A business radio jock asked a business consultant what were the three most important things for the creation of small enterprise. The business consultant said they were access to finance, access to markets and access to business knowledge. Yes, there is some truth in this but it was interesting that the business adviser started off with access to finance. It came in late to the conversation but one wonders whether or not this business adviser is attached in some way to a lending institution. Access to markets makes it sound as if there were people or other institutions preventing the small business owner from entering a market. In a free market the only real barrier to entry is competence and economies of scale. Access to business knowledge is an interesting one because to get real business smarts, you don’t have to attend a business course. Real, actionable business knowledge and information can be found from those who have run small businesses, creating them from scratch and business mentors.
Myths are everywhere. Often they are merely the product of ignorance or laziness to find out the true situation. A short while back someone told me about a legal issue that didn’t sound right. It plagued my mind. I decided to call up a lawyer and go through what had been said and whether this was true or not. The lawyer told me exactly where the law stood on the issue which was 100% different to what the person had told me. It just goes to show that if information doesn’t sound right, you need to go check it out.
Some people think that starting and running a small business is a magic trick. It’s another one of those myths about small business. It may seem like magic when someone starts a small business and is successful. But when you look behind the success you will see that there was no magic at work. The entrepreneur, the business idea generator and implementer, was working hard and using basic business fundamentals.
One of those basic building blocks is to know what you are doing. For example a TV producer took five years off to go learn cuisine in France. He is now running a successful Parisien-style bakery and restaurant. There was no magic tricks involved. The restaurant and bakery didn’t suddenly magically appear in my local neighbourhood. The owner worked long and hard to acquire the necessary skills, the business knowledge and the domain expertise.
Take your pick – listen to the advice of radio business jockeys, business consultants and advisers or learn from real people who have been they and done it, received the hard knocks, learnt their lessons and have succeeded through their hard work and perseverance.
