Do this before starting your business.
If you are thinking or exploring the idea of starting your own business, then this article is for you. Perhaps you find yourself in a place where you consider leaving your full-time job. Perhaps you are in a very dark place right now and looking for a way out. There are numerous reasons why you consider starting a business, but this article can certainly help you consider things from a different perspective.
In 2024 I took a decision to leave my full-time job to go into business full-time. My reason for going into business full-time was based on a calling to purpose. This was to help South Africans in need to start their own businesses, because our country suffers a lot from people living in poverty. The decision to leave full-time employment without certain income is viewed as high-risk, which was a price I was willing to pay. I have never done it before and have suffered great losses along the way. Reflecting on this journey, I made many mistakes that could've been avoided. This is the learnings that I want to pass on to you.
1. KYC - Know your customer
It's very important that you know what you are going to sell and who you will sell it to. I changed my website and service offering so many times that I lost count, because it was reactionary based on desperation to make sales without making contact with customers. In the past 18 months I have learned that people who have money will pay for needs, wants, knowledge and time especially when they lack it.
The focus should therefore be on looking for opportunities where people lack something and supply the lack. A customer is not going to pay for accounting software if they don't need it. They won't pay for fruit and vegetables if they have it. It is about identifying the lack first and sell based on that.
2. Don't start a business
This sounds very counter-argumentative, but it's not. I made the mistake of creating and registering companies even before there were any sales or products. I went as far to open bank accounts, create systems that can automate the flow of the transactions and run the business in my absence. I did a lot of work preparing for sales but made no sales.
This impacted me and my family financially because of silly decisions I made. The onus should therefore be to just identify where the lack is and who is lacking. Go forth and supply the customers lacking with what you have, even if it is 40% ready. First make money and once it starts rolling in, can you focus on building systems around it.
3.Validate your ideas by selling first, not building first
I wasted so much time, effort and money on creating products that customers never asked for throughout this time. Unfortunately, it leads to desperation especially when your money starts to run out. It's one thing to read this in books but not applying it in practice is reflective of how stubborn I was. People have written books about the mistakes they made in business, but people like me just don't listen.
The approach should therefore be that whenever you see an opportunity to sell something, just go sell it even if you don't have it. Even if it is not perfect, still sell it. You need to decide how many times somebody saying no to your offer is indicative that it's time to move on to something else.
4. Don't use your own money
When you leave your full-time job, you must remember that you are sacrificing future income streams that were just requiring you to pitch up and do your job. This income must then be supplemented with something else. The worst thing that you can do is use your own money and invest it in your business. My belief that money was going to roll in was based on ideal world scenarios, which is why I invested my own money.
However, the real world is far from the ideal world. When you are no longer working for a salary, you are not poor. You are still rich, because now you have time in abundance as well as knowledge. Use this to make some cash. You know something that others don't and they are willing to pay for it. It is just about exploring the opportunities on offer, because you have the time to take advantage of something that people working full-time can't really do. The mistake I made was investing my own money into the business, without appreciating that I needed to make sales.
It goes with the earlier point, in that if it doesn't sell then it isn't worth it. Taking from my own money took from money that could've been used to pay for groceries, school fees and other things. The businesses I created didn't generate the required return on investment. Therefore, one must first generate the cash before you can say this is a sure thing.
5. Don't make emotional decisions
I can be very stubborn at times. There are upsides and downsides to it. I let emotion get in the way of being methodical and objective, which led to avoidable mistakes. I am driven by wanting to help fellow South Africans be who they are meant to be, but this cannot come at a cost detrimental to you or your family. It is very important to shield yourself and your loved ones from loss.
You can still help others, but you need to make money first. You cannot do it from a platform where you have no money, no should you be using your own money to do so. If you have lots of money and can afford to help others which is not detrimental to you or your family, then you are in the right place. Otherwise, focus on working to get to that ideal world scenario first. Provision requires a platform of abundance, and you cannot pour from an empty cup.
I made the decision to leave full-time employment because I didn't want to run a business and work full-time. It wasn't necessarily an emotional decision, but it wasn't a smart one either. I made avoidable mistakes with most of them based on emotion. It cost me dearly and the money lost now has to be recouped another way. I can't get the time back that I spent, because that is now sunk cost. What you can do is learn from my avoidable mistakes, not make them with open eyes.
6. Leverage what you have
I made the mistake of learning a lot of skills first before I wanted to build a product. I learn coding, microsoft power platform, read business books and filled myself with knowledge. The truth is that I have experience of working so many jobs in the past, having dealt with customers already. The jobs I had in retail, digital marketing, financial services, engineering, education and ICT sector gave me valuable experience.
We make the mistake of thinking that we can't speak to people, but we neglect the experience we gained from past jobs. Don't be fooled into thinking you can't make sales. You made sales when you were working and you did it with skills and time. You're doing sales when you apply for a job and landing it, that is sales experience.
When you deal with customers on behalf of your employer over the phone, that is sales experience. You really need to think about all the experience over the years and the longer you worked, the better prepared you are for the moment of starting your own thing. Leverage this experience that you have, because you have the power to build ideal world. If you don't have leverage, it makes you desperate when it comes to the sales process. You don't want to be desperate when making sales, you want to lean on leverage.
7. You already have money
You are not starting out with nothing, you are starting out with money. You have time, which is God's money that He gives you every day. You have knowledge, which you gained over the years from working various jobs. You have the energy and willpower to do something amazing for someone. You have creativity to build habits and systems that makes you stand out.
This is what makes you rich. People will pay for what you know as well as your time, because there are many that lacks it. This is the only startup capital you need to start a business, nothing else. Alongside having a purpose, which is to sell something to someone, then you are good to go for the business world.
When you start out in business, it starts as a hustle from the ground up but is effectively a startup. Hustling is when you have a lot of money generating activities but not really planning to build something sustainable and tangible. Business is starting something from the ground up that is making money by supplying goods and/or services for customers in a focused manner.
I made a lot of mistakes during business, but I have learned so much from it. Business is not hard, but there are principles that you have to follow. I didn't follow them, which resulted in the avoidable losses I experienced over time. The learnings I gained is far more valuable than the money I would have made by now, because now I can say I have validated learning to share with you.
If I had to start over I would go into business leaving full-time employment again, but would apply the principles of this article because it is practical. There are more principles that can be mentioned which you can apply, but it comes down to taking a simple approach. I complicated things for myself, but you don't have to. Keep it simple for you and your customer.
I wrote a book which I believe can help South Africans wanting to start their own business, which is available below. I hope and trust that these learnings will help you. You don't have to stick by them, but don't be as stubborn as I was. I am sure you can do better, just be smarter. God bless.
