Starting small not an obstacle to success if you have a big vision

Before I became an entrepreneur, I studied several small businesses and keenly analysed key attributes of their owners and founders. While interviewing few entrepreneurs whose business I admired, I learnt one lesson which has proved to be useful in my life.

I learnt that what they are today is not how they started. When starting a business it is easy to look at people who are already successful in business and try to do what they are doing in order to get the same results. This is called reverse engineering.

But whereas it is important to learn from others especially those in the in same industry in order to gain from their experiences and accelerate your own learning curve, there are limits.

It is extremely critical to know that most of the strategies successful business people are using today is not the same ones they were using when they started the entrepreneurial journey.

Take the example of Jane, a model entrepreneur. She has a nice office, two shops, nine employees, and a well structured company with a logo and a nice website.

Jane goes to China once every two months to bring in electronic and computer accessories. She has two vans financed by a local bank which she uses to distribute her goods to customers in major towns.

Now, looking at how Jane is running her business and trying to do the same or benchmark yourself against her is bound to backfire and cost you a lot. When Jane started, she did not have an office, she operated from the house while working.

Initially she did not have an incorporated company; she just registered her business name. She did not have even a single employee; she worked alone; she did not start by importing her products; she started by buying from the importers and selling at a small margin. She did not have a car or access to bank financing; no bank would trust her with money.

The list is long but the point here is what is optimal requirements for the business you admire or envisage is not necessarily needed for you to get started.

To get started you don’t need a big office or premises, a distribution van, bank loans or team employees. All you need is a viable idea and a burning passion to pursue it through thick and thin.

Quite often I meet people who tell me they are planning to start a business as soon as they put few things right. These include first incorporating a company, getting good premises, buying a van and sourcing enough money to go to China or Turkey to bring in goods.

My advice is always the same — start small with what you have and from where you are. Most big companies started small without any or just few employees.

One of the key advantages of starting small is that you get to learn more about the business as you grow. This means that should you make mistakes, and this is very common with start ups, the mistake will be less costly and recovery fast.

I often say that entrepreneurship is a discipline you cannot be taught; you can only learn. And the only way to learn is to venture into it. Regardless of how much book knowledge you have accumulated, real learning takes place in the marketplace where customers are the examiners.

There is no better way to learn than to start right away in your own small way using the little resources you have and gain experience as you grow.

Mr Kiunga is a business trainer and the author of The Entrepreneurial Journey: From Employment to Business

[email protected].