Here are the 5Ps’ of Business Success that nobody has told you before.
1. Passion:
When you start a business, you need to ask yourself if you are passionate about this business. The way you love your children, you need to love your business the same way. A business is almost like a human child. In the first few years of its life, you need to nurture it. But once it starts to walk, you will know it will start running soon as well. You only need to take good care of it, passionately.
2. Patience
No business starts giving returns right away. You need to wait. For some businesses it is one year, for some, it is 100. You need to have patience. In a normal economic situation, new businesses usually take 2 to 3 years to start giving a good return. Hence, you need to have sufficient strength to sustain your business for at least 3 years, even if it does not have a good return. Once you have that much financial backup, then you may start planning for your business.
3. Planning
The first thing you need to plan is your revenue stream. You need to first seek good revenue sources. Then you must calculate the revenue stream and forecast for at least 3 years. If the revenue forecast does not give you a good feeling of crossing the break-even way before you cross your 3 years limit, you probably should not start the business. Obviously, when you plan your revenue, you need to plan your expenses side by side, otherwise, you cannot forecast your break-even point, and your payback period. Once the financial planning is done, you must plan for the products and the markets. You will want to sell a lot of things, but are customers willing to buy a lot of things? Do some market research. Check if there really is a market for your product. Does the market already exist? Or do you have to create one? If you need to create a market for your product, do you have enough strength and opportunities for the product to survive and run in the market? Planning is crucial. Plan well ahead of jumping into any business. Money is a thing that loves to lie in others’ beds.
4. People
To succeed, you need people. You need people to do the work for you. You need people to buy your products, sell your products, produce your products, transport your products, and so on. Consider all people around your business. You need people everywhere. But are your employees the only ones you must consider? No, consider your spouse, your children, your parents, and your family. Everyone around you who have a stake in your piece of cake, consider everyone who will have a bite from there. When they are done with having their bites, you must have a leftover to bite as well.
5. Persuasion
After all the above items, the last but not least item you must have is persuasion. You need to stick to your decision. You must persuade others to drive your passion. After all, your business is your child, if you don’t persuade for the success of your business, nobody else will.