Brilliant business plans, a lot of enthusiasm, you have attended many seminars, followed role models, read plenty of books and you have mastered the basics—you look forward to launching a successful business project. Good luck to you, thorough researches done—you can do it!
In soccer the coaches would also have followed the same approach. A lot of practice, watched videos of competitors, done self analysis—got psychologists to psyche you up. Confidence full to the brim—bring it on!
Come match day, you enter the pitch and as soon as the referee whistle goes off, its game on!
Then you find the conditions totally different from what you had been taught and practised for.You concede many goals than targeted, you make life difficult for you in the second half. How can you reverse the 4-0 score line?
In entrepreneurship, you learn that the economic environment is not as predicted. New statutory instruments come from nowhere, Covid-19 comes, inflation conspires to make your life difficult. All the business plans and researches rendered useless.
Meanwhile you have sunk a lot of capital into your project, some employees involved in fraudulent activities, some debtors not paying up, currency changes and money stuck in banks or Ecocash banned.
Hold on, all of these events did not appear in your business plans! Like in soccer, you have a 4-0 loss and you are considering quitting to save the little capital that still exist.
Welcome to the second half
Your coach has been studying the opponents, their strengths and weaknesses. Analysing too your own performance vs the opponents and coming up with a remedial plan to overturn the first half losses and record a draw or a win!
For entrepreneurs, there is no coach who was observing your performance and if you do not pause and self reflect then you are headed in the familiar direction travelled by 95% of entrepreneurs—doom!
In soccer teams that finish last get relegated and we can track all the teams that got relegated across the world. The statistics are easy to get…
In the Zimbabwean context, statistics are hard to come by and the absence of the statistics mean thousands to millions of people keep falling into the same trap.
Even when we follow popular entrepreneurs in the country. We only read of successful case studies but how they made losses in the first half and then miraculously survived in the second half to win the match is classified information!
Some of the first half experiences are so embarrassing that many are not comfortable to share them. The education system taught us to be proud of success and be embarrassed by failures and this extends to the business sector.
How to survive the second half
- Complete the match, do not flee due to adverse performance in the first half.
- Bruised, beaten, angry—seek half time expertise. Those who have played the match before—seasoned coaches. They will assist to point areas of weakness and strengths. They will analyse the industry too and other contributing factors. Together you will come up with a plan that also involves working on your deflated ego.
- Draft a second half business plan: Chances of your first business plan failing are more than 90% especially for first timers. Yes its well researched, Yes the same business plan has worked perfectly well for others but that business plan is bound to fail in spectacular fashion too.
- It’s a team sport: Serena Williams only has a team of experts behind her but she performs on the tennis court alone against competitors. Entrepreneurship is a team effort and not golf, boxing, motorsport or chess. You need a team for various roles (Financial Management, Strategic Management, Marketing, Risk Management, Business Management and more)
- The founder can have the passion to succeed but recruiting a competent team that shares the same vision is an almost impossible task in the Zimbabwean context. Refer to those who have operated kombis where in most cases the drivers and assistants have their own selfish objectives. How do you recruit and work with a team that is interested in starting their own businesses using your resources? Your business plan is not going to adequately cover this agency problem—you will have to experience it to appreciate the complexities. The biggest risk is seasoned employees working for a first timer!
- Don’t invest 100% capital in the first half instead craft your business plan such that its creates more cashflows for reinvestment and therefore adding up to your initial targeted capital. Do not invest too much when you entrepreneurship resume is at zero. This is akin to a coach using all substitute players in the first half.
- Success is anchored on experience (80% negative) and (20% positive). You know where you have lost money and how and you avoid making similar mistakes. You now know of events that lead to a statutory instrument being formulated and introduced. You know the type of employees to avoid, your own weaknesses and strengths too.
How about people who are employed and they resign or are retrenched and enter the entrepreneurship sector? You may have been a CEO or Director with a lot of perks and associated prestige and society expects you to continue living at the same level. You cannot all of a sudden be seen getting your hands dirty working at Siyaso.
Unfortunately entrepreneurship starts from the bottom, if you are entering the mealie meal production then you need experience of being a mugaisi. If you own trucks, then you need to sometimes drive the trucks. Starting a soap making business? Then you need to know how to make the soaps yourself. Because of self esteem, employed professionals just want to transfer their positions to the entrepreneurship sector with disastrous consequences.
Once those below you know that the founder knows very little about the nitty gritties, then they will craft strategies to start their own companies within your company.
So get experience—negative and positive and win the match in the second half.
