BUILD THE BUSINESS, NOT THE IDEA

Build the business, not just the idea

Ideas are intangible forces, but are more powerful than the brains that give birth to them.

Africa is blessed with so much talents. Nigeria for example, Nigeria has over 50% of her population under the age of 40. Such a population will have so many mind blowing ideas flying around. This is truly evident as experts have gone as far as comparing Lagos-Nigeria to Silicon Valley-USA, where Apple, Microsoft and so many other multinational brands were born. Lagos also has its startups that are now big businesses such as Iroko Tv, Jumia, Jobberman, Hotels.ng etc.

Many startups envy these companies and aspire to be like them. Most have what it takes to be better than them, but many neglect some very few important details. In the end, you find yourself going about pushing A VERY GREAT BUT NOT PROFITABLE IDEA. In most cases, these ideas are actually very profitable, but the neglect of the business aspect of the idea on the part of the entrepreneur not only slows down the growth of the startup, but also pushes investors away.

The one mistake many startup entrepreneurs make is not documenting their profit/business model before they build the startup, most just concentrate on making the idea great. Many startup entrepreneurs when asked about how they intend to make money from their startup, come up with some mumbo jumbo and the conviction that when they the startup is big, money will start flowing in. Its not magic, have your own unique business/profit model that will ensure money will keep flowing in for your startup, if not, it would never be big. This is one reason startups find it difficult to convince investors; Investors need to be sure their money will return, if you can't guarantee that, no matter how great your idea is, they are not likely to give you their money.

HAVE MORE THAN ONE CASH-FLOW STREAM

Cash-flow is the revenue your idea generates. Have a plan A, B and C. The idea in some cases is first of its kind, for something that has never existed, so many things could go wrong at the beginning, including the revenue generating system. Develop comprehensive backup plans, so if your plan A doesn't bring money in, plan B and C will. You may seem not interested in the money and be more concerned about adding value, but trust me, if money doesn't come in to sustain the startup, your startup might die faster than it started.

We heard the story of Whatsapp being sold, and recently, one of the biggest social media sites also. If the business behind these ideas were strong enough and generated enough profit, the owners would have definitely not sold them out.
As a startup entrepreneur, you should form the habit of studying other startups, both those that failed and those that succeeded.

One entrepreneur I respect so much is Robert Kiyosaki. When his startup company 'Richdad' was just a startup, his first product was The Cashflow Game. He knew he needed a plan B and C to generate cash-flow so he wrote the book, 'Rich dad, Poor dad', which apparently went viral and became even more popular than the initial product, but subsequently, it sold the initial product - The Cashflow Game. An entrepreneur needs to plan and predict the future to be successful.
PLANNING IS KEY TO SUCCESS, STRATEGY IS KEY TO EFFECTIVE PLANNING.

Think WITTEE! Think intelligence

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