Building a profitable business in Uganda and anywhere in the world is not easy at all. The road to success is always full of ups and downs. Uganda, according to Charles Ocici – the Executive Director of Enterprise Uganda, tops all the countries with the highest rate of failing businesses.
Surprisingly, Uganda is among the highly entrepreneurial countries in the world. Worldwide, Uganda rates high in terms of enterprise creation. This is not small. But why do Ugandan fail to build profitable businesses?
Some business experts say that lack of research on enterprises and market is the major cause of the downfall of Ugandan businesses. No research on niche discovery and products. No research on the target market.
While many families in Uganda do business and they even boom, they don’t last long because of lack of research. In other words, to build a profitable business, carrying out research before and after starting your business is so crucial.
However, building a profitable business does not only depend on research. It depends on several other factors. You could be having a well-researched business idea, but if you lack discipline, good personal branding, knowledge, good values and much more, you may still not succeed.
Success-conscious people have known in life a few things, which actually make them build successful businesses. Through this post, let me share with you great ideas that have enabled a few people to sustain their businesses profitably over a long time.
One day, I was conversing with a colleague of mine, who has actually made his fortune from a real estate business. He narrated to me how he started his journey to building a profitable business, the obstacles to business success, the lessons he learnt and his future plans.
I really saw a simple man in body but a great man in mind. It’s not easy to find such visionary people and if you can have two or three of them around you, you can count yourself among the lucky persons.
This colleague of mine hinted on 5 important ideas that helped him to become a very rich man and I got convinced that the same ideas can be of great importance to others. This is the reason why I chose to share them with you through this article.
5 Key Ingredients to Building a Profitable Business
#1 – Success takes time
Building a profitable business takes time because it takes long to grow a business to the level you want. You have to work hard and determinedly long to make money in business. You have to take action every day, every week, every month and every year.
Years can pass by before you begin to see some good money coming in from your business. Yes, good money starts coming after building a strong foundation for your business. If you persistently work on your business and remain focused, you begin to see some good results.
Rome was not built in one day. Similarly, it takes years for one to study before he or she begins to work and to get some income. People, who have gone through formal education, are my witnesses. The same principle applies even to business.
#2 – Be knowledgeable about your business
Knowledge is power, so goes the saying. It’s therefore so important to educate yourself about the type of business you want to undertake before starting it. Why? Because it’s very risky to venture into business on which you have limited knowledge. Even after starting it, you have to keep renewing yourself with new knowledge and skills.
However, a good number of people rush into businesses they have not fully understood. They just hear that a particular business is lucrative and they jump into it. That’s a wrong and disastrous approach to business. You have to do some research to establish the facts.
Carry out research and read continuously to build your capacity. It helps you to learn new ways of doing business and to anticipate changes in people’s tastes and preferences, desires and needs. Besides, it enables you to keep yourself up-to-date and to achieve your goals.
#3 – Happy relationships lead to business success.
This sounds strange, but it’s a reality. Having a stable family and a trusting relationship with people is a key to building a profitable business.
No man is an island. And some people say that where there is a successful man, there is a woman behind that success. Business success also depends largely on the trusting relationships you have with the people around you and those who do business with you. If you are disorganized at home and in the way you relate with your customers and other people, you cannot build a profitable business.
#4 – Credibility leads to success in business.
Be honest and trustworthy in your dealings with your customers. If you cannot pass the test of credibility, then you are just wasting your time and you will never build a profitable business. Trust protects you and it has actually protected most successful business people.
The colleague of mine mainly deals in real estate whereby he buys land, puts social services in place and sells it. Of course there are many other established property dealers in the marketplace. But because he has built a strong credibility, people feel confident and comfortable doing business with him.
Do you see what trust can do for you? How trustful are you to your targeted customers? Do they feel you are trustworthy enough? Secondly, do you exhibit it in your actions?
#5 – Understand that obstacles are part of life.
As you walk your way to building a profitable business, you will inevitably come across so many challenges, risks, failures and roadblocks. But if you want to succeed in your business, you should never allow those obstacles to derail you from achieving your goals. Remain focused and determined.
A temporary defeat should never make you pull out of business. When you pull out, it becomes a sure way to failure. How about the time, the energy and the money you have invested in business, aren’t you going to lose them?
Conclusion
When my colleague finally went through the above five contributing factors to his business success, he left me contemplating over the future of my business. I reflected on how I could apply the same ideas to grow my small business.
Eventually, I also realized that I needed to continue rubbing shoulders with successful people like him. It’s good to bring closer such people, who have made their way through. They add a lot of value to your life and their ideas, knowledge and experiences can help you to build a profitable business.
This story first appeared on Goleza Designers Ltd website.