In my last two articles, I advocated for the establishment of a form of quality management system in any nascent business venture. Further, I outlined the various types of business structures that are possible to establish in Nigeria and their structures. In the article, it was emphasized that the structure must fit the vision and mission of the business venture to offer the intended services and product effectively, and thereafter grow to sustainable levels. Following my 37 years of experience in Geological and Environmental Data collection and interpretation for various businesses in different industries, I have come to understand the importance of having a sound system and structure. A business system is an organized way of carrying out business activities, through the interdependence of processes, each with a step-by-step procedure for achieving the ultimate goal of the process. I have seen companies with huge potential struggle because of the failure in their structure and systems design. The budding entrepreneur needs to establish a business venture that incorporates a system and structure from beginning to end, that can consistently drive predictable outcomes.
Quality management systems (QMS) are a collection of business processes and procedures that ensure that products or services meet or exceed customer expectations. These systems are typically repeatable and measurable and depend on continual improvement in sustainability. Implementing a quality management system (QMS) in a new small business help ensure that products or services are consistently delivered to comply with customer requirements, relevant laws and other requirements.
A form of QMS from the beginning of a business venture ensures that the business grows into a brand name that delivers specific services that meet the client’s requirements.
Four kinds of quality processes are important in many industries: ISO 9001, AS9100, Six Sigma, and CMMI, but the correct quality system depends on the requirements of the business. The business must have a unique set of products and services, goals, values and quality objectives that suit better than others.
An ideal quality management system should be easy to integrate and use. It should meet the desired quality standards and show compliance with policies, strategic objectives and procedures. It should also be sufficiently flexible to change and adapt as processes improve through continual improvement strategies.
The key steps a young entrepreneur with a new small business venture use to incorporate QMS are the quality goals and tracking metrics to use. The next step is to identify the processes involved in delivering products or services and define the steps required to complete them. Documenting processes and procedures will include process maps, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and work instructions. To achieve this step, training employees on the QMS procedures ensure they understand how to follow them. Also, training them on how to use specific tools and equipment and complete specific tasks ensures they meet the client’s requirements.
The entrepreneur must set up measures to monitor performance against quality objectives. These measures include tracking customer satisfaction, monitoring product or service defects, and conducting internal audits. Continuous improvement of the QMS requires the identification of areas for improvement and the implementation of corrective measures. It includes conducting root cause analysis and tracking process improvements.
Effective recordkeeping is key to the success of QMS certification and regulatory compliance. During QMS design, entrepreneurs create specific definitions of records and make policies for document creation, retention, and editing.
The specific steps required to implement a QMS in a small firm may vary depending on the needs of the business. Entrepreneurs must seek guidance from a qualified consultant or QMS company that can help the business.
Business or Commercial is a branch of civil law that involves the study of business organizations, their legal rights and duties, and their relations with each other, stakeholders and with the government. Understanding and applying business law concepts keeps a business venture safe and efficient. Entrepreneurs must understand the legal aspect of the business venture before even opening their doors for business, otherwise, they end up spending a lot more money than necessary.
Understanding and applying business law precepts and principles early, helps the entrepreneur keep the laws of the government, avoid lawsuits and set up a sound foundation for the venture. As a young entrepreneur, one of the most significant benefits of understanding business law is the ability to comply with legal and other requirements. Business law governs a range of legal obligations that entrepreneurs must follow, such as registering their business, getting necessary licenses and permits, and paying taxes. Another benefit of understanding business law is the ability to mitigate risks.
Entrepreneurs who understand business law identify potential legal issues and take proactive steps to prevent them. This can help avoid legal disputes, lawsuits, and other legal problems that can damage the business’s reputation and financial health. Entrepreneurs need to negotiate contracts with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Understanding business law helps entrepreneurs understand the terms and conditions of these contracts and ensure that they are legally binding and enforceable. Intellectual property is a crucial asset for many businesses, and protecting it is essential for their success. Understanding business law helps entrepreneurs identify and protect their intellectual property, such as trademarks, patents, and copyrights.
Finally, understanding business law can help young entrepreneurs make better decisions. Knowledge of business law provides entrepreneurs with the tools to assess legal risks, evaluate legal options, and make informed decisions that align with their business goals.
Overall, understanding business law is crucial for young entrepreneurs as it helps them comply with legal requirements, mitigate risks, negotiate contracts, protect their intellectual property, and make better decisions.
Industry knowledge is crucial for any business venture because it provides a foundation for making informed decisions, understanding market trends, identifying opportunities, and managing risks. It’s important to have industry knowledge because it allows the entrepreneur to stay updated and informed of constant trends and changes that might occur in their industrial sector. Some entrepreneurs prefer to hire knowledgeable employees with advanced industry experience. This is often because they can typically apply their industry knowledge to develop and submit quality tasks that improve the company’s performance, increase revenue and make them stand out from competitors.
Industry knowledge allows entrepreneurs to gain a deeper understanding of the market they plan to enter, including the target customers, competitors, and key trends. With this understanding, entrepreneurs can identify gaps in the market and tailor their product or service offerings to meet the needs of their target customers. Similarly, Industry knowledge helps entrepreneurs spot opportunities for growth and expansion, such as new markets or emerging trends. By staying up-to-date with industry news and developments, entrepreneurs can stay ahead of the curve and capitalise on new opportunities.
In addition, every industry has its own unique set of risks and challenges. By having industry knowledge, entrepreneurs can identify potential risks and develop strategies to mitigate them. This can minimize losses and protect the business from failure. Moreso, investors, customers, and partners are more likely to trust entrepreneurs who have a deep understanding of their industry. By demonstrating industry knowledge, entrepreneurs can build credibility and establish themselves as experts in their field.
Modern clients expect entrepreneurs to have a strong understanding of updates in the industry so that they can offer guidance, support and project ideas that improve their client’s businesses. Professionals who work in marketing can also use this advanced industry knowledge to publish content that educates current and potential customers. This can make the company stand out from its competitors and establish it as a trusted source and thought leader in the industry.
Overall, industry knowledge is an essential ingredient for any business venture. Without it, entrepreneurs risk making uninformed decisions that can lead to missed opportunities and increased risk. With industry knowledge, entrepreneurs can make more informed decisions, identify growth opportunities, and mitigate risks, ultimately increasing their chances of success.
Leadership is a skill that enables entrepreneurs to achieve their goals. It is necessary for every aspect of life and has its prime importance in business ventures. True leaders have integrity they are forthright with their business deals. They also communicate openly and often to ensure that they are properly understood. Entrepreneurs, who build leadership skills are essential to managing and growing their businesses. Here are some steps they take to develop your leadership skills in their companies:
Lead by example:
Entrepreneur, who intends to build leadership in their company should aim to be role model for their team. They demonstrate the values, ethics, and work ethic that they want their team to follow.
Learn from other leaders:
Attending seminars, reading books, listening to podcasts, and learning from the experiences of the leadership styles of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders breed good leaders in an organisation.
Communicate effectively:
Effective communication is crucial in leadership. Learning how to communicate ideas, goals, and expectations clearly to your team is a very critical skill for a leadership position in a company.
Empower the team:
It is crucial to encourage the team to take ownership of their work, give them autonomy, and trust their abilities. It is also important to make the team understand that it is critical to accept and learn from mistakes and failures while building leadership skills. This will not only boost the team’s confidence but also free up their time to focus on other aspects of the business venture.
Be open to feedback:
A leadership student asks for feedback from the team and other stakeholders and is open to criticism. This will help them identify their strengths and weaknesses and improve their leadership skills.
Set clear goals:
Defining the business goals and communicating them to the team by breaking them down into smaller, achievable milestones, and tracking progress regularly builds a smart business through leadership.
Lead through change:
Entrepreneurs must adapt to changing market conditions, technologies, and customer needs. Learning to lead the team through these changes by being agile, flexible, and innovative is the mark of good leadership.
Remember that leadership skills are not developed overnight. It takes time, effort, and a willingness to learn and improve. Entrepreneurs should be patient, persistent, and consistent in their efforts to build their leadership skills, to see the benefits in the growth and success of their business.
Financial and accounting knowledge refers to the understanding and awareness of financial concepts, principles, tools, and strategies that help individuals and entrepreneurs make informed decisions about their financial affairs.
Financial and accounting knowledge covers knowledge about personal finance, investment, budgeting, risk management, taxes, and other related areas.
Entrepreneurs need to have the financial knowledge to effectively manage their finances, achieve their financial goals, and make sound financial decisions. Financial and accounting knowledge can be gained through education, experience, and professional advice from financial experts.
Entrepreneurs need financial and accounting knowledge for several reasons:
Financial management: Accounting and financial knowledge help entrepreneurs manage their finances effectively. They can keep track of their income, expenses, profits, and losses. This allows them to make informed decisions about their business, such as when to invest in new equipment, hire new employees, or expand their operations.
Budgeting: Entrepreneurs need to create budgets to plan their spending and ensure that they are not overspending. Financial and accounting knowledge can help entrepreneurs to create accurate and realistic budgets based on their income and expenses.
Tax compliance: Entrepreneurs must comply with tax regulations to avoid penalties and legal issues. Financial and accounting knowledge can help entrepreneurs to keep accurate financial records, calculate their taxes correctly, and file their tax returns on time.
Access to funding: Entrepreneurs often need to raise funds to start or grow their businesses. Investors and lenders require financial information to assess the viability of the company. Financial and accounting knowledge can help entrepreneurs to prepare financial statements and reports that demonstrate the financial health of their business and its potential for growth.
Business planning: Entrepreneurs need to plan for the future and set goals for their businesses. Accounting and financial knowledge can help entrepreneurs to create financial projections based on historical data and market trends. This allows entrepreneurs to make informed decisions about the future of their businesses.
In conclusion, financial and accounting skills are essential for entrepreneurs because they provide the information they need to manage their finances effectively and make informed decisions about their business ventures.
Accounting is the process of recording, summarizing, and analyzing the financial transactions of a business. It involves tracking the money that flows in and out of a business and creating reports that show the financial health of the business.
Businessmen need to know to account because it helps them to make informed decisions about their business. Accounting provides them with the information they need to manage their finances, create budgets, and plan for the future. It helps them to understand how much money is coming in and going out of the business, where the money is being spent, and how much profit the business is making.
Accounting also helps businessmen to comply with tax regulations and other legal requirements. By keeping accurate financial records, businessmen can ensure that they are paying the right amount of taxes and avoiding penalties and legal issues.
Overall, accounting is essential for businessmen because it provides them with the information they need to manage their finances effectively and make informed decisions about their businesses.
Running a business can be an incredible experience full of adventure with lucrative returns when everything goes as planned. Therefore, entrepreneurs dream to start their business ventures, but it is often very hard for them to know the right time to start. But knowing when one is ready to take a leap of faith and start the business venture is complex and intuitive.
This short content has outlined a few signs and posts that show when to start a business venture. Often, entrepreneurs venture out only when they are sure they have enough experience in the industry, but most entrepreneurs are inexperienced, so they always follow their passion. However, they need indications to understand when to start a business venture. Therefore they need to have;
A solid business idea: An entrepreneur should have a clear idea of what their business will do, how it will create value for customers, and how it will generate revenue.
Market research: Before starting a business, an entrepreneur should conduct market research to understand the industry, competition, target customers, and market trends.
Business plan: A comprehensive business plan is essential to help an entrepreneur organize their thoughts and ideas, identify potential challenges, and plan for growth.
Financial resources: Starting a business requires some level of financial resources. An entrepreneur should have a plan to secure funding, whether it’s through personal savings, loans, or investors.
Relevant skills and experience: An entrepreneur should possess the skills and experience to run a business successfully. This includes knowledge of the industry, marketing, sales, financial management, and leadership.
Support system: Starting a business can be stressful and challenging. An entrepreneur should have a support system of family, friends, mentors, and advisors to offer guidance and encouragement.
Commitment: Starting a business requires a significant amount of time, energy, and effort. An entrepreneur should commit to the venture and sacrifice to ensure its success.
Overall, an entrepreneur is ready to start a business venture when they have a solid business idea, conducted market research, created a business plan, secure funding, possess relevant skills and experience, have a support system, and are committed to the venture’s success.
Building Trust among employees, shareholders and stakeholders is a critical factor in the success of any business venture. Trust is the building block of the foundation of business culture and operational efficiency. It refers to people’s confidence and reliance on the business venture to fulfil their promises and obligations. There are several reasons why trust is crucial in a business venture:
Building Relationships: Trust is the foundation of building long-term business relationships with customers, partners, and investors. When people trust a business, they are more likely to stay loyal and continue to do business with them.
Enhancing Collaboration: Trust is essential for effective collaboration between different parties in a business venture. When there is trust, people are more likely to share ideas and work together to achieve common goals. Trust is the basis of teamwork and innovation.
Managing Risks: Trust is the basis of managing strategic and commercial risks in a business venture. When clients trust a business, they also trust the solution the business venture offers.
Improving Reputation: Trust builds a business’s reputation. A business that is known for its trustworthiness and integrity offers better quality products and services and attract new customers and retains existing ones.
Increasing Efficiency: When there is trust in a business, it leads to greater efficiency and productivity. Employees learn to communicate openly and honestly, which helps to prevent misunderstandings and minimize delays.
Overall, building trust among employees is a vital component of any successful business venture. It takes time to build trust, but it is worth the effort as it can lead to increased profitability, growth, and success in the long run.
Inheritance is commonly referred to as the process whereby an individual bequeaths to their loved ones after they pass away. However, my study on the relationship between entrepreneurship and wealth for over 37 years, has shown that the passing of assets is not all that there is, in the inheritance from parents.
Passing down stocks or bonds, and other assets such as jewellery, automobiles, art, antiques, real estate, cash, rights and property to children are not sustainable if they are not accompanied by other categories of inheritance. It is significant to mention that in the principles and precepts of entrepreneurship; it is not complete for the beneficiary to inherit non-enduring treasure without the enduring factors of wealth creation, maintenance and the ability to create services for humanity.
In another sense, inheritance is also understood as passing genetic information on from parents to children. So members of the same family have similar characteristics and traits. The inheritance of each trait is determined by factors (now known as genes) that are passed onto descendants. Individuals inherit one factor from each parent for each trait. A trait may not show up in an individual but can still be passed on to the next generation. These exchanged genes determine the capacities of the individual to develop and learn soft and hard skills needed to succeed in life and build sustainable business ventures that sustain wealth in a family.
The rules of inheritance differ among African communities, and societies and have changed. The Christian scriptures and the Quran transform the concept of inheritance to include the acquisition of spiritual blessings and promises from God. In the theological sense, to inherit means to “receive an irrevocable gift” with an emphasis on the special relationship between the benefactor and the recipients. African and Jewish inheritance customs were linked to family bloodlines, and Greek and Roman laws also provided for the disposition of family possessions through the adoption of an heir.
However, the bequeathing of final blessings, family network, rights and privileges associated with the family name and the family convictions to an heir is private and legal too. Unlike legal inheritance, the benefactor, God, does not die, yet He provides material and spiritual blessings as an inheritance for his people. Legal inheritance refers to actual property or goods received after a family member’s death. Officially bequeathing private property and/or debts can be performed by a testator via will, as attested by a notary or by other lawful means.
Therefore, to maintain a sustainable process of inheritance all the blessings of the parents before they pass away, their private convictions and beliefs, and the rights, titles, entitlements, and obligations related to the family name must be properly transferred. In addition, the heirs should take custody of the network and privileges of the family relationships with others, and the property, investments and assets upon the death of the parents or individual. These five categories of inheritance ensure that the heir is equipped to manage and sustain the wealth and treasures within their lifetime and also be able to transfer them to the next generation.
The anomaly is that most people cannot pass all these requirements of inheritance before they depart this earth. So parents must learn to put their house in order at all times by living one day at a time.
Goodwill Ofunne 