The Lessons and the Myths about Participation and Engagement in Business Activities.

These may not be in any order, but they are what I have learnt so far in my 11 years of participating and engaging in business activities.

1. Business is like farming.

• All processes are sequential, very important and cannot be ignored. Plant, cultivate (weeding) and harvest. Most of us rush from planting direct to harvesting; guess what; we get poor yield and blame everyone else except ourselves!

• Money will never be enough for any business activity startup or sustainability. Read about the court case of Ham enterprise verse DTB bank ruling of Oct. 7th, 2020; Nakumatt chains of supermarkets and Uchumi closing business in E. Africa.

•Any farming activity (business) can make money and yes, a lot of it.

2. Business is like the changing sessions.

In Europe it’s winter, spring, autumn and summer while in most part of Africa; it’s either wet or dry session. The ground/environment around us are changing every day. What we do in each session will determine our business survival or death.

• We must prepare for change otherwise change will change us and we shall not be able to cope with it. We don’t need to wait for someone or some conditions to change—We Act now and follow the Walter A. Shewhart (1939) cycle of Plan, Do, Check and Act.

• Prepare, work hard and smart during the wet session/summer, just know that the dry session/winter are coming, and they will keep coming and passing by.

3. Business is like being a teenage adult.

You have many people telling you all about the world. They could be either optimistic or pessimistic, listen closely to both but take any action or decision based on your own sound judgement and take full responsibility for them.

4. Business is like human beings.

• The authorities are always after you. Some can and will slow you down. Be honest in your dealing with them. Some really care and are willing to help you but there are those who want to bring you down at any opportunity and by the way they are many! Concentrate and spend more of your energy at the few helpful ones.

• You will be healthy and will fall sick. You will be rich and will be poor. Work hard and smart when healthy in preparation for time of sickness when there will be no work, save some money when rich to mitigate the challenges ahead.

• Someone will start the same business and raise the bar for our eventual entrance.

• We can give up doing business because of over analyzing ourselves and capabilities.

• Our internal dialogue can convince/talk us out of it. Remember all of us have these internal talks going on in our heads at all time. The negative ones are very many!

• We are always pulling each other down! Change the angle and pull people always up by adding value to them. The positive change will trickle down to you too.

5. Business is like sport competition, its challenging and rewarding. Before that grand public recognition, a lot of preparation/practice is put in place for every little visible gain and change.

• You don’t start it by being the best or an expert. Source out the business activity you would wish to engage in, use it as your benchmark (MENTOR and COACH) before sinking in your money—Either Bootstrapping or borrowing. But don’t over analyze.

• Look at it (Competition) positively and embrace it.

• Our direct competitor is the customer not a similar business activity. Many similar businesses in one place does the following: Attracts more customers because they always know and expect to find services or products at any given time of the day.

• Cooperate with other business owners, you may need their support in terms of equipment, referrals, staff, joint demands from authorities.

6. In business, always document your activities or transactions, they don’t only provide you with great data for decision making. Watch out with gentleman’s agreements; many are not GENTLE!

7. Business is like a house or a car.

There will be minor defects that can develop into major defects.

• Regularly attend to those minor defects and small replacements. Don’t procrastinate with them, they will turn to major and bigger defects and replacements soon.

• The financial needs of the minor defects and small replacements are always very EASY to ignore and postpone. Don’t ignore them or postpone the work. It’s now.

• We can buy or sell a house or car at any time provided we have some money, from our savings or loans. There is no known or proven time to start or close a business activity.

8. Business is like a baby learning how to walk.

They will roll over, sit up, crawl, and try to walk. They will fall and try again; and fall and try again; never giving UP until they learn to walk!

• We may fail in one or a couple of other business ventures. As adult now we must REFLECT AND LEARN from those failures so that we don’t repeat those activities that failed us in future.

• We shall lose money. By direct fraud, theft, and business activities gone bad. Remember to stay trying and moving as a baby; the biggest asset in any business or endeavor is YOU keeping on.

9. In our business existence, customers are like children; their demands are always changing and many. Focus all your attention on them and make continuous improvements central to your products or services design and development.

• Ignore those attention and improvements and then you know the results.

• Add value to the child (customer) and be sure of a happy future—Money in the pocket.

10. Business is like a journey.

We can start it at any time, and it is always one step following another. If you can start it early before the sun is hot the better. The sun can be the entrance bar level or our life cycle. We have a lot of adaptability and learning to do.

• We also need to plan our journey well otherwise we will lose direction and sight of the goal. Strategic and operational planning is important. Engage Plan, Do, Check, Act!

Walter