Business & Strategic Development

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine. You will not have to sit or be in one place. You will move out and get yourself busy doing something meaningful. Many who are successful in business today were simply those who got tired of failure. Until you get tire of failure you can never succeed. To succeed in business you will have to know your worth and know your product. Be willing to experience a season of pain to create a future of gain. Not everyone will celebrate you. Not everyone will welcome your future. Someone needs what you have. Your contribution is an absolute necessity for their success.

Take an inventory of yourself. Do you have something to offer someone? What do you enjoy doing? What would you attempt to do if you knew it was impossible to fail? Your success in business depends on your willingness to help someone solve their problem. Successful business people are simply problem solvers. You have to be a problem solver. You will need to have something others need.

In planning and starting a business, you need to first have an idea and this is important. It might be a product you’ve always wanted to make, or a service you feel people need. It might even be something people don’t know they need yet, because it hasn’t been invented! It can be helpful to have people who are bright and creative join you for a casual brainstorming session. Start with a simple question like: “what shall we build?” The idea is not to create a business plan, but about generating some ideas. Many of the ideas will be duds, and there will be quite a few ordinary ones, but a few will emerge that have real potential.

To get involve in business you must first get to know and understand who you are. Know and understand yourself; for it is in knowing and understanding yourself that you will get to know your customers. Ask for guidance and direction as well as seek useful information. Information is everywhere. Go out and seek the information you need. Do a thorough research of the business you want to be involved into. There are many who have allowed their emotions to dictate the kind of business they want to do. Understand it is not about your emotion or feelings, but rather it is about having a thorough understanding of the kind of business you want to do as well as doing a good research. You surely will fail in business if you allow your emotions or feelings to dictate the kind of business you want to do.

Understand that the most important task within the management of your business is that of understanding the needs and wants of your customers and potential customers and adopting your business to deliver the right goods and services more effectively and efficiently than your competitors. You will need to understand what the customer needs and at the same time, your business operational procedure must be designed in such a way that this can be easily met.

To become a successful businessman or businesswoman you must understand timing. There is a right time to approach people. There is a time to ask and there is time to be silent. There is a time to make presentations to people. There is a time to wait. People are in different seasons of their lives. Moods change. Circumstances affect their decision. Be sensitive to this. Your success in life or business depends on timing. Don’t forget it! Whether you are selling to a customer or sitting at the discussion table with your boss, remain sensitive. Observe. Watch. Listen to the flow of information and what is going on.

You will have to believe in the business you are doing. You will never succeed in any business unless you really believe in that business. You must believe in the product you are promoting. You must also have product knowledge. You must take the time and make the effort to know your product. It may be boring or even seem unnecessary. You may be anxious to sell your products, pocket the profit, and get on with life. But those who have become successful in Business did not do it that way. They spent a considerable amount of time cultivating an awareness of their business.

Don’t expect to succeed unless you are thoroughly informed about your product. Spent a considerable amount of time cultivating an awareness of your business and spent time each day as an investment in becoming informed. Use your product. Stop getting yourself busy trying to “make money” that you really have not developed a powerful understanding and confidence in what you are doing. Information breeds’ confidence.

Put on a new perspective. See things differently from others. Change your methods-your ways of doing things. The government will not do it for you. Your friends or family members will not do it for you either. You will have to do it yourself. Open your eyes today and look around and you will see endless opportunities available here in this Country. Take a keen look at the aliens and foreigners in this country and you will believe me about the opportunities that are available here in this country. Stop blaming your friends, family members or the government. They will not do it all for you. About 95 percent of your success depends on you. This has to do with your ideas, time, energy and work.

Believe that you can succeed in business in Liberia in the face of tradition, a bad economy and lack of money. Let your vision be different from others. Know that your purpose for going into business is to succeed and make profits and not the opposite. Put on a different attitude. Think differently. Do not allow the economy, the lack of money or traditional views of business to stop you.

(Chealy Brown Dennis is a marketing and business development consultant. He is also a much sought after motivational speaker and offers training in leadership, creative sales and marketing, strategic planning and team building. He also offers on-location and train-the-trainer formats for leaders, managers, businesses and organizations. He can be contacted through email at: dennisbc2011@yahoo.com or on phone at: 0886-264-611 or 0776545394)