On becoming a business owner

By Olufemi Adedamola Oyedele

Olufemi Adedamola Oyedele, MPhil. Construction Management, managing director/CEO, Fame Oyster & Co. Nigeria, is an expert in real estate investment, a registered estate surveyor and valuer, and an experienced construction project manager. He can be reached on +2348137564200 (text only) or femoyede@gmail.com.

Most people would like to become a business owner, but the greatest challenge is how to start. Business is an activity that a man engages in for living. It is an occupation, a trade or a profession. Business in the real sense is more than a means of earning income but a way of satisfying customers’ needs efficiently. It is a form of risk-taking to generate profit. Business is a pool of risks. Becoming a business-owner and running your own business sustainably may be the energizer you need to succeed in life. Owning a business does not depend only on funds, but majorly on ideas (information or data). “Where there’s a will, there’s always a way” and “if the soul is willing, there are one thousand ways, but if the soul is not, there are one thousand excuses.” William Arthur Ward says: “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” No businessman or woman became successful by procrastinating.
A higher number of people have succeeded in running their own businesses than managing businesses for others. Forbes list of the first five hundred richest people in the world in 2021 showed that all are running their own businesses. Not even one, minds business for others. But not all men and women are cut out for business. There are qualities which you must possess to be successful in it. Successful business owners are determined, disciplined, smart thinkers, have integrity and morals, and can forecast relatively well. According to a 2009 survey report by O2 (“Nature overweighs nurture in the make-up of an entrepreneur” available at https://news.o2.co.uk/press-release/nature-outweighs-nurture-in-the-make-up-of-an-entreprenuer/), “obsessive optimism” is the key to being a great entrepreneur. Successful entrepreneurs do not see failures in what they are doing because they are under fire to succeed!
O2 UK, a British telecommunications services provider with headquarters in Slough, England, surveyed 500 business leaders and found that the most important traits that successful entrepreneurs have are obsessive optimism, enjoyment of responsibility, a desire to achieve and the urge to be self-employed from childhood or early years of their lives. Business owners have passion for what they are doing. This passion creates the ‘feel-good’ spirit in them and not necessarily the idea of making money. Business owners are more concerned in seeing their ideas come to fruition than the money generated from the ideas. Education and training had little impact on the road to success for the business leaders surveyed. Only 14% of those surveyed believed their formal education had a significant impact on their business achievements.
A lot of business-owners came into business through discovering an opportunity to offer products or services – bridging or filling a need’s gap; that is, supplying products, goods and services which are needed by customers but are not available in the market (innovation or invention). These business-owners are called inventors and innovators. They are mostly pioneers in their businesses or have adapted or improved the businesses of others in a way that makes them look different. The different look of the products or services rendered by these businesses make them unique and the manufacturers to be pioneers in their fields. For example, Rank Xerox and photocopying, MicroSoft and digital typing, Hoover and vacuum cleaning, DHL and same-day delivery, etc.
In other cases, business-owners came into business to complement, improve or perfect the work of others. They saw opportunities to improve the works of others and derive benefits (profit, income, satisfaction, etc) from them. These opportunities to complement or improve other’s works may be in the areas of cost-reduction, production time reduction, improvement in quality of products or services, better customer relations, method of delivery of products or services, process of production, including employee management, etc, to increase sales, customers’ satisfaction and generate more profit. For examples, Dyson bagless vacuum cleaner and Dyson air multiplier (no blades, no buffeting), digital satellite television, shop on the move, which delivers goods and services at customers’ door-step, co-working arrangement, vacation rentals, self-catering apartments, internet social networks like Facebook, Linkedin, etc. These business-owners are “finishers’’.
Some business-owners came into business not because the business is new and there are opportunities to offer new or distinct services or products. They are also not in business to complement or perfect the works of others. They are in business to do what other businesses are doing and make a living or do business to survive. These business men and women do not have any new things to introduce or add. Break-even point is their watch-word and profit-making is only a bonus. These business owners are in the majority and form about eighty percent of business owners in Nigeria. They are doing what the majority are doing and their goal is to capture part of existing customers or serve new underserved areas with popular sustained businesses like grocery sale, electronics sale, boutique, salon, dry cleaning and laundry service, building materials sale, furniture showroom, restaurant, nightclub and bar, hotel etc. The fear of failing is the beginning of failure.
After identifying a business, draw a business plan. A business plan is a list of aims, objectives and how to achieve them. It is a statement of the goals of an organisation, the requirements to achieve the goals and future aspirations of a business. Grow a brand by getting a befitting name for your business and registering it with a registration authority, for example, Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria. Choose a business name that can easily identify your business, for example, “Aquatech” suggests that you are into water business, while “Medi-place” suggests you are into drugs and healthcare products. Make a strategy for funding the business. Finance is the live-wire of any business. Do a cash-flow as a strategy for survival. You can source for funds through your savings, selling personal belongings, from family members and friends (social loans), bank loans, partnership, selling of shares, crowd-funding, capital angel etc.
Get more information by reading and networking with other business owners, especially in your field. Be confident in your ideas and do not give up no matter the challenges. A successful man never sees obstacles but concentrates on the success. If you have to choose a partner, choose somebody that shares the same aspirations with you. Open a bank account. Most banks will act as business-mentor to you if you contact them. If you can afford the cost, get a professional business mentor like management consultants. Look for a business club around you to network. You can also look around for seminars and conferences to improve your business skills. Choose a good location – location is paramount to businesses like restaurants, groceries, fashion etc. Think of getting your business across to customers through advertising (prints and electronics) and internet (social media), and set targets for growth. You should have a milestone for achieving goals. Try and diversify if you can and always risk expansion using a timeline.
Franchising may be an option. Franchising is operating with an already established brand like selling fast foods with KFC or Chicken Republic or Tantalizer or Mr. Biggs brands. The benefit is that you do not have to build a new brand from scratch, but it comes with a cost. Always remember business is synonymous to risk. Business is a way of life, and opportunities for doing business abound everywhere. Business is like a project and has its phases or stages of life-cycle which are: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure. Not everybody can go into business because some people are risk-averse while some lack the discipline. Many would-be business owners have not ventured into business because they are wondering about where to start and which business to dabble into. A business project manager or management consultant can be of help in setting up businesses. Business is an interesting venture especially if it comes out of passion, talent, dream, experience or background training. It only requires thorough planning and diligent execution.

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