A salary delayed was not a salary denied.

A salary delayed was not a salary denied.?

Today I am tapping myself on the shoulder, following a 10-year entrepreneurial journey filled with exciting, stimulating and lonely memories. I am thrilled that my company is now able to pay me a concrete salary. It feels great to have a salary after years of taking home just enough that could sustain the family. I worked hard and smart, and I was not demotivated by anyone who was criticizing with the view to discourage my milestones. I listened to anyone and everyone that was depositing skills and knowledge to align my business.?One could say, “it took me long to pay myself”, however; It is easy to say when you are on a side walk. I paid salaries and took only a little to sustain myself, I was building and reinvesting in my business.?

The consulting fraternity requires all of you, to keep up with the market trends, planning ahead, appropriate cash flow and financial management, quick problem solving competence, continuous improvement of skills as a director, attending numerous networking events, and empowerment seminars, realigning your attitude and welcoming change as quickly as you can.?

Here are my 12 winning tips as you are thinking of starting your entrepreneurial journey:

1. Understand the industry you are signing up for:

Before you invest a lot of time and money to develop a new product/service, you need to understand the industry in which it’s going to be sold. An industry is a group of related businesses: they do similar things and they compete with each other; only the resilient, quick to respond and innovative survive. Touch Motive Consulting is a character-building entity, its inception was to close the gap between a depressed employer and an anxious employee. The end in mind was to create a favourable working environment such that personnel can thrive in a healthy state of mind.

2. Analyse and study your competition.?

Competition breeds the best results. To be successful, you can’t be afraid to study and learn from your competitors. After all, they may be doing something right that you can implement in your business to make more money. Don’t be afraid to borrow winning strategies. If a system is producing results and it is profitable, adopt it.

3. Prepare to make sacrifices.?

The lead-up to starting a business is hard work, but after you open your doors, your work has just begun. In many cases, you have to put in more time than you would if you were working for someone else, which may mean spending less time with family and friends to be successful. To achieve business success you need to be organized. It will help you complete tasks and stay on top of things to be done. A good way to be organized is to create a to-do list each day; and as you progress, you might need to take on a Project Management course, New Venture Creation course or a Graphic Design course, taking those courses produced wonders for me.?They helped me to insource some of the costly services, thus saving on procurement.

4. Quote and Invoice formally.?

Businesses need to keep records of just about everything. Invoices make key information quickly accessible. They also play a role in, Bookkeeping, Tax Records, Legal Protection, Marketing and Tracking Inventory. That logo on your quote and invoice goes a long way. Don’t verbalize your quote/invoices or make them in principle, formalise them such that you protect yourself from costing misrepresentations. Don’t run your business dealings from your Savings Account, by so doing you are compromising your track record.?

5. Market and advertise without fear of judgement.?

In basic terms, marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and determining how best to meet those needs. In contrast, advertising is the exercise of promoting a company and its products or services through paid channels. In other words, advertising is a component of marketing. Don’t be so fixated on instant marketing response, people are seeing your work and they are saving your marketing communication tools; those that need your services will be in touch. Best believe me, word of mouth from other clients brought me more business. Do your work with diligence. There will be some of your contacts that will follow your work just to Eavesdrop and not to support; it is what it is, focus on finding business leads and stop being fixated on being liked.?

6. Don’t diversify your product or services quickly.?

Your market might be confused about your offering. Diversification is a business development strategy in which a company develops new products and services, or enters new markets, beyond its existing ones. As much as it might be tempting to introduce other products and services; I have learned that in my industry the market wants you to prove yourself first, or else they divorce you if you introduce too many products when you are just starting. Unless you are in the retail sector (Wholesale/Spazashop).

7. Provide great service.

Many SMMEs forget that providing great customer service is imperative. If you provide better service for your customers, they will be more inclined to come to you the next time they need something instead of going to your competition. Take care of your client beyond services; check on them, check how their business is doing, refer them to business prospects and be available to advise them if they need your opinion.?

8. Pay your team and service providers well.

Better Performance. If you pay your team better than average, you can also have higher expectations. You can expect to get more out of your team. Team players who feel they are paid well will also be more motivated to perform better. I paid people, no free bees and favours. But I also had to fire good-paid personnel that underperformed. They took my courtesy kindness for granted.?

9. Thrive to be consistent.?

Consistency is a key component to making money in business. You have to keep doing what is necessary to be successful day in and day out, your availability in business is not controlled by weather; you have to show up no matter the weather. This will create long-term positive habits that will help you make money in the long run. I made showing up a habit. Don’t forget to be early, that’s my signature in any client engagement, I thrive to be early. It says a lot about your business rapport.??

10. Don’t underestimate coaching and mentoring.?

This process is to strategically lead you toward your business goals. The culture of engaging in Coaching and Mentoring will provide you with greater confidence in your role as the Managing Director of your business. Don’t fall into the trap of wanting to find a famous mentor or coach, there are a lot of great potential mentors that are not after the limelight. If you can’t access that possible mentor, follow their work. I wanted to access the late Dr John Tibane as an advisor, but I couldn’t, I began following his work and I attended his seminars until I was able to engage with him and at a later stage share a stage with him. That’s called “being intentional about mentorship and coaching”?

11. Invest in brand building and never be discouraged by trial and error.??

Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for a business in the mind of a consumer. Branding is made up of a company's logo, visual design, mission, and tone of voice. This means, that when we look at your business, what impression do you want us to have? At Touch Motive Consulting, we touch lives and create lasting impactful relationships with our clients; we journey with our clients, and we don’t do hit-and-run business.?We love it when we transform mind-sets.

12. Prepare for business growth, don’t be found wanting.

Business growth is a phenomenon that occurs when it expands a customer base, increases revenue or produces more products. Build your capacity, one way that I increased my capacity was to employ freelancers and created a database of professionals that serve on contractual projects. Your client wants a “Yes we can do it, we will source capacity” not “I don’t have enough capacity”, such can cause you to lose that client forever. Study the challenges that companies encounter and design solutions for them and do those cold calls to propose your business as a solution.?Attend those government business incubation interventions, quit being complaisant, you have nothing to lose.

Point of exit:?

As you grow, remember why you started; connecting with the reason you started the business is a great method to kick-start your enthusiasm in times of struggle. Embrace trial & error and take stock of it. Dear Business Owner, “Remain a student of life.”?

Thank you ever so much to all the clients that believed in our delivery skills and to everyone that recommended our services through word of mouth. We salute you!?

www.touchmotiveconsulting.com ??new website loading….. The journey was worth it; cheers to more wealth. Ramasedi kea leboha, ka tataiso ya hao ke bone lesedi.