Over the past seven years of counseling young people on business related issues, one question has kept recurring: is it better to own business or to work for other people? There are no easy answers because circumstances are usually not the same; but few satisfactions should throw some light.
In the United States of America entrepreneurs represent 99.7% of all employers. I believe very sincerely that Nigerian has come to a point where there should be no job seekers and unemployed people. There should always be people who will provide the jobs. We are redefining what being a role model in Daystar, by being entrepreneurs. Being an entrepreneur is being a pioneer, creative, innovative, someone who provides new services and products.
Entrepreneurs create jobs for other people, and bring down unemployment rate. In the United States for instance, it is not the government that creates jobs but the people. Entrepreneurs there employ about 53% of the private workforce, 47% of all sales; provide 55% of innovation, and represents 96% of all exporters.
Nigeria is in dept because it imports more than it exports. In a few years time, it should be exporting more than it’s importing, which will depend on the entrepreneurs. Your name can be a label on good products. Ford is someone’s name; Giorgio is another person’s name…
FINDING A BUSINESS TO START WITH
Focus on solving a problem or meeting a need, and you can easily identify the problems or needs in the society by checking out your own needs. What are the things you need that are not available? In a sense, your needs are everybody’s needs. Most of the things you need, most other people also need.
For example, if you need a toothbrush for your teeth in the morning, there are many other people who need to brush their teeth too. If you need soap, every other person also needs soap. If you are a student and you need notebooks, other students need notebooks. What many people consider to be insurmountable problems are usually gems of opportunities waiting to be packaged into ideas that would bless people.
Napoleon Hill, one of my favorite authors, once said that in every problem, there is always an equivalent seed of benefits; we only need to look closely to find the seed.
In a sense, your needs reflect every other’s needs. My advice is that you simply focus on solving problems; you will be amazed at how many business your ideas you can generate.
YOUR INTEREST MATTERS
It is very likely you will start your business in your current line of interest. One of the places where people are defeated is often in starting where they know nothing about, and this defeats one’s confidence. It is usually difficult to make a mark outside your area of assignments. It, therefore, makes sense to start from your area of competence and interest. If you are a journalist, look closely around you, you will discover problems you can package into business ideas; if you are sportsman, there are many problems awaiting your intervention. There is no career that is inferior. If you try to add value to the services you render to people, they will always put you on their priority list. This is guaranteed.
YOUR HOBBY IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT
You may also start out in a line of your hobby. If you work in a bank, you may not start by owning a bank, but along the line, you may have discovered some other interests. We have seen many trained architects who turned to be successful preachers; many trained engineers are making it big in the entertainment industry. You too can turn your hobby into a channel of breakthrough.
FIVE-STAR SERVICES
Looking at existing services every day, there are things you need that are not available. You can just locate those things to start with. In Nigeria, if you are willing to provide better services, it is likely you will find some business to do. If you are talking about quality service, this country has fantastic opportunities.
Some service organizations in the United States are mediocre, but what about here? Just look at what is being provided and decide to provide a better quality service. Until the new generation came into the scene in Nigeria, the old generation banks were holding us to ransom. The innovations brought in by the new generation banks have made banking transactions easy. This is called MARKET GAP. You need that to start business successfully.
If you are planning to ‘check out’ of Nigeria, think well about it. When you get to your destination, what will you do? Menial jobs? Are you ready to do dirty jobs? Many of the dirty jobs that you will get to do there, you can do them here. Whatever the quality of service you are willing to provide, somebody is willing to pay for it. Even when it cost you more.
WHY SHOULD YOU BE AN ENTREPRENEUR
Everything you need is already in your life merely awaiting your recognition of it.
-Mike Murdock
It is necessary, at this point, to share with you some of the reasons it pays to be an entrepreneur.
At one of the business programs we organized for young people trying to start their own business, a young lady walked up to me after listening to the exposition of a guest speaker who spoke on: How to build wealth. She wondered aloud if it actually makes a sense to leave a paid job to set up a business. Her concerns: “what if I can’t get the business off the ground? Will it not be too late to go back to paid employment? Besides I don’t have enough money to start a business.”
I quite sympathized with the lady. Let me however say this: why many people are not able to achieve extraordinary success in life is that they are not willing to take the necessary risks to achieve God’s plans for their lives. A senior pastor once told the story of a man who worked for an organization diligently for forty years and all he had to show for those years was a gold wristwatch given to him by his employer! This to me is a tragedy. Your life is worth more than a wristwatch. You are created to fulfill a particular need for your generation. All you need to do is to step forward and meet those needs.
You have so much to offer the world. The only way our economy can move forward is through the contribution of individuals who are able to creatively put their skills and talents into good use; individuals who are not afraid to start small and let God bless their efforts afterwards.
BENEFITS
Being an entrepreneur has several benefits. And one crusade I am championing is getting people to understand that when successfully build their own business, they are on their way to building financial freedom. Achieving financial freedom means you now have enough money to invest in instruments. Then you have enough to put in real estate, stocks, fixed deposit, etc. one other advantage of being an entrepreneur is that you are your own boss; you would not have to report to anyone: the business picks up your bills , and you have become the responsibility of your company. The company pays up your children’s school fees, and when it comes to sowing into the kingdom, it is only the entrepreneurs that are able to give the best. You cannot be crazier in your giving than your salary allows you. The people who give most to God’s work are entrepreneurs.
FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN
Why do people not start business? I have found out that the number one reason is the fear of the unknown. That is, what if the business cannot take off? What if I do not have enough money to start the business the way I like? Many people have allowed themselves that a salary provides security. The truth is that there is no security in an income that cannot allow you to plan for your future. The problem with financial advice is that you do not get the result immediately.
It sometimes comes when we are in our sixties, and by that time, it is somehow too late when the advice is wrong and most of the people we talk to and seek for advice from are not better that we are. Most people say they want financial security. If you are shooting for financial security, you are shooting too low, shoot for freedom. I have set a target for myself that if I do work for the rest of my life, I can never be poor again. Poor people work for money; rich people make their money work for them. That was what the man (master) in the parable of the talent did. He made his money to work for him, and the Bible says, “he went on a long journey.”
Read 2 Kings 4:1-7. Pray with those verses and ask God to show you where to start from.
RECOGNISE WHAT YOU HAVE
God will never position what you need to your next level beyond your reach. What you need to move to your next level is already around you and God will help you to find it. When you have found it, start! What you have is enough to start with and where you are is good enough to start. Start with what you have.
It is sometimes amazing to discover that most people that have concluded that they do not have the money to start business actually have the treasures around them. Consider this for example: a man who was sacked from his place of work was complaining to everybody that his career had been ruined. He packed his car in the house and was looking for employment all over the place. But after searching fruitlessly for a non-existing job for about six months, one of his mentors, a minister of God pointed to him the wisdom in turning his car into kabukabu. He heeded the advice. Today, he boasts about eight cars in his fleet. How about that!
To your success!!! 
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