Avoiding barriers to business success

DECEMBER 4, 2014 BY IFE ADEDAPO 

   

 

Avoiding barriers to business success

IFE ADEDAPO writes on ways to prevent barriers to business growth and sustenance

In order to break even quickly, business managers often indulge in strategies that could be detrimental to their enterprises in the long run.

Not minding the outcomes of their moves, experts say upcoming entrepreneurs usually place a wide profit margin on their products and services without considering the need to gain acceptability in the market first.

When things don’t go the way they envisaged, they often attribute the business failure to people working with them or lack of adequate capital.

Experts posit that this often leads to the common practise of running a business for few months, abandoning it and venturing into another. This cycle, they say may continue, without growing any of the businesses and the person may not succeed in any other venture.

In goal setting, experts say a successful person should be able to achieve 80 per cent of the goals but when lack of dedication and distractions stand in their way, their expectations for their ventures may not come to fruition at the end of the day.

A business analyst, Mrs. Adejoke Onabanjo says failure is not so bad, but the inability to learn from the mistake that led to the failure and that of others, is what contributes to repeated failure.

Laziness

Experienced entrepreneurs say hard work, no matter how long it takes, pays off in the long run. According to them, laziness has been associated with failure because lazy people are not persistent and are always looking for an easy way out of every situation.

Onabanjo says many people, because of their greed do not want to start their business on a small scale but prefer to wait for huge capital before investing.

She says, “Another common practise which portrays laziness is their regular patronage of people, who professes to have power that gives instant wealth. There are also several internet adverts these days that promises cash reward with just a click.

“It may also be a promise of a newly discovered shortcut that will transform your life within a few minutes hours or days and you will reach your goal.”

She adds that in order to overcome this temptation, there should be conscious efforts to avoid ventures with shortcuts to business success.

Craving instant gratification

Delayed gratification, according to experts is an intentional act of postponing immediate rewards in order to attain all-round success in future.

“People who are in the habit of spending as they earn may not be satisfied with their earnings after sometime. Such people, because they want to be like others, using their meagre salary, they shop endlessly, eat like a king and eventually encounter financial problems and may even get into debt,” Onabanjo explains.

She says focusing your energy and mind on immediate returns, places you in a comfort zone and as such you will not want to forge ahead, become significant or stand out of the crowd.

Instant gratification, according to the expert has no benefit except for the immediate satisfaction.

She says, “It does not allow you to save for rainy days. Even if such a person had a vision he or she wants to pursue, it will be abandoned.”

Feelings of fear

Professionals say one of the ways of attaining success is to conquer fear, because the fear of failure creates doubts that easily dissuade people from achieving your goals. Business goals that are below average often create feelings of doubt, experts say.

They note that people who doubt will always have one or two excuses for all their actions whether good or bad, adding that the willingness to push through feelings of fear separates the good from the great.

Onabanjo says if you get out of your comfort zone and face some of your fears you can eventually overcome it.

“Creativity is risky and makes people uncomfortable. The unwillingness to take risks and regularly get out of your comfort zone will inhibit your natural creativity,” she adds

Giving up easily

Experts say perseverance simply is a conscious persistent determination and it involves regularly evaluating each business goal and actions to decide whether to be persistent or not.

Onabanjo says in Nigeria, many people who give up in business will always have one or two things to put the blame on.

“Although, everyone is aware of the economy which does not make doing business an easy feat. There are issues with multiple tax, that many people try to evade at every opportunity, electricity and finding the right personnel to work with,” She says.

To overcome this, she says there is need to view the world as one full of endless possibilities. She encourages entrepreneurs to pursue their heart’s desire, with perseverance.

Surrounding yourself wrong people

A motivational speaker, Andrew Bolis, says surrounding yourself with the wrong crowd will make it much harder for you to succeed.

He says when people spend a lot of time around another person; they naturally become more like them whether they are good or bad influence.

He advises entrepreneurs to surround themselves with the successful business people models, who will automatically steer their life and efforts toward success.

He notes that success model is someone who either has achieved a goal they are working towards or can guide them in the path towards achieving it.