Its the nature of the beast…every entrepreneur wants more…more gross revenue and more profit. Most entrepreneurs are like addicts, never satisfied, always working harder, always believing the million dollar order is coming …soon. Always expecting growth and development is on the way.
This is fine. There is no reason not to wish for, believe, and anticipate…more. In fact, it is necessary, as with no vision there are no fulfilled visions. Steve Jobs, developer of Apple, when in his garage building his first computer said to his Dad, “I am going to do billions and change the world.” He has done both.
Had his vision been “I am going to do millions and have a great life,” that would have been the result and someone else would have fulfilled his mission of changing the world.
So the dream, the vision, is critical to the resulting end conclusion. So please dream on…have those visions, they are the fuel that powers the entrepreneur, the dream you hold is the dream that can come true!
So why do so few reach their dreams? Is it because they have not invented the next world changing device? No! Its more a result of not having an effective plan to carry you to your visionary conclusion…In order to get there from here we need far more than a dream. We may need to start with one but to successfully reach same we also need to be experts in the art of doing business.
So, for all of you who want more…and that’s most every business owner, dream on but create a plan, design your organization, have an effective financial plan, create an effective operation, and implement a clear sales and marketing plan.
It is commonly thought that it is inadequate money that prevents success. Money can be like gasoline for the engine, it runs on it, without it even a Ferrari can get no further. So perhaps your plan is brilliant, your vision clear, but you must have enough cash to fuel the rocket or you ain’t going anywhere.
One must solve the dilemma with a capital formation plan, or the rocket will remain grounded. Here is where many part ways with successful thinking and planning. The entrepreneur has three choices:
1. Raise adequate capital by refinancing your home, borrowing from friends and family, getting a bank loan, or selling stock, using credit cards. How ever you do it, solve the problem and then get back to implementing your business plan with a full tank of gas.
2. Change the plan to match the cash flow proforma cash requirements with respect to the amount of cash you have raised. Use what you have to develop your first stage plan and then step it up as revenues increase.
Sometimes accomplishing a smaller first stage sets the tone for acquiring capital for stage two, you are off and running, slower than desired but you are proving the point, that your business plan can and does work, and that your organization works and your product or service has a market. It is a reasonable approach to lower your sights and succeed at whatever level you can afford to support and then take it to the next step…
3. Full steam ahead…damn the torpedoes, so what if we are under-capitalized and cannot create a successful cash flow proforma to plot growth and development? “I will do it anyway, something good will happen, the big order will come through, profit will build, something will happen to help me satisfy the cash requirement and I will reach my vision anyways” they say. “I just do not know what it is, but I believe so off I go”. Very typical, onward through the fog I call it…without a map and without a flashlight but onward and ”I will figure out how to climb over it, around it or through it as I go when I get there”.
Typically this is when the entrepreneur ceases taking a weekly pay check, believing that this is his necessary investment, lives on credit cards until he maxes them out, borrows from family and friends without a prayer as to how he will pay them back, begins missing payrolls and asks people to be patient making Friday’s check good by the next Wednesday when a receivable comes through. He begs suppliers to ship one more load of required materials, then soon defaults on 941 payroll taxes, and eventually fights to keep his phones on.
All to many of us know this cycle. Few ever experience the breakthrough but onward they go, desperately, with full belief that their visions requirements are around the corner and something good will happen to save the day.
Not the preferred plan, but the most frequently encountered plan. It is simply a recipe for personal disaster and business failure, but it is the preferred plan indeed. It’s the one I see most often… damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead, even if we do not have adequate capital to fund the plan.
So what is the best path most likely to support your reaching your goals? Simple: Yes, have a vision. It is crucial to success, but one must also have a plan, a cash flow proforma, a strategy to actually support your reaching your goals.
As important, one must design and organize a business to be profitable, one must review key indicators, financial reports, and other benchmarks to assist in managing the development of the business.
One needs far adequate business knowledge and capabilities to blend with the entrepreneur’s skill in delivering his product or service. Without both, the light will go out.
Yes, it is a wonderful spirit we nurture in this country, were anybody can dream, open a business and succeed…What they do not tell you is you need a plan and business skills. Wanting more is a great energy, getting it requires a simple but necessary process.
Achieving more must be based on a workable balanced plan which, while supported by your vision, requires far more then dreaming and hard work. That’s what the American Dream forgets to tell you, its not just about hard work…its about hard work and a plan that will take you to were you are going… So yes, want more. You should. But to get it respect the requirements… most of all have a good business plan and adequate capital to fuel the plan.
