Selwyn Cambridge, Chief Executive Officer of Ten Habitat, has revealed three steps that entrepreneurs could use to avoid falling into the trap of a failing business.
Cambridge revealed these steps as he facilitated a workshop entitled “Access to Finance: Cracking the Code to Business Expansion”, under the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries (BCSI), which was held at the Radisson Aquatica Resort yesterday afternoon. He noted that for any business to succeed, entrepreneurs must “start, fund and grow”.
“People always say that their challenge is access to finance, but in doing this for quite a long time, what we’ve recognised is that that’s not
actually what it is. So your biggest strategy is not really access to finance, two of the greatest challenges we’ve recognised is that, most entrepreneurs are idea factories, so you’re good at coming up with ideas and you have no shortage of innovative ideas, but the biggest issue is that most entrepreneurs don’t have the required mindset to execute those ideas,” he said.
“Which then leads us to the next challenge, which is networking. Entrepreneurs need to be able to connect themselves to well resourced networks in order to fill the capacity deficits that they have to be able to execute.”
Cambridge explained that if these entrepreneurs had a good idea that they were not able to execute, then connecting with a network or community would help them. He noted that this then solves the problem of finance “because money follows well executed plans”.
As a result, he noted that to avoid these challenges, it is important to build a business where money is not a challenge. One way to do so is to appreciate the start of their business, as start-ups were a series of tests. He also encouraged new entrepreneurs to get to market quickly.
Following the start of the business, Cambridge noted that it is important for persons to stay in their ‘9-5’ as long as possible and use those funds, along with money from sales, to help the business progress. He warned entrepreneurs that not all money was smart money and advised them to know their numbers and market before leaving their jobs and pursuing their start-up business full time.
As a result, he said that the entrepreneurs would see their business grow.