Finding the right small business to complement your salary
Most of us Malawians are over-reliant on salaried jobs as our major source of income.
There is a whole myriad of reasons to account for it but some of which include lack of seed capital to venture into some business that could complement our finances. But sometimes, it is just that we have not found the right business idea to pursue.
Today, I wish us to discuss how one can go about finding the right small business given their passion and skill sets.
Many people who want to start a small business have a pretty good idea of what type of business they want to own. But some only have a general idea, while others don’t have any idea at all.
Most of the books you can read on the subject of starting a small business will tell you that the best place to start is with matching of your skills and experiences to some business that requires those skills.
For example, if you love to cook, the suggestion would be for you to open a food catering business or a restaurant.
But I would suggest to you that this should not always be the case. Think about the needs of other people in your locality and beyond. Is there something you can provide? It may help to think in terms of goods and services.
Ultimately, considering doing something you love is a good start, but it has to be further analysed by examining the market potential, competition, resources required to enter the market, consumer/buyer demand, and uniqueness of the idea.
The best place to start in picking a small business is with consumers (including other businesses that may want your product or service). You need to do a simple research on what consumers or businesses want that’s not being provided to them.
Ultimately, whether you succeed will depend upon whether you are able to meet some unmet need in the market. In fact, even if you love to cook, you are more likely to succeed if you open an Internet cafe service—even if you know nothing about the Internet—than if you are to open a restaurant service, if there is a demand for Internet services but not for another restaurant in your area.
It is far easier to hire someone who knows something about the Internet to work for you than it is to sell consumers something that they don’t want.
Of course, you don’t necessarily have to sell a new or different product or service in order to succeed; you can succeed if you can improve what is already being sold. In the above example, you should open a restaurant business if you can provide a better service than other restaurant businesses, such as a wider menu or lower prices.
But that is still dependent on what consumers want.
Blessed weekend to you and yours as you explore your surroundings to identify needs that you can pick-on and start a small business on. A salary alone will not take you to your comfortable retirement destiny.
