Topic : Bringing Visibility to your Creativity
It can be easy to get burned out on the creative side. You may feel like innovative developments are just outside of your reach because you find it difficult to scale. It is not enough to be creative but you should be able to get traction through visibility. Learning how to Bring your local idea/concepts/ innovation to the global community is a lesson that is have to be learnt in this season of start-ups
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When all you have is YOU
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One of the most overwhelming sentiments in the mind of the average aspiring entrepreneur is: lack of financial capital is the greatest challenge to the realization of their dreams
These guys have fantastic ideas but they are inhibited from achieving them due to this mindset
This mindset usually leads them to search and toil for financial capital from investors to kick-start their dreams
Often times, the result is frustration and disappoinment as their dream of getting investors to believe in them is usually elusive
However, there's something higher than financial capital in entrepreneurial pursuit. It is human capital
You don't need money as much as you need YOU in kick-starting your dreams
Human capital is the sum total of an individual or group's skills, knowledge, experience, passion, and expertise necessary for the generation of economic value
Put in simple terms, your human capital is everything that's in YOU that can generate money.
The ability of a lawyer to draft a document and be paid thousands of dollars for it is part of his human capital. C. Ronaldo draws from his human capital when he curls a free-kick above an 8 footballer wall to find the back of the net. The ability to think up an idea and device a strategy to realize same is part of your human capital
Scope of this Session
While the concepts of "visibility" and "creativity" are very wide in scope, this facilitator wants to narrow this session to principles that helps the aspiring entrepreneur desirous of building a brand that has global potentials but has nothing but himself-his human capital.
This session is also for the entrepreneur who has a startup and he's desirous of scaling up with little resources at his disposable.
We are going to explore principles that can you grow that fantastic idea in you and position it as a viable and competitive industry players on a global stage
At this stage let's define "creativity". What do you understand by the word "creativity"?
Creativity is the processing of imaginative thoughts into concrete realities
Creativity is the prelude to novelty.
What's Visibility?
Visibility is from the word "visible"- that which can be seen, felt, touched, and experienced.
Visibility in our context means three co-existing abilities that must be found in your business success story.
They are:
(a) The ability to process abstract business ideas into concrete realities
(b) The ability to attract the necessary investments and resources to enable the startup and scale-up of that idea
(c) The ability to create a brand with critical mass of global sentiment
No matter the resources at your disposal, the realization of these three abilities will be no easy experience. It will take time, and require hard-work to achieve. You have to be resilient to pull through the process. The good news however is: yours will be a success story if you do not quit.
There are three stages to realizing these abilities that will position your business in the global scene. They are: conception, preparation, and execution stages
Conception
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We discuss this stage against the background that you already have a burning business idea.
A creative business idea
Every brand that attains a critical mass of public sentiment is undoubtedly underpinned by some deep rooted philosophies. Then, there are ideological aspects to the business. That's why you can't just copy and replicate a business model because you may not understand the concept that undergird such model.
At the conceptual stage of business development, you don't consider the size of your pocket. You consider the size of your passion
Your dream must be bigger than your pocket. No man will ever dream big if he looks at the size of his pocket
The following are conceptual issues that must be defined before any take-off:
Clarify your business mission what do you seek to achieve? What problem are you out to solve? How do you intend to solve this problem?
Define your vision. Where do you see your business in the next five years? How big do you dream to grow?
Define your competitive advantage. What would make customers patronize you instead of persons offering similar products?
Your competitive advantage must come with an innovative edge.
The idea that wins in the 21st Century must be disruptive in nature. Your business either disrupt or be disrupted!
Preparation stage
It gets more demanding at this stage.
It's advisable to put up some preparation before execution.
At this stage you must be honest with yourself. You must evaluate your dream viz-a-viz where you stand presently
Ask yourself there questions when preparing for the execution of the project.
First, how much resources will be involved?
Then, what kind of skills and expertise will be needed for the success of this project?
What kind of persons should I involve in my team?
These questions may lead you to do any of the following:
Develop your human capital by getting some training. You may buy new books, attend some classes, get a second degree, or get a new mentor
Don't just get into business without the basic skills and knowledge necessary for the industry you are entering
The second thing you need to do is: select the members of your team
Bring in people with the right skills, trainings, financial standing, and connections into your team.
The right kind of persons in your dream is an attractive proposition to investors
Build financial capital from your human capital. If you can't build financial capital from human capital, you can't build financial capital from financial capital. Dan Lok puts it in simple words, "if you can't make money without money, you probably can't make money with money"
Depending on what you have now, you may explore the following options as means of building capital to finance your dream (I did some):
Save money over time
Join a cooperative society, put in some funds to generate your credit worthiness, and get an interest friendly loan
Get a side job while chasing your dreams
Resell something. You can do this online. You meet owners of the items you intend to sell, take photographs of these items and put them online for sale. Facebook and instagram can be of great use here
Do menial jobs. It's better to embrace the dignity of labour and save money for one's dream than to be broke and proud. You can mow grass, sell gala by the roadside. Every legitimate job have dignity. Your value isn't in the "class" of your job. Your value is in YOU
Sell your dream to your buoyant friends, and family members. Convince them to invest in it
Create an agency. You don't need money for instance to be an estate manager in most parts of Nigeria. All you need is YOU
Execution Stage
At this stage you must have engaged your creativity in conceptualizing the mission, getting a team together and raising minimum capital.
Now, you need to do the following:
Get your business registered as a corporate entity under the relevant laws of your country
Get permits, accreditations, and approvals from the relevant regulatory agencies
Get a patent, copyright, or trademark (as the case may be) to safeguard your idea from infringement
Design your logo and brand collaterals with your mission, vision, and core values in mind. You must be committed to excellence when building and communicating your brand
Branding must be taken seriously if you are really committed to bringing visibility to your creativity. Branding is the 5th factor of production after land, labour, capital, and expertise. That means next to human and financial capital is branding. In fact, the ability to do a good brand is embedded in your human capital.
You can't create a brand limited by local appeal and expect to break into the global economy
Your brand must appeal locally and globally. It must appeal culturally and cross-culturally.
Don't brand your size. Brand your potentials. That means even if your business is small, you shouldn't give an image of smallness in your brand
Build a minimum viable product. Start small with the mind of growing big
At the startup stage, you may approach angel investors, as well as venture capitalists. But don't be deter if you don't get investors at an early stage. Utilize the other finding options described above
Final Words
If you follow the steps above, you stand a great chance of becoming a force to be reckoned with in your industry and as well as an attractive investment destination for investors thanks for reading
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