The Sunday Mail
Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
Entrepreneurship is impact and positive contribution to the society in the form of unique products and services.
Entrepreneurs are visible players in the market whose works and contribution speaks for them.
Their ground breaking innovations rings the bell in the market alerting every potential customer or beneficiary to focus on them.
If you get more questions like “Munoita nezvei zviya” (By the way what’s your main business) it’s a big wake up call for you. All these are a testimony to your invisibility in the marketplace. Your face, product name, service and business should speak of what you do wherever you go.
Lift your game to visibility. Think of these brands, Coca-Cola, EcoCash, WhatsApp, Facebook and ZOOM these are big brands in the market that have managed to pierce the thick layer of obscurity.
This article focuses on 10 keys that can help you unlock the obscurity layer to visibility.
- Be relevant
Entrepreneurship is not all about coming up with a unique product or service for the market, the relevance of that product in the target market is also key.
Your innovation, inventions and business idea should seek to address a current and emergent socio economic challenge. You don’t just shoot from nowhere. Be driven by an economic challenge in the form of demand for a unique solution to a current problem.
EcoCash came in as an easy money transfer solution and it has arguably turned into the largest bank in Zimbabwe’s history. People can now store value in their phone, buy and pay bills which has been a gap in the market. The service provider brought in a relevant and convenient solution to the market.
- Acquire selling skills
Business entails converting your product or service into cash in a sustainable manner. If you cannot sell, do not attempt to open a shop. Acquire selling skills.
You might argue back and forth but the fuelling point of any entrepreneurship journey and of business in general is sales.
All the piles of stock that you have, even the well-crafted services that you offer can remain as mere locked value if you cannot translate them into sales.
The ability to sell in any business stands taller in ranking than others. To succeed in entrepreneurship, you need selling skills.
- Be courageous
Success in business entails exposing your brand in the marketplace. You don’t keep to yourself in fear and dream of success one day. Talk about your business to everyone.
The late nationalist Nelson Mandela once said “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
I have seen many people who are shy even to say the price of the product they are selling. Be bold enough. Conquer your fears and be assertive.
- Convert your contacts
into customers
What percentage of the contacts that are in your phone knows your business and how many are supporting it? The ability to convert all your contacts into customers does the magic of not only exposing your business but brings in the much needed sales.
If your current contact list has nothing to do with your business, then overhaul it and start afresh. Your business is your way of life that most of your contacts should support.
In business, networking is key. You just have to be extensively connected in order to succeed. Go beyond the contacts in your phone.
Often times we connect with people who do not add value to our businesses. You need to have quality connections. People who push you beyond your limits. Have within your networks people who appreciate what you do.
- Deliver quality and sustain it
Quality products and services attract customers.
It is the quality that is embedded in products and services that has value. Most businesses start on very well on the quality aspect, but fail the sustainability test along the way.
We have quite a number of fast food outlets that started on a very high note quality wise, but dropped this virtue with time to their demise.
What sustains entrepreneurship is consistency in giving the market best products and services. You need to be always on top of the game
- Use social media productively and responsibly
Do you know how big people’s appetite towards viewing Facebook and WhatsApp statuses is? If you do, what have you done about it in the context of your business? Why capitalise on that by posting your business on that high traffic media rather than wasting your bundles forwarding useless pictures and chain messages that does not have a bearing on your business. Create a Facebook page and WhatsApp group for your business, be on Instagram and twitter. Maximise on the use of social media to enhance visibility of your business.
- Be branded
I like George the Billionaire Munengwa. Everything of his is branded ProAir. Be clothed in your brand. Let the regalia do the talking while you do other things. Have branded T-Shirts, caps, key holders, jerseys, jackets and pens. Always put your branded clothes for visibility and at most distribute to your customers. People will ask you for orders.
- Be professional in your approach
Professionalism is one aspect which is scarce in most upcoming entrepreneurs and small businesses and yet it is a virtue that would stand out. Professionalism entails the entire set of attitudes, behaviours and conduct that aligns with normal business practice.
- Be efficient
Efficiency is performing or functioning in the best possible manner without wasting time and effort. To every customer, time is of essence so, make sure you also respect their time by being prompt in serving them.
Never compromise effectiveness in your efficiency. Customers have been and are always our bosses in business and as such, that should be shown in the way we treat them.
- Among your plans, have a visibility plan
You don’t just wake up at the top and be known by almost everyone who matters in your area of business. You need to have
a plan towards that. It is when you have a plan that you can track your progress towards your visibility goal.
Conclusion
You can only get value if you give out value. Your entrepreneurship activities are essentially for the market and you need to make sure that you expose yourself in every way possible. Be relevant and improve on your operational efficiency. This will assist in elevating your business from obscurity to visibility.
The writer, Dr Kudzanai Vere is an entrepreneur, author and transformational speaker. He’s the author of Becoming a person of impact: The Six Pack Approach, Exceed beyond the ordinary: A step by step guide to becoming a high voltage entrepreneur and Soul Food Volume One & Two. Dr Vere is the entrepreneurship coach of the year 2020, Transformational coach of the year 2020 and 1st Runner Up Overall Coach of the year 2020. He can be contacted for business and personal development coaching sessions on +263 719 592232 or [email protected]
