Business: Expectation vs Reality

Business: Expectation vs Reality is a delve to debunk some myths related to starting and building your venture from ground up.

Everyone wants to do business.

In whatever form, no matter how small, doing business is an essential part of any company. Business is something many individuals look forward to doing. The failing global economy has made many people flood the business landscape finding one thing or the other they can offer as a service and be paid for doing it.

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Expectations

It is common expectation that once you determine the right products to sell, the customers you want to sell it to, the right pricing for the product/service in your Business that the customers will come and your business will be in to grow

Reality

Not every Business that SEEMS to have everything figured out will succeed.

There is need to prepare for uncertainties in the course of doing business. These preparation ensures that even if a considerable number of pieces fall out of place, there is still a good chance the business will survive.

There is such index as Ease of doing business in a particular territory, this index measures how easy it is to do business in the country and can provide insight into how to tackle the different aspects affecting doing business.

Things are not always so there seems to be several there are always several other pieces that need to be put in place because you can have a successful business.

5 common Expectation vs Reality scenarios

One

Expectation: My Idea will hit the world by a storm

Reality: You will find may ideas like your own.
Finding many ideas like your own lends credence to the validity of your idea and should not in any way be the reason why the idea should be discarded.

Two

Expectation: I will be my own Boss and have all the time to myself

Reality: Truth is starting your venture will not give you this freeom, at least not t the start, and possibly not forever.

You will typically work harder than anyone employee in a 9-5 as all the responsibility is on you to keep the business going and avoid any hiccup.

Three

Expectation: I’ll get grants and VC funding

Reality: Not every startup will have access to these labelled ‘free capital’ to grow their business. Some startups that eventually had access to these funds had to start on some bootstrapped pedestal in order to reach their goal.

Bootstrapping your startup is definitely worth considering as you build your startup.

Four

Expectation: I can go on my own,

Reality: Every entrepreneur has this need to do a lot of things on their own however in the course of things, there has to be a little of delegation here and there to allow you play to your strength and become exceptionally productive.

Five

Expectation: I had the idea, I should be the only founder

Reality: “A startup should be able to get to $10,000 in revenue without having to hire anybody”. Anybody you have to bring on board will typically have to be your cofounder rather than your employer.

This helps you stay sane as you burn through cash in the early days of your startup.

Reconciling Expectations and Reality

How do you ensure that those pieces on your drawing board don’t fall off when you begin implementation.?

In Engineering, when designing structures, machines or even simple hand tools there is a term called the factor of safety. The factor of safety is built into any product, machine or equipment to ensure that that particular product or machine can withstand situations beyond which it was designed for. Tjis simple provision helps to ensure that in the use of that product there never comes a time when expectation supercedes reality and the product be found wanting.

In running a business this has to always be the case, the processes that form the backbone of businesses have to be strong enough to withstand any unfavourable policy, uncertainties and changes in pre-determined variables such as capital, working hours

Run your business in Reality with well thought expectations!