Almost all entrepreneurial books talk about three “must haves” in establishing and sustaining a profitable enterprise. Business history has shown that the personal passion and vision of the entrepreneur-founder generally leads to create the business (company) that produces (technology) services and/or products that fill a continuing need of a sufficiently large consuming public (market). Yes, it seems to be incontrovertible that passion, technology and market must go together if a business is to succeed. The more interesting question though, is, which among the three must your starting point be? Or, could any one of these three “must haves” in fact, be a starting point in establishing a business?
Passion or Personal “Genius” as your starting point
Going into business is a very personal matter. Your first choice of a business could be something that you are personally passionate about. You choose it because you have clear reasons in your mind why you personally like to engage in that business activity. It’s also possible to study and learn about any business with clearly good potential. It may not necessarily mean though that you are suited for that business to actually run it well, much less enjoy being operationally involved in it. Without real involvement, it may be difficult to sustain your business with the same quality that you started with.
The better first step is to think of what you do best…what is your unique genius? What is your real passion? What is it that you really love doing? Develop the mindset that it is your responsibility to widen your skills and knowledge base. Look around your own environment and see what is it there that could be made into a kind of income earning activity? You might just discover that what you particularly like to do is something your community actually needs! When this happens, find out if the market is large enough, and, whether or not you can consistently deliver the products with consistent quality and at stable prices. If you are able to reasonably to confirm these, by all means, proceed with your business plan.
On the other hand, you may love to do something but you are not confident about your skills yet. But can you find ways to develop those skills quickly? Can you take a partner who will provide the skills you do not have and vice-versa? This is one way you can create our own opportunity to make money.
Make your imagination work! Dream! Hand in hand with your personal capabilities, check out the market for your product or service. Location is key. You need to make your place accessible to your target market.
Try not to be a “me too” though unless your neighborhood really needs more of the same service. Too often, many imitate the business of others in the community and they all end up failing because of the limited market. Look at the “hot pandesal” phenomenon of many years back and even the “sari-sari” store to this present date. The original stores make money and suddenly everyone follows and almost, if not all, lose money.
After having decided on the business that is best for you, make a proper business financial plan complete with projections of at least monthly cash flows for the next two-three years. Be sure you have enough money as capital. You can only continue your business if it will bring in money before you run out of the capital you start with.
Your objective is to create a business for the long-term. You need to be able to sustain the quality of your product and/or services. Even if you believe that you can only stay in the business for a few years for personal reasons, you want to be able to sell your business and get some profit for it.