Building Your Biz

8/9/2019 Building Your Biz

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Building a Businessby Leke Alder

Genevieve and a figment of imagination

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs

01.03.2008





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Take a few

minutes to lookthrough the list.

Which of these do

you think you

identify with?

Butterfly

Ant

Cheetah

Bee

Owl

Snake

Frog

Lizard

Eagle

Dragon



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Butterfly Metamorphic and transformative

Ant Group minded, patient, active and industrious

Cheetah Swift, insightful and focused

Bee Organized, industrious, productive, wise, social,

celebratory and enthusiastic about life

Owl Deceptive, clairvoyant, insightful, informative, detached,

wise, changeable and silent



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Snake Impulsive, shrewd, transformative, healing, and

energetic

Frog Cleansing, transformative, undiscernibly beautifuland powerful

Lizard Conservational and visionary

Eagle Sacrificing, intelligent, courageous, spiritually

illuminated and daring

Dragon Enduring, infinite, wise, powerful and fiery



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While you may or may not have actually

identified with some of the qualities of

these creatures, you were just compelled

to make a self-assessment; you had to

contemplate who you are as individuals—

your essence.

Likewise, we shall today be looking at

certain fundamentals that define you as a

business.



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Let’s begin



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Construction area:

hard hat required



A typical

construction

process



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Building up your business cansometimes seem as intricate

and mindbending as the

process of building askyscraper all by yourself.



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To build a skycraper, you need

to design the tower, factor in

wind pressure, calculateregulatory requirements,

estimate construction and

financing costs, coordinate a

host of subcontractors, calculate

rents…and these are just the

straight-forward considerations.



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In much the same way, the

process of building your

business could seem to be

plagued with questions and

unknowns.

?

?



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nHow do I get competent staff?

nHow do I finance my desires and vision?

nHow do I balance growth and profitability?

nWill I ever have a chance to reward myself?

nHow do I acquire assets?

nHow do I gain access to capital?

nHow do I manage the risk associated with

getting capital?

nWhere DO I get an orange mouse for my PC?



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As with building a skyscraper,

building your business is as much

a science as it is an art and

requires a well-defined and

systematic approach.

This will determine whether your

business can withstand the wind

or if it will topple over with the

slightest breeze.



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There are therefore

certain fundamentals you

must understand, the first

of which is your situation

and resources—and I

don’t just mean money.



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2 types

of entrepreneur





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1. Credibility-enabled entrepreneur (CEE)

Imagine your bank CEO who decides

to start a business. He has credibility

and therefore access to financing;

investors want to invest in his ideas

because he has a proven track

record of resource management.

He therefore loses little sleep over filling out

a loan facility form.







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This model assumes perfect cash

flow/income growth from business

start-up.

Such cash flow would therefore

result in a loan pay-off of, say N30

million in 12 months.



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2. Credibility-deficient entrepreneur (CDE)

Most of us will fall into this category.

There is no MD status.

There is no inheritance or wealthy parent.

There are few, if any, connections.

We may, therefore, already have insomnia.



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For your credibility-deficient

entrepreneur, the CEE model is

highly unrealistic and unattainable.

Yet most young businesses

assume this virtually impossiblemodel.



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There is therefore an obvious

disconnect between the reality of

getting capital and the demand for it.

The CDE sees capital as his Achilles’

heel—a fatal weakness in spite of

overall strength—because the CDEbusiness model is different from the

CEE model:





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Here, there is a period of negative

growth during start-up, i.e., a

period of financial, spiritual,

physical and emotional loss.

When confronted with the reality

of growing a business, mostentrepreneurs either become

overwhelmed and give up or try

to rush growth.







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You must develop patience,

dedication and endurance

to reach a point wherelosses ebb and profits

begin to flow—the break-

even point:







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The building process



The processes of building a business is



The processes of building a business is

undergirded by 5 principles:





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To accomplish great things we

must not only act but also

dream, not only plan but also

believe -Anatole France



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In building your business, you

must also know who you are as

a business and what you aim to

achieve.

You must be able to define

yourself.



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Corporateessence



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It is the fundamental reason

for existence beyond just

making profits



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Examples of

corporate essence



Corporate essenceLow prices

Corporate essenceContest between

intelligence and

ignorance

Corporate essenceRebellion and adventure.

Quality at lower prices

Corporate essencePoetry in product design



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The need forcorporate essence



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Within your value chain lies your value

proposition. It is the reason customers

come to you. It determines vision, product

development and culture.

Corporate essence is quite distinct from

business focus; it qualifies business focusand creates brand distinction. It becomes

an efficient income generator that reduces

marketing costs.



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Phase II: CostingBill of quantities



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Opportunity follows

struggle. It follows effort.It follows hard work. It

doesn't come before.- Shelby Steele



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There are 2 types of costing

involved in growing a

business:

nQuantitative costing

nQualitative costing



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Quantitative costing

Your business plan model

encapsulates all theconsiderations of quantitative

costing—administration,

staffing, financing, premises,etc.



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Your business plan will require you to

make an assessment of your customer

base in monetary terms:

n Who am I targeting?

n Why should he/she pay for

what I offer?n How much can I command for

one unit of product?



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Qualitative costing

Building a business will also take a toll on the

entrepreneur in many non-palpable ways:

n Emotional

n Will

n Societal

n Anxiety

n Insanity

n Faith

It is in costing out your business both quantitatively



and qualitatively that you are able to arrive at a

realistic assessment of yourself in terms of your:



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In addition to a self-assessment, you must alsoconduct an assessment of your idea:

How commercially viable is your idea?

What is the value of being able to eat really fast

unless you can do it on your own TV show thatensures high advertising revenue returns? In

other words, your idea must be able to find

itself into the pocket of the consumer.



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Your idea must be commercially viable

Innovation without functional value is simply

perspiration.

Perspiration without viability is spelt

F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N.



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Consider the following productinnovation that became a dud:

Crystal PepsiA colourless, caffeine-free soft

drink developed by PepsiCo,

the albino imitation of Pepsi-Cola with a lime twist failed for

one fundamental reason: it

tasted like any other soda.

From these examples, the following commercial



viability model becomes clear:

These 5 qualities will help determine your cost



model:





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Once you can make this

assessment, you are

ready to proceed to thenext stage of building

your business.



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Phase III: ConstructionDesign conversion



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The journey of a

thousand leagues begins

with a single step- Adlai E. Stevenson







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1. Brand

fundamentals



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Our lives are

determined by our

aspirations



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Brand fundamentals

n

Vision

nMission

n Values



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Vision statement

An articulate expression of a desired

tomorrow.

It is linked to the company’s own

goals, desires and dreams.



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Vision needs faith and

dedication to come to fruition.

Faith is an irrational belief in theimpossible.

You must have faith to succeed.



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Nike

Crush Adidas!

NokiaTo be among the top

2 companies in its chosen areas

Examples





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MicrosoftWorking to help people

and businesses throughout

the world realize their fullpotential.

GoogleTo make the world's

information universally

accessible and useful



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Values

The core principles the

company holds dear andthat undergird its culture

and belief system.



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Virgin

n Energy

n Irreverencen Fun

GEnHonesty

n Integrity









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3. Human

resources



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It is advisable forHR/staff to have

these HR attributes:



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4. Capital/finance model



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You must assess what sourcesof finance are available to you:

n Personal resourcesn Family and friends

n Short-term loans

nLong-term loans

n Private equity

nNGOs, micro-finance institutions



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You must also developforecasts for:

nCapital expendituren Revenue

nCash flow/income

nDebt service

n Investments



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5. Systems





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6. CEO



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This is perhaps one of the more vital

components of the construction phase and

involves the development of the traits that

define a Chief Executive Officer:





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Phase IV: EvaluationThe brand



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The man who just wants to makemoney is not really concerned about a

business structure. He’s not concerned

about creating an enduring institution,or a strong brand...The man who wants

to build a business, on the other hand,

has scruples and is particular about his

name.

Minding Your Business

The brand is the 5th economic discipline. In

approaching brand definition, you must distinguish

between:



between:



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Phase V: MaintenanceKeeping your business

alive



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This 5th stage is crucial to staying

relevant as a business.

In order to maintain your business

and good customer relations, you

require a number of keyfundamentals:





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Once you have imbibed thesefundamentals, and once your

business begins rendering

services to the public, you mustinitiate the last form of

assessment that will create your

product—feedback.

There can be no product without

feedback.



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Conclusion



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In conclusion, building yourbusiness can be a scary

proposition. However, it is not

an insurmountable feat.

By understanding the art and

science of building a

business, the vast

possibilities of your business

can be realised.



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A systematic approach to

assessing your resources and

strengths is important.

More important, however, is the

vision you nurture, your faith in

your success, and your

dedication to getting to where

you want to go.



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Always bear in mind thatyour own resolution to

succeed is moreimportant than any other

one thing- Abraham Lincoln



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Thank you!



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Q & A



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Our website:

www.alder-consulting.com

For information on this presentation:

[email protected]

08050515791

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.alder-consulting.com/



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About Alder



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Alder is an ideas, strategy and brand consultingfirm. Our competences are in the following areas:

Alder Group





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