Having said that, as we kick off Global Entrepreneurship Week, I thought I would share some behaviours we at FNB Business have observed in successful entrepreneurs... so here goes!
A business plan also means sizing the opportunity and converting this into realistic revenue and profit – is this opportunity realistically going to generate enough profit based on the capital and effort I am putting into the business? How much money do I need to make this idea reach scale and where will I get this money from?
You need realistic expectations of debt vs equity funding and understand the difference. Commercial banks do not fund early stage start-ups – this is outside their mandates as this funding represents equity risk in most cases and commercial banks have senior debt mandates. There are many other sources of funding out there for e.g. FNB’s Vumela Enterprise Development Fund which has raised around R400m in funding.
Do your homework around the funding landscape. Understand your route to market properly – is this an app-based solution? How do customers want to interact with my business? Can I differentiate myself through a channel? What is the most cost effective and customer friendly way for me to offer this product or service? Write down your merchandising plan including pricing; route to market; how you going to promote sales (the value offering) and where you going to sell the product (key 4Ps of marketing). If your business is app based you can’t effectively launch this via print media...get professional advice on a marketing plan. It will be money well spent!
I believe writing things down and checking your thinking is a great discipline – find the time to reflect on these points
I have a world of respect for all entrepreneurs – after all you are the future of our amazing country.