Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship by basic definition means the setting up of a business or businesses. This as anything, is easier said than done. Being an entrepreneur means more than just having a concept turned into profit, it comes with the added financial investment and risks involved to reach a profitable outcome.
What do you need to know before becoming an entrepreneur?
It is essential to understand that starting and operating a business involves considerable risk and effort. This can be witnessed through the well-known beverage brand, Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola started trading in 1886 and sold 25 bottles in their first annum. Their will and determination reflected a marginal profit between 1886 and the present as Coca-Cola now sells more than 20, 000 beverages in plastic bottles per second, around the globe. With these statistics, more than 1 million bottles are sold a minute and nearly 500 billion bottles per annum. This inspirational story expresses the brands' perseverance and confidence in their concept despite their limitations.
A business stems from the concept that an entrepreneur has, which is developed and nurtured to establish the initial foundation. Like anything, having a stable and well-executed foundation is key to building your empire. The first step to take when starting down the entrepreneurship path is to focus your attention on something that you genuinely care about. Selecting your field of interest is a beneficial starting point to developing your business concept.
Having a background in your field brings you one step closer to achieving your dream. Remember that there is always room for research. So, before you begin your venture, and once you have finalized your businesses concept, compile a business plan to get the direction of where you foresee your business growing toward and how you plan on achieving your objectives.
Why should I have a business plan?
Whether you are starting a small business or exploring methods to expand an existing one, a business plan is an important tool to assist in guiding your decisions. This is the blueprints of your roadmap to success. It provides the opportunity to understand where you are headed, from marketing and finance to operations and product/service details.
Your business plan will aid the process of determining the direction you would like to take, through planning your objectives and a step-by-step approach in achieving them, over a set duration. An effective business plan consists of numerous elements directed toward expressing how your business stands out. These elements contain a clear mission statement, the vision of the business and goals you are aiming to achieve. It is crucial to provide a clear and detailed description of the products and/or services you have to offer.
What next?
Not every business will appeal to a mass target audience. This is where the age, gender, income, race and culture of your target audience will play a large role in determining the position of your business. This aspect of entrepreneurship involves research to establish the demographic you are seeking to attract. Once you have completed your basic target audience persona it’s time to get the word out.
Is networking effective?
Networking does play an important role in the entrepreneurship field. This is how you connect with other like-minded individuals to explore the pros and cons of your business and assess limitations that you may have. Through networking entrepreneurs may find potential investors to assist in getting your business model off the ground. This is essential as your network can also support your business going forward.
Be unique and stand out
As an entrepreneur, you have to establish your selling point to ensure that you stand out from your competitors and express to your target audience how you are unique in comparison. This is where you will assess your concept and revert back to your business plan to find what makes your product and/or service unique and sell it based off the value that it adds. Using this technique also means attempting to get into the psyche of your target audience to effectively market to them.
When you understand your target audience you will understand which approaches to take when creating brand awareness. For example, millennials are more likely to be social media-driven rather than billboard-aware.
Passion and motivation work together
When you have a passion for your concept this is where the motivation will flow. Having and keeping constant motivation toward your passion may seem impossible although, your end success will be determined by today’s motivational investment to persevere.
Who can help?
At Emerge Group, we specialise in helping businesses grow with a clear vision to create jobs through the incubation of entrepreneurs in South Africa. We help with financial investment in your business, training, and consultancy services so you can focus on growth.
Our focus is simple...
We manage your critical pain points by developing and implementing purpose-built solutions for your business, thereby allowing you to allocate your most valuable resources to driving your business forward and boosting profitability.
Emerge Group is a diverse and agile management consultancy, equipped with specialist divisions focused on People and Business Development. We possess the expertise enabling us to support and assist in delivering key services to both large and small businesses, which includes financial services such as accounting, tax and audit, corporate advisory services, large scale BBB-EE strategy formation, skills development solutions, and labour relations services.
We have a strong track record of delivery across diverse contexts. This includes both the private and public sectors, with clientèle ranging from a small start-up to large national entities in sectors such as mining and finance. Our approach and methodology prioritises your needs, regardless of size, complexity or industry.
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