Back in the day, when you were still naïve in business management, you may have thought that having a capital in the business is enough. After all, monetary support is crucial in financing your business endeavors. But, you’ve thought wrong.
Or when you were still in college, you may have thought that having enough capital was all you needed to put up a food cart business. Unfortunately, due to lack of experience and knowledge, it didn’t grow the way you expected it to be. You’ve incurred debts and might have starting selling your stuff at pawnshops for fast cash needs. Sadly, you ended up having a dirty food cart in the backyard.
While it’s true that capital plays a huge role in starting up a business, know that it’s not the only thing you need. Frankly, there’s more than just a capital in business, as you need to do the following:
You need to write a compelling business plan.
When starting up a business, it’s important to come up with great vision, mission, and values you want to instill in your organization. Therefore, you can’t create a half-baked business plan.
Remember, you need a compelling business plan to present to the bank for loan purposes, and of course, for your future business partners or investors. If you’re clueless on what to write or where to start, ask professional help from a lawyer, business guru, or even friends or family members who are knowledgeable in business management. Otherwise, you can find effective resources online.
You need to learn the basic of marketing, both digital and traditional.
In an interesting fact shared by HBR.org, entrepreneurs aged from 25-35, have started up businesses that are valued at more than $1 billion, as opposed to 2008’s entrepreneurs aged 39 and up.
This goes to show that young professionals are more equipped and adapt to the current business and marketing trends. A business guru called them “angel entrepreneurs,” as they take advantage of cloud technology and digital marketing distribution.
Hence, even if you have a lot of capital investments, but little knowledge about digital marketing, which is one of the major business trends this century—your business won’t flourish.
Lastly, you need to communicate and show great leadership skills.
Communication and leadership skills are essential in keeping your business alive. You need people to help you blossom, as without your people, your business will fail.
In fact, studies show that lack of management/leadership skills is the number 1 reason for business failures. Hence, communicate with them properly and show them how to be a great leader.
As a conclusion, keep in mind that capital isn’t enough for your business and that the journey doesn’t stop as soon as you got the investment back. It has to be a long and successful entrepreneurial journey for you and your business partners.
So, aside from the capital, you need to work on the ways mentioned above for your business to flourish.
How about you? Do you agree that capital isn’t enough to make your business flourish?
About the Author
“Carol Soriano is a consultant for PawnHero.ph, the very first online pawnshop in the Philippines. A writer at heart and a social media enthusiast, she finds personal finance, investment and money matters interesting topics to write about.”