My Top Ten Lessons in Business
This journey started in 2016 after I finished my compulsory one year of service in Nigeria as a graduate, two things dawned on me; first is that the free money has stopped, and second, I would like to build my own business. It has been seven years running my graphic design business and two years running my cake delivery business, I can say with confidence that I still have no clue what I am doing, however, I am always willing to take the lessons my many failures have thought me as an entrepreneur. These are not lessons from a business expert, these are lessons I have picked up in my short journey, and hopefully, as I grow, I will be able to add more, and disprove some (hey! I am learning always to question my beliefs).
Lesson Number 1: Only God, yourself, your spouse, investors, and your financial experts/advisers (bankers, accountants, tax guys, etc) should have access to your financial books.
Especially when we are starting out as sole founders, it is important to watch the spaces we open our books, your parents don’t need to know how much is in the business except they are investors. There are two distinct pressures it will help you avoid; First, the pressure of everyone seeing you have arrived and feeling entitled to being taken care of by you (especially family and friends). Why won’t I call you up to help me when I know your business just raked in Ten Million Naira in a month? The second pressure is the opposite and comes mainly from the same set of people, here they see the business isn’t bringing in that much money and they begin rationalizing your reason for being in the company in the first place. This comes mainly from a place of love for you never forget that they don’t like seeing you suffer, and they want you to take the shortest route possible to the top. This is why many people gave up on their dreams to settle for something comfortable and never got to express themselves fully. My advice? The two best people to always listen to are God and your spirit, take others under advisement.
Lesson Number 2: Keep your next move confided in a safely guarded space.
Ever wonder why we don’t know what the Apples and Lamborghinis of this world are working on (maybe for even a decade) till they launch it or even when they want to sell or buy a business? Attention draws distraction as well, not everyone on the team or close to you needs to know the next move, if they are not playing a vital role let them hear just like the rest of the public. Surprising the public and your competitors is the best way to stay ahead of the curve, why will a startup founder go about talking about an acquisition that is in the negotiation stage or even their new product or service in development? Even God keeps certain moves to Himself till it’s made, do you think the devil would have allowed Jesus to be crucified if he saw the full picture? Yeah, you get my point now.
Lesson Number 3: Never put trust in anyone, anything, not even yourself, and most especially things that hype the business success:
No, I am not implying you become paranoid and not trust people or their ability to do their job well. We fall into that trap of putting our hope on strategies we believe are tested, or that employee or partner that is a highflyer, or even ourselves. Question everything and be open to the reality of things failing or falling apart. Your partner can jump ship, that high-flying employee can be poached, you can die in a freak accident tomorrow, and that well-researched strategy can be a failure upon implementation. Be open to failures (yes, it's plural), you will fail or hit a wall a lot of times especially when starting and this can go from months to years. Your ability to always try to get up and move forward will see you through to the end or the beginning of another phase. I guess I am trying to say you should put more trust in failing/failures than in successes because they are the ones that truly teach you more about business. Ultimately, trust only God and lean not on your own understanding.
Lesson Number 4: Never get high on your success:
When we succeed especially the type that comes with the attention hype, it is natural to rest on our laurels and soak in the moment. Like the rich fool in the Bible that decided to get high on his success, you will be staring at your imminent (business) death. Distrust your success, congratulate the team and yourself for hitting that milestone, and go ahead to work towards the next, in fact, I dare say you should downplay your success or make nothing out of it always, it will keep you grounded and hungry for more. It is not a coincidence that all the companies we know today that went through a short death or those that permanently died was because they got high on their success and got comfortable. Remind yourself you are Blockbuster/Blackberry, and someone is out there building the next Netflix/iPhone. This mindset will ensure you are the one that builds the Netflix that kills your Blockbuster while keeping the money with you. Richard Deupree the President at Procter & Gamble understood the danger of getting high on your success which is why at the height of P&Gs success he approved a radical proposal in 1931 to create a brand management structure that allowed their brands to create competing products among themselves as if they were different companies. Remember Procter & Gamble was already Ninety-Four (94) years at the time and worth millions in Dollars, how much more a business less than ten years? No matter how old you get, never see your business as established (even if the media hypes it that way), it’s a trap.
Lesson Number 5: Designate your rest space and never conduct business in that environment.
Even God rested after working and today He calls us to enter that rest with Him?(Genesis 2:2, Hebrews 4:9–11). Create a system that allows you to rest uninterrupted by work. If you designate weekends and holidays as rest days, keep it so and be sure your customers get the memo. Never put yourself in a position people feel comfortable calling you when you are out on a date or playing video games for work (no matter the money or person involved). If the client cannot wait till Monday for that work to start, then they can find someone else for it. You are not a machine, and your body needs regular rest and good sleep (please don’t joke with your sleep, and never mind the aspire to perspire gang). Even God rested so who the hell are you not to rest, even our machines forcefully reboot themselves when overworked and you want to work 24/7, well I have said my piece, and I am sure our hospitals will appreciate your patronage. Make out time for other things asides from business like family, friends, good causes, and things that matter in the scale of things.
Lesson Number 6: Only take loans for expansion and investment, if not dead it.
One important business lesson I learned from my friend Chike (a great financial manager) is that you never use loans for operations but to expand/invest. I am not against debt, debt is a great tool for businesses, just don’t be like that country that borrows to pay salaries. Only go to your bank for a loan when you need to expand that business or invest in income-generating assets. Use your personal savings, contributions, or even soft loans from friends to run your business and when you can’t raise capital, find ways to optimize your service or even downsize. Take the temporary hit but ensure you sustain the business, remember the most important person is the business and not your ego.
Lesson Number 7: Keep your personal and business life completely separate.
Christopher ‘Notorious BIG’ Wallace best said it,?“money and blood don’t mix”. From the first day understand that the business is a separate entity even if it is a one-man show, you are just an employee. Your business money isn’t your money, your money is your stake in the business or the salary you draw from it. It is considered fraud to spend your business money on yourself, people go to prison for that in some places. You might need to ensure the credit/debit card you move around with belongs to you as a person and not the business. This separation also helps when it comes to limiting your liabilities, it helps the relevant agency know where the business assets start and end, so they don’t encroach on your personal assets. That’s why we see people declare bankruptcy in business but still afford to fly private planes or take a vacation in the Maldives or Obudu in Nigeria. This will help you keep the tax man away from your personal money in some instances as well. The most important reason for me is accountability, when your business account is separated from your personal account, it is easier to stay accountable to God, yourself, your spouse, your investors, and your finance guys. You better understand your cash flow and plan accordingly.
Lesson Number 8: You better know how to do your business, never be ignorant of your business.
Imagine running a bakery and you don’t know a jack about baking, or you run an advertising firm and don’t know squat about marketing. Ask yourself this, if for some reason you cannot afford to pay salaries and your employees don’t show up, will this business still be open? If your answer is no, please close the shop and get a job. This move gives you a better understanding of the business operations and how best to optimize them to your advantage when you have people working with you. It gives you an edge when called upon to talk about your business, you speak from experience not some theory. You don’t have to be the best or the expert, that’s why you hire people but be sure to know the basics of the business and how it runs.
Lesson Number 9: Do not compete with the little guys and don’t try to take them out of business.
I learned to compete for the top spot and so I target the guys in the top three and take them off one by one. The worst-case scenario will be the story of Pepsi, you will never be Coca-Cola, but you have cemented your name as the top competitor. Truth is, not all of us will go all the way and displace the top dog, however, we can benefit from the hype and free publicity the top dog will unintentionally give us. Do not waste resources trying to compete with your peers, instead look for ways to collaborate while maintaining what makes you different, people will see you as being your brother’s keeper. They will cheer for you when you go against the top dog because everyone roots for the underdog subconsciously, the typical David and Goliath story. From day one, your goal should be to study the top guys for weaknesses especially if they are getting high on their success, and develop strategies to kill them off. This will take time so if you can’t play the long game, stay out of this.
Lesson Number 10: Your word should be your bond, never break it.
“All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don’t break them for no one”.?(Tony Montana in Scarface). As startups and underdogs, our best strategy is to keep our word no matter the cost to the business. If you will make a loss and keep your promise, do it and never hesitate to make that decision. We are allowed to make mistakes but never get comfortable with breaking promises made, whether, to customers, employees, or yourself, that is a recipe for disaster. When big businesses start becoming complacent, we see this happening and customers naturally move to the underdog keeping their word. Be careful what you promise and be prepared to back it up with actions no matter what.
As I said, I am no expert, just a guy on a journey documenting his processes, so feel free to call out my BS and help me learn better.