Success in business startup a marathon not a one-off sprint

A lot of patience and persistence is needed to achieve business goals in an enterprise’s early stages. FILE 

By Canute Waswa

In Summary

• First-time entrepreneurs have great expectations for New Year but a mixed bag of fortunes beckons.

According to the latest survey by Infotrak, 51 per cent of Kenyans are either planning to start a business, change their jobs or get a job. That means that one in two Kenyans is seriously thinking up something genuinely new and sellable-whether it is a good, service or simply their skills and knowledge.

These are the people I would like to address today.

I will start with the bad news. You are almost certainly destined to fail. Getting a company or any initiative for that matter, off the ground takes a lot longer than most people think. Some of you will get lucky. Success is the result of careful planning and consistent investing.

During that time, mistakes will be made. Winning doesn’t require perfection. But it does require consistency. Success in business and life is a marathon, not a sprint.

In a sprint, you run as fast as you can for the entire race. A sprint is short enough that you can practice the full length over and over. A marathon is different. After all, legend has it that the first guy who ran one died.

Theory vs Practice

In theory there is no difference between the theory and practice of starting anything. But I assure you, in practice there is

.

You have probably theorised about your business the whole of last year. Typically this takes the form of making all kinds of assumptions. How much will the market return?

What will inflation be in 2014? What percentage of your income will you need initially? While these are important considerations, what actually happens in the market may vary significantly from theory. Be ready.

Sometimes things will move really slowly, while other times they will move really fast. There will be moments in which you will really enjoy what you are doing and then there will be moments where you aren’t too pleased.

And to make things even worse, sometimes things will look really good, but just around the corner will be something that will make you want to double up and cry. Sadly, you probably won’t know what to do other than to cry.

The key is to make sure you control those things that you can. You can control your investing costs, asset allocation and how much you save. Just seek to accept the things you cannot change, and do your best to change the things you can.

You have probably been told that you will get to be your own boss and set your own hours. Let me burst your bubble — It is very inaccurate.

When you work at a 9 to 5 job all you have to do is work from 9 to 5. When you have your own business you usually end up working 10 to 14-hour days and in many cases seven days a week. And
even after you start making money, things don’t always change.

Running in itself is not complicated. You just put one step after the next. But just because something is simple, however, doesn’t make it easy.