My name is Dr Dennis Magaya @Dennis_Magaya
I am an ICT Innovation entrepreneur and businesses and transformation strategist
I have operations in SADC. I want to share with you my experience in Zim and SADC
I am an ICT Innovation entrepreneur and businesses and transformation strategist
I have operations in SADC. I want to share with you my experience in Zim and SADC
@dennis_magaya 1//2 I would like to take you through an entrepreneur journey based on my experience.
The first step is what does it take to start a business.
Is it a business plan , a strategy, funding , a good product or marketing
The first step is what does it take to start a business.
Is it a business plan , a strategy, funding , a good product or marketing
@dennis_magaya 2/12
The most important thing to start a business is to find a customer willing to transfer money from their bank account to yours.
The marketing plan and funding and strategy are secondary
The most important thing to start a business is to find a customer willing to transfer money from their bank account to yours.
The marketing plan and funding and strategy are secondary
@dennis_magaya 3//12
0nce the first customer pays you gain confidance. You become practical. You modify your idea to suit what the customers want. You become customer and not product focused
0nce the first customer pays you gain confidance. You become practical. You modify your idea to suit what the customers want. You become customer and not product focused
4/12
The next step is then to grow. This can become tricky because the focus on creating the ability to produce and sell the same product several times is not the same as the capability to continuosly innovate. You have to decide the route to take
The next step is then to grow. This can become tricky because the focus on creating the ability to produce and sell the same product several times is not the same as the capability to continuosly innovate. You have to decide the route to take
So when the say 80% businesses fail within 5yrs they referring to your ability as a entrepreneur to sell the same thing to several clients while you still a small entity. You get contrasting ideas and requirements to develop new products or to maintain the same
5//12 The fifth step is to scale up. This entails building processes , skills and capacity so that you have an organisation that can function as an entity. It means giving up control so that processes run part of the company. This means bringing additional people.
6/12 The sixth step associated with transitioning from being a small organisation or a 1 man band into a real private limited company is when funding is needed. This is the stage where cash flow is more important that profitability.
In fact, the problem with our basic education system is that we are taught about revenue , costs and profit as the core aspects of financial management key performance indicators (KPI) to run a business. As an entrepreneur you will soon learn a new term called Cash Flow.
Cash Flow will break your business first before profitability becomes an issue. This is a serious problem in Zim where there are no credit / loan/funding facilities available. A single customer delaying payment for 3 months will kill a business that has 100% profit margin.
Entrepreneurs in non-finance businesses dont like financial management. it slows down innovation. They see it as a pain addressed by huge revenue they dream about. Unfortunately, this is where value is lost. There is no benefit to continue creating value which you cant count
7/12 The seventh step is managing your personality as an entrepreneur. Poverty imprisons most of our bad character. As your business grows more of who you are comes out which can destroy the the foundation of your company. Your character sets the tone of your company culture
8/12 There is no universal definition for strategy. It can be an intended plan, a pattern of doing things or how you make decisions within a given circumstances and opportunities. After about 6-8yrs, an entrepreneur must get the strategy right. Especially the strategy dev process
9/12 As an African entrepreneur, never depend on friends and relatives for growth or general support. Dont even bother. Friends and family would rather buy next door at 3 times your price because you couldnt give them a 50% discount.
Family and friends think your business is there to give them free things while you make money from other strangers. In most cases, they dont even want to understand your business; they just want the benefit. Family and friends can be a danger to your business as a entrepreneur
As an entrepreneur dont bank on family and friends support. We share in poverty and hardship by contributing for funerals and illnesses. But we cant contribute to start a business.
If you have 100 Family/Friends and each in 2 WhatsApp groups of 250 each, its means you have a potential 50,000 marketing base which is bigger than radio or TV on a single 20sec or newspapers advert. But friends/family tweet or post about politics and jokes than your business.
10/12 Its easier to be an entrepreneur if you are single, or have a partner that is supporting or that simply gives you space. Entrepreneurship is a commitment to a vision or a dream. Unfortunately a dream and inspiration are difficult to transmit. You are alone in your dreams!
11/12 When your business is 8-10yrs, start thinking about value creation and preservation. Will you make money from profits or enterprise value (stock exchange listing). How will you achieve and sustain consistent results. You are now past accidental results. #ResultsDontLie
12/12 After 10yrs in operations you are back to square one. You have either transitioned to a corporate or remained a small company. But you need to retain a brand and a strategy while continuously reinventing your business. Key question is how do you sustain entrepreneurship?
