In this mini series of articles that I am writing, I am discussing Entrepreneurship. Some of these concepts I have learned either the hard way, by doing it wrong; or by learning about it; or by a successful implementation and outcome.

It is interesting, since I have been in business, one can argue the point of what makes a business successful or what is that key ingredient that makes the entire enterprise so cohesive. I would like to express my opinion, that Preparedness is one of the key elements to making or breaking a business and here is why.

Arguably, any entrepreneur will tell you, “all I want/need is to have more clients, more sales, more exposure.” In due time, that is an absolute certainty and I have to agree with such statement, but not until we are ready. Let’s say, that we have just opened our doors and that all we have at this point in time, is our goals, dreams and a vision for our business; which by the way, that’s quite impressive and a great start, considering that your average entrepreneur doesn’t do that (More about this in upcoming articles). Going back to our premise, if we haven’t developed a system or a process to either automize or make our operation as efficient as it can be, we may be heading towards the frustration and discouragement lanes. Perhaps as business owners, we are the experts, and perhaps the only expert there, this means that we are the leader as well as the technician (the person who gets it done).  There is nothing wrong with being the technician, after all, we all have to start somewhere, but performing the technical work, robs us from leading time, where we can be growing our business strategically (More about this in subsequent articles).

You may ask, “but what does any of this has to do with a successful enterprise?” Here’s is the main idea: If we don’t prepare ahead of time to have a process to automize the delivery of our product/service, or at least deliver it as efficiently as we can; and/or we don’t have the technicians to perform the required tasks, how can we deliver the highest quality product/service time after time, if there is no blue print to follow, no process. Now, let’s take this premise and combine it with a high influx of business (recall our wish at the beginning of this article: “all I want/need is to have more clients, more sales, more exposure.”). Let’s assume that our dream, which could turn into a nightmare rather quickly if we are not ready, comes true. Our enterprise explodes with new business and our product/service is in very high demand.

• Are we ready?
• Can we deliver the high quality and standards that we, the owner and customers, have come to expect to be delivered with each and everyone of our products/services?
• If we can’t deliver, time after time the same results at low volume, now add to this recipe for disaster, dozens if not hundreds of clients wanting our products/services, which we don’t have a clear way how to deliver them.

Our businesses will implode from within if we have this self-created “perfect storm” battering our shores. If we really think about this, the root cause of this failure is caused by our own inability to foresee what it takes to perform at the peak of our abilities and the lack of preparation.

In conclusion, before we begin thinking about having our businesses endorsed by a powerful and influential person/media outlet, let us think first:

• Are we prepared?
• Can we deliver dozens/hundreds of our products/services while maintaining quality and also keeping our sanity?

To know more about what entrepreneurship, you can always check out our latest blog. Also, you can subscribe to out blog via email or RSS feed, whichever is more convenient for you.