At one of my seminars, a participant approached me after the seminar ended.
With so much excitement he greeted me and said, “Coach Sugeng, I am very excited and motivated after attending this seminar. I have five hundred million rupees saved for my initial venture capital. What can I do with it? What chance of business do you currently have? good luck in the future?”
I asked him, “Do you have a plan yet?”
Ideas and business opportunities are easy, we can find millions of great ideas and opportunities. Ideas and business opportunities are everywhere. From the moment we get up in the morning, carrying out our activities, until we go back to bed, we always face, see, hear, feel and use the results of the realization of business ideas that would make other people much richer.
We brush our teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste, take a bath, drink coffee, eat breakfast, etc. All these activities make other people, the manufacturers, even the distributors, get richer every day. However, the first thing to realize is that investing or running a business is like making a travel plan. It means that we, as potential business owners, must be absolutely clear in advance about the purpose of the business, where the business is going, and what our current condition is like.
A power of clarity:
In my workshop, I often asked the participants, “How long, according to you, will our trip to Bandung city take?” (Bandung is a famous and very beautiful village in the mountain of my country)
One of the participants replied “Approximately three hours.”
The others immediately replied “It could be sir”.
Another participant added: “Depending, we’re going to use a car or a plane.”
And the answer becomes more varied and diverse. All these answers are correct in my opinion. The most important additional questions to ask first before you can answer the above question more accurately is “Where do we start our journey?” All plans, strategies, trips, travel routes will depend on our “Starting Point”.
Do we have to use a car or a plane?
Do we have to pass the highway or the main road?
Also, start a business. Knowing where our business is going, how much revenue is desired, the desired profit, the characteristic of the ideal client, where it is located and what our future goals are will be very important to establish the vision and mission of our business more clearly. However, identifying our “Starting Point” is one of the “IMPORTANT” that should not be forgotten.
The preparation and implementation of all the plans, strategies, what path will be taken, what kind of business should we do, what skills should we learn, how much time do we need, will largely depend on these two points: “Your vision and your starting point” . “!
Identify our “starting point”:
Knowing the starting point where we are, will make us much more effective when making plans and steps in building our business and towards the success of our business. Due to the existence of a plan, we will have a better ability to see the gaps and challenges that we must face in our business travel process. Clarity is very important that we must have, because it will help our thought process in determining precautions and actions, even when the solution of these problems or challenges arise and finally we must face. And its increase in our effectiveness!
The effectiveness will be one of the important factors in our business because in our life we always compete against the greatest asset in the universe that we can never have, which is “TIME”.
The “time” will never be ours, we can never save it. What we can do is fill them up and use them differently!
We can increase our effectiveness in building our new business by asking ourselves these questions:
1. What is my passion? What field do I get really excited about even though I don’t get paid?
2. What is my talent? What is my area of excellent? What am I really good at?
3. Based on answers 1 and 2, which business involves both your passion and talent?
4. Who are the people who have already achieved success in the field that I wanted to do? (This is our benchmark). When will I get in touch to learn from him?
5. After the learning process (step 4), summarize what resources I need to get to that position.
6. From the answers in step 5. How is my current state?
What… (Knowledge, Skill, Attitude, Habit and Association) have I had?
What… (Knowledge, Skill, Attitude, Habit and Association) have I not had?
What’s missing?
Who would you contact to learn?
When will I learn?
7. What should I give up and throw away to get what I want?
8. What am I willing to sacrifice to get what I want? (Is it the community, friends, time, energy, money, etc.?)
9. Anyone who can help me?
10. I reach my goals in…
When we decide to start a business, one thing that should always be on our minds is: “Failure is not an option!” The question that should always be on our mind is “How can I increase the chances of success of my business?” Don’t open the options for failure on yourself! Always think ahead to prevent the things that can cause your business to fail and start learning how to treat or repair the parts of your business if you run into problems.
Take additional training, workshops, seminars, read books, even take a professional business coach as your mentor! Be a firm believer that “All skills can be learned”!
Let’s do and enjoy our business trip!
(by: Sugeng Santoso)