In year 2002, myself and 9 other people set out to establish what we thought would be a fast growing telecommunication company. Everything seemed to be working for us then until suddenly the dream started slipping off our hand. What could be wrong? I definitely couldnt comprehend my experience at that time but now I know better.
CCL – the company under consideration – had the potential to rise to within top 3% of companies providing Value Added Services in Nigeria but today we are very far from it. We had qualified people on the team to fill every department of the company. In fact, two of us then were already working with companies in the same line of [tag]business[/tag] as CCL. This further gave me confidence that the team already had relevant skills and information required to build a great company but events soon proved me wrong.
I was involved in the start up of another company – www.nairahost.com – with two other colleagues within the same period and it has risen to no 2 [tag]web hosting[/tag] provider company in [tag]Nigeria[/tag] and we are gradually positioning it to take the no 1 spot within the next few months.
[tag]Nairahost[/tag] started as an idea between myself and another friend. The first day we spoke about it, we set out to launch. I can still remember that we had to put our funds together to get out first server then and today, the clients base shows we are progressing.
One of the differences between nairahost.com and CCL is that we started nairahost.com without no clear business plan. All we had then was our desire to provide affordable and reliable web hosting services to Nigerians. This has been our driving force even till now.
We may have achieved more with nairahost.com if we had started with a business plan but I can tell you that the service might still remain in the idea realm. Who knows? We might still be working on the business plan now.
Dont get me wrong… I am not saying you should not have a [tag]business plan[/tag] when starting out. In fact, a good business plan will help you to secure financing for your project and at the same time help you to chart the course for your business. What I am saying is that you have got to put LEG to that business plan. It is not enough to have a great idea on paper. You need to work on it even though you might not have been able to put your thought together on paper. Just start some how NOW.
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6 Responses
Yea my man i dey feel you.
On paper what u saying looks somehow, but in reality its totally true!
It has also happened to me. I have lived in the world of ideas for too long! The day i realized this; i was so aggressive about starting something without thinking of too many pros and corns. U would not believe that i had to start a business with someone i have seen only once in life time as at then. We only had good online/internet relationship. I took all the risk; i was so hungry to start something. Infact i was ready to fail than not starting something then. Presently i am seeing the implications of the decision i took then it has its +&- but I am happy after all the company is doing good so far……we are adjusting and modeling our business plans as we grow.
The company is Deep Systems Ltd. We hope to have a website soon….
We shall get to the top!
Hey man, I am sure you are far more better than you were before you took the risk. You might have made some mistakes but the lessons you have learnt would have outweighed the mistakes. So, keep at it bro
Quite interesting,
I just want to say abig thank you for taking time out to share this invaluable experience with others. It shows that we’ve got unselfish nigerians even in the midst of these decays.
I find your post quite true as i have a similar experience, the company i’ve been trying to form through planning and researching is still yet to blossom. But the one i started spontaneously is producing fruits in less than one year of existence. we need to separate planning from acting and emphasis the importance of both and not one at the detriment of the other.
Regards.
Hi Dapo,
Thanx for the comment. Can you share some of your business experiences… Maybe one person will be able to learn from your mistakes.
Guys you are talking right, we have many orators but less implementors (action men), i believe we can begin to achieve our aims by maximizing both strength(planners n actors) we will have a lot of idea implemented
Great talk
Yeah, our world is full of so many orators while we still lack ACHIEVERS. The challenge before us now is therefore to move bridge the gap between mere talks and actions.