Building and Developing a Business in 2024 in South Africa

The key to building and developing a business

Business is not complicated; you have it, and they need it so badly they are willing to pay for it. However, even uncomplicated things can be difficult to manage. Business certainly falls under this category.

Entrepreneurship has been made very sexy by the media, especially the idea of having endless money, celebrity status with millions of followers and the respect of others. Whether these attractions are right or wrong, the media has painted a false picture of business and perceived happiness which has led many an entrepreneur astray. ?

Venturing onto the road of entrepreneurship is one of the most adventurous, enthralling and probably one of the most difficult things you can take on in life. You have to be a little crazy to take the challenge on, but it is thanks to these crazy ones that many problems in society gets fixed.

The question however is, how do you build and develop a business in an economy that is constantly retracting?

Steve Jobs famously said, “I am convinced that what separates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful entrepreneur is perseverance”. I agree with this statement, as I personally have gone through many challenges in my business. But I am still here, persisting and persevering through the challenges. Perseverance however is a result; you cannot force perseverance. The dictionary defines perseverance as ‘persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success’. This almost creates the picture of something dragging you through the difficulty, it could be hope, a belief, a dream, whatever it is, the reason for your perseverance is bigger than the challenges. ?

A dream sometimes is not enough to develop a successful business. There are three characteristics to an entrepreneur that plays an equal important role in building a successful business.

-??????? The dreamer: The dreamer has a dream of the end result and the impact the business will have on other people.

-??????? The architect: The architect creates a vision or a blueprint of how the dream will be accomplished.

-??????? The builder: The builder understands the dream, and studies the plan of action, then goes to work and builds the business brick-by-brick.

The part that I want to focus on is the architect. The majority entrepreneurs I have met have a dream and works very hard, very few entrepreneurs I have met has a plan on how they will build a business.

So, let’s take a closer look at your plan to build a business.

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Business Strategy

The cornerstone of your plan is a practical and viable business strategy. The business strategy consists of three parts:

#1: Value proposition

“You will be paid exactly according to the amount of value you bring to market” T. Harv Eker.

Note the two important components that creates a value proposition. (1) Value and (2) the market. To build a strong value proposition you need to study the target market. Think like they think, talk like they talk and most importantly you must understand what is valuable for them, instead of assuming what you think is important.

#2: Competitive advantage

Geared with your understanding of the value component, you need to ensure that your offering is better than the competitor, not different, but better. Essentially you want to package your value proposition in a logical way that your target market understands within 10 seconds the value you will offer them.

#3: Unique selling proposition

Finally, it is time to differentiate yourself from the competitor by understanding what makes you unique. This can sometimes take a while to figure out, so allow yourself some time to work through this.

If you have a strong value proposition and a valuable competitive advantage, you are 80% there. The unique selling proposition is important; however, it will not make or break your business.

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To build a successful business is a combination of things that works together. You need to have a dream that you believe in, a viable vision or blueprint that showcases the plan of how you will accomplish the dream and lastly persistent hard work until the vision is developed and the dream accomplished.

We assist small to medium sized businesses through business coaching, and enterprise development initiatives to build and grow their SME’s. For more information you can visit our website at https://www.mysme.co.za/business-coaching/.

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