Success or failure of business startups depends on how effectively the business owner implements his vision and systems before seeking help from consultants and employees. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
If you employ incompetent or people out to hung as they look for a better job, you court trouble.
A certain lady who wanted to start a business while working asked a business guru, "What exactly does the owner of business do to ensure success of an enterprise?"
The guru replied, “The business owner does only three things. First, they set the overall vision and strategy of the business and communicate it to all stakeholders. Second, they recruit, hire, and retain the very best talent for the business. And finally they make sure there is always enough cash in the bank.”
The lady seemed not satisfied with the answer. She wanted to hear something to do with delegation. For she wanted to get tips on how to delegate operations of her business to an able manager and keep her job until an opportune time.
“Where does delegation come in?” she asked the guru. “Well, that comes only after you have performed the first three roles personally and effectively,” the expert said.
The business guru added that all business problems can be traced to a weakness in at least one of these three key functions of a business owner. In essence, nothing else will work optimally in a business if the manager fails in any of the three main roles.
Any startup business requires the touch and fine tuning of the owner before other people can step in to further his or her cause. Many start-up entrepreneurs make the common and costly mistake of delegating the operation of a venture too soon even before their vision and systems are established.
Setting the overall vision of the business is primarily your role as a business owner. You must decide which business you want to start, what you want to achieve and communicate it well to stakeholders so that they can support you.
Some people with high business ambitions go to consultants expecting miracles. They expect a total solution comprising of exactly the kind of business to start, how to start and grow it. This does not work in practice.
The role of a business expert is to help you refine your already defined goal. The consultant will guide on how to reach where you have chosen to go but not decide for you where to go.
The second function is also very important. To actualise your vision, mission and core objectives, you need a strong team of competent and dedicated staff. The people you employ are vital for the take off and growth.
If you employ incompetent or people out to hung as they look for a better job, you court trouble. Look for people who are trainable, are passionate and ready to grow with you.
The rise and fall of any business largely depends on the quality of staff hired and retained by the business owner. For example, the success and outcome of a school, hospital, or a restaurant does not depend on the buildings, assets, or even the owner. It depends solely on the quality of employees, who execute the owner’s vision and strategy.
Finally, cash is to a business what oxygen is to a human being. You need enough of it and in continuously orderly flow to function well.
Even if you have the best business plan and you have hired the best employees, you need enough cash to empower and facilitate them to execute your strategy. Employees get frustrated when they are expected to perform but have no resources. Undercapitalisation and cash flow problems are the major killers of good ventures.
Once you have effectively done these key functions, you can delegate, appoint board of directors, managers or simply call yourself chairman and watch your business grow.
Mr Kiunga is the author of The Art of Entrepreneurship: Strategies to Succeed in a Competitive Market.
