{"id":4654,"date":"2020-03-17T19:40:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T18:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melyakub.com\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2020-03-17T19:40:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T18:40:42","slug":"small-business-titbits-technical-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/?p=4654","title":{"rendered":"Small Business Titbits: Technical Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We had, earlier, discussed the first of the requisite preparations that an aspiring entrepreneur should arrange, <a href=\"http:\/\/melyakub.com\/small-business-titbits-mindset-preparation\/\">Mindset Preparation<\/a>. After comporting their mind as to their ability and willingness to emotionally and socially do what needs to be done to achieve business success, the aspiring business person should then embark upon the next level: Technical Preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Technical preparation<\/strong> is about the <em>intellectual<\/em> and <em>physical<\/em> preparedness of a start-up business person. It is about three objectives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Understanding the value proposition of the enterprise<\/li><li>Establishing the mechanics of running the businesses<\/li><li>Getting the mechanics to deliver the value <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on the foregoing therefore, technical\npreparation is about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Establishing the feasibility of a business idea or ideas<\/li><li>Drawing a business plan<\/li><li>Execution<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Establishing the feasibility<\/strong>\nis the first and most important study that an entrepreneur must conduct to\nestablish the viability of the proposition or not. Depending on the specifics\nof the proposition, a feasibility study is likely to involve various\ncalculations and analyses on various dimensions of such as market viability,\neconomic and financial model liability, technical viability, management model\nviability, regulatory concerns, etc. Without establishing the viability of the\nbusiness the need for business planning doesn\u2019t even arise. Viability means it\nwill be the opportunity is workable and can be profitable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is an intense exercise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After establishing the viability of the\nopportunity, a business plan can then be drawn to detail tactics and strategies\nthat can turn the idea into profitable business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Business planning<\/strong>\nis the process of developing a robust working business plan. A business plan\nis, normally, a written document that describes critical components covering\ntwo broad issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What you want to achieve ?<\/li><li>How you want to achieve it?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the details of a business plan are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What\nyour value proposition of the business is<\/li><li>Products\nto be offered<\/li><li>Target\nmarket <\/li><li>Industry\nand competition analysis<\/li><li>Financial\nplanning<\/li><li>Production<\/li><li>Staffing,\nand several other details that may be business specific<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t just hand over the job to professionals\nand consultants. Be involved and be sure that information provided and\nassumptions made are real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you haven\u2019t opened shop, you need a\nbusiness plan relevant and sufficient for your scale and scope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are already in business but haven\u2019t had a business plan drawn, it is never too late to have one. You may have worked successfully without one but that is less than optimal and things  will get more tricky with time. When they do, only information and knowledge may be your only saviors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the saying goes, the devil is in the\ndetails. So as much as is necessary but sufficient for your size, you should\nensure that you have enough details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your business plan is both an educational tool as well as a working guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, be aware that as brilliant as your\nworld-changing idea, plan and strategy are, they are not worth more than the\npaper they are written on. This brings us to the key differentiator between\nfailure and success: Action, which we call execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Execution:<\/strong>\nThis is not about potential and it is not about capacity. It is about getting\nthings done. It is where the rubber meets the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without execution, no success is achievable is\nachievable or sustainable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its is what you do on day-to-day basis that\nbuilds up and puts you ahead of the competition. Execution is about:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Meeting the prospective clients and convincing about your value proposition,\u00a0 <\/li><li>It is about closing the sale, delivering the goods and getting paid and getting repeat businesses,<\/li><li>It is about getting the investors to support you,<\/li><li>It is about negotiating best terms possible as a contractor, etc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two things that are very interesting\nover execution:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>With time we tend to develop our\nskills in getting things done: I guess experience helps, but,<\/li><li>We also tend to get complacent with\ntime.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Consequently, we must ensure that we\ncontinuously ignite and develop our interests, commitment and motivation to\ndeliver. Our performances must show, as they say the proof of the pudding is in\nthe eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Develop a culture of relentless execution in\nyour business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Final word:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Technical preparation is, to put it, basically\nabout:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Intellectually\npreparing yourself by having all the details about your business. You are not\nan engineer but you must be knowledgeable about engineering issues pertaining\nto your business and more; you may not be an economists but you must understand\neconomics and the economy; you are not a banker but you must understand finance\nand banking issues; <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>You and your people must be physically alert and ready to do what needs to be done in order to achieve your stated business objectives<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We had, earlier, discussed the first of the requisite preparations that an aspiring entrepreneur should arrange, Mindset Preparation. After comporting their mind as to their ability and willingness to emotionally and socially do what needs to be done to achieve business success, the aspiring business person should then embark upon <a href=\"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/?p=4654\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4657,"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions\/4657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}