Every entrepreneur who starts small hopes to grow his business to a large establishment. Large signifies growth, success. The problem is most either do not know how to push through with that dream, or they are caught up in the small things and lose focus of the larger picture.
Zimbabwe’s richest and most successful entrepreneur Strive Masiyiwa set up a telecommunications company in 1998, just when the mobile telecommunications wave was beginning to sweep through Africa. Econet Wireless has since grown to a global corporate, and is one of the leading companies on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalization and has global operations spanning 15 countries in Africa, Europe, USA, Latin America and Asia- Pacific.
In a three-part Facebook post on his page, he gives his tried and proven tips on how to grow your business from a small concern to even an international conglomerate.
In the first part, Masiyiwa tells of an old man who set up a supermarket in a popular location and would work long hours but his business never grew. Reason? Two of the important business Ps were missing:
- People: He did not hire people with management and leadership skills to run his business.
- Process: He did not invest in the processes that would have allowed him to run multiple locations with lots of time to spare.
The successful entrepreneur who is also the owner of the new pay TV sports channel Kwese TV that is now gaining a foothold in the market with lucrative live broadcast deals, says when you have those two Ps in place you don’t ever need to visit your business premises.
When your business is small, he argues, you obviously must work every day and night to make it a success, with energy and passion, and with a deep desire to make it bigger. If you are currently working towards growing your business with your sight on the big league, keep at it. No matter how small your business is right now, the two Ps (People and Process) plus a third one – Product- will make the difference.
If you’re dreaming of building your business to the big league, Masiyiwa recommends that you ‘get a life’; Your business must also have a life!
It is important to allow your business “to get a life of its own,” separate from yours. It must be a separate living persona with its own needs, separate from yours. Contrary to popular belief, he says, you are not the business and the business is not you!
Imagine you run a cash business like a supermarket and a dear relative comes in with an emergency asking for money. Can you say to that person: I’m sorry I have no money; what I have belongs to the business!
People who run big successful businesses never treat the money of the business as their own. If this surprises you, then you are not yet ready for the big league, he cautions!
He tells of how a friend approached him and asked to borrow him some money. He told him although his business was doing well, he did not have any money himself. “The business is really doing well, but I’m not the business; the two of us are different from each other,” he responded.
Now if you are new to the big business, you will not accept this, but if you went to Bill Gates or Patrice Motsepe they will tell you the same; if you cannot do that, you will never be able to own a truly big business.
Similarly, you cannot take money belonging to the business and build a house for your family or buy a new car. You are only entitled to your salary, which should be fixed and taken only when others get paid. You are also entitled to a small portion of the profit, taken only from Year 4 of successive years of profit. Cap it at 25 per cent, he advises.
Masiyiwa says he has known some brilliant, innovative entrepreneurs who have struggled with allowing their businesses to have separate lives from theirs, yet the entrepreneur who allows the business to have its own life is the one who builds a big business.
By 2000, Masiyiwa’s listed company was worth over USD 100 million. In spite of his wealth, the now respected business leader and international speaker on business and economic issues lived in a middle-income area in the capital Harare. He says Vainona was not the wealthiest suburb by any standard. He did not own a Mercedes Benz either, although he could easily park a fleet of them. Not because he was repulsive to the good life; he was putting his money where his dream was- the big league. He proposes you should do the same too if you want to build a big business for Africa.