Why it does work (projects)

Following my article on?why it doesn’t work, I think a fair follow up would be to talk on those points which make a project work. Don’t just focus on these positive points and ignore the pitfalls, very often times its difficult to attain these and the pitfalls are way more common?so even though I believe your attention should be that way, its also important to note all the positive aspects of a project which you should strive to attain.

It makes money

No matter how you look at it,?if a project generates revenue then depending on the management, its success is almost guaranteed. The whole idea of projects is centered around?generating value which can be translated today as financial revenue with money being the standard metric of value these days.?So the first thing you should be aiming for in any of your projects is for it to be profitable, once it does, it now becomes a matter of scalability.?Even a charity needs to generate revenue somehow in order to stay alive, everything requires funding of some sort for its own sustainability so?your primary goal should be for your project to generate revenue or at the very least generate value of some sort, without that it is doomed to fail. The problem arises when we have high hopes and dreams for our projects without acknowledging that they aren’t generating revenue but rather taking away all the resources we have, there is no stagnant project, It’s either taking away resources or giving them to you one way or the other. Trust me, if we could sell air then that would be a profitable business in mere days. When you are starting a project,?your primary thought should be to figure out how this is going to generate revenue, nothing should have priority in your mind, the rest can be figured out on the go but making money or generating value is the first thing which should be prioritized. It is known as having a business plan and it would be insane for you to start a business without a business plan in your mind, not only would that business be unsustainable but it is certain to ruin you in no time.

A resilient team

With committed people by your side ready to put in the work and take it to the end, you are sure to succeed.?When people show up on time, do their part of the job, share ideas to keep moving forward, take on responsibilities and really become productive then the project is bound to succeed to a certain extent.?All companies out there grow and thrive because they have a group of committed employees who do their best for it to be so, since they are motivated by their pay on a monthly basis, and that’s why their pay is often tied to their productivity,?we’ve come to notice that when productivity is associated with the pay then it increases but if people knew that their pay had nothing to do with their productivity then they wouldn’t even be showing up to work talkless of working hard.?So since the dawn of time we’ve known that the more work we put in the higher the reward so people really go all out to make the most that they possibly can. That’s one way of ensuring that your project works, it’s by incentivizing productivity and putting all the resources needed for it to work.?The quantity of resources you put in aren’t what are necessarily going to determine the success of a project, past a certain threshold it now becomes how well you manage these resources, if you just come and pay everybody upfront millions for them to do the job, their motivation is slowly going to reduce with time, so will their productivity but?when you incentivize them on a regular basis based on their productivity, you can keep them going for very long periods of time at high levels of productivity.?All these should go without saying but it seems some don’t understand how the world works.

Automation

One of the pitfalls I mentioned for projects was that they could be high resource demanding, whether its human resources, financial or commitment, which are all resources limited in supply.?Another aspect which can really push a project to success is automation, when you have little to no intervention to do this can really help and that’s what every modern business strives to do.?This doesn’t mean using robots or computer systems, automation here could simply mean the business produces the resources it needs to maintain itself with additional profits too and it does this without requiring your intervention.?Take for example a restaurant, you hire all the staff and all what you are expecting is some profits at the end of the month, you need not worry about anything else the business has all the resources it needs, the only thing you want to see is the notification at the end of the month. This is really amazing when done right, that’s why so many people are getting into real estate since its very easy to automate and this is really the goal of every project, if a project requires you to intervene all the time then it is actively taking a portion of your time which is already very limited and it stops you from engaging into other projects or scaling, sine you can’t scale up your time.?You should strive to automate your business so that you don’t have much to do there?all by yourself, but rather you just reap the profits at the end of the day.

Fertile environment

Imagine opening a water store vs opening a restaurant in the desert, what do you think will fare better in such an environment? Finding the right environment is ideal when thinking about your project, that will be like planting crops on fertile ground, they will keep growing however little effort you put into them, they might even grow uncontrollably and you will be pushed to scale up continuously.?An important question you should always ask yourself is that of finding the conducive environment for your project, one which will help it mature and flourish despite all the rainy days and once this is the case then no matter how poorly managed it might be, it will really take a lot for it to go under.?Why do you think people stand in line for long hours to get a certain service, that’s because that particular service is in high demand and on a fertile ground for it.

Proper Management

Mismanagement is a primary cause for the failure of countless business,?not knowing how to use the resources you have and applying them appropriately can spell failure for any business.?Every business is dependent on its management to make the right decisions, those for its present as well as those for its future, where to allocate resources, what to do at every point in time and how to deal with crisis. When you have a management team which understands the business in and out and knows how to navigate all of these with great wisdom, then that’s a blessing. Even the most profitable business in the world still relies on the decisions of its top management, every country relies on the decisions of its government and every household needs its leader to make the right choices, so?management is key for every business, finding the right one can’t be stressed enough. Entering into a project you should always ask yourself if you have the adequate management skills?which is an assumption that most people make even when its not the case, at the end of the day they blame everything else except themselves for their failure. Management isn’t an inborn skill, it is actually something which is learned but I guess since we are pushed into these positions at different points in our lives we often tend to think we are good managers across the board, but depending on the project you are doing you should seriously consider getting an experienced manager who knows best how to handle such projects.

Here are just a few of those points which could push your projects in the right direction, there are many more and am sure we can talk about them in the future. Put all of these to good use and you’ll be very successful in your projects.

Good luck

Thanks for reading