idea that will blow your mind and yield mind-blowing turnover and profit, learn and hone tutelage under one who is already working an idea out.

To become a success; knowledge, skills, imaginative and creative energy are essential drivers. Failure is not the opposite of success, they are allies. Failure helps to put us on our toes, clarify our goals and to put success in proper perspective. Perception of failure and positive attitude towards failure cannot be overemphasized. Reality of success is embedded in hope, faith, will, expectation and perspiration.

"Life is a series of steps. Things are done gradually. Once in a while, there is a giant step, but most of the time we are taking small, seemingly insignificant steps on the stairway of life" ~Ralph. Ranson

Olubamike Fadipe is a writer with a passion to inspire, impact and motivate.
Email: bankysanya@gmail.com
Twitter: @Bankysanya