25/04/2025
How you make your business bigger
__“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”*
I have a friend who likes to say: “Wave your magic wand, and tell me what you would like to see. What is your vision?” I always chuckle and say to him, “You mean my faith wand!”
Some people call it how a small business [no matter how small] could become something much bigger.
Let me give you an example: Let’s say you run a barber shop or hair salon. Could that ever be made into a multi-million dollar business?
Absolutely!
One year I was in Washington DC and I asked the hotel to point me to a barber.
“There is a franchise chain round the corner.”
“Franchise chain?” I asked.
“Yes. They have them all over the country.”
Being an entrepreneur, I was totally intrigued and pumped the barber with all sorts of questions as I tried to understand the business model. It turned out there were hundreds of them and they operated just like a McDonald’s franchise. They even had a training school where they trained the barbers in their business model, techniques, styles, and processes to ensure service was standard wherever you went.
"Our owner started with one shop and then scaled it," the barber explained [talking just like an entrepreneur himself].
"We work just like a McDonald’s, except they do food and we do hair,” the barber smiled.
This really got me thinking. One can take any business, even selling chicken feet delicacies [they have one in China!] it into a multi-million dollar business.
Wow!
This was a Eureka moment for me, and suddenly I could see almost any type of business could be turned into a multi-billion dollar business.
I know a guy in London who simply focused on ensuring you could buy an affordable, delicious meat pie in every place where workers need a quick snack. He is now listed as a billionaire.
Who said you need an oil block or government contract? Stay away from those toxic business areas and focus on -Imagining what you already have!
Consider the founders who built McDonald’s, Nando’s, or Chicken Inn. Study their stories, and you can do it too!
Here is what you must do first: Think of a business you are in and it...
First, as a national champion, then a regional champion, and in time, a continental champion, and ultimately a global player!
That is what I did 25 years ago: I spent 40 days in prayer and fasting [I broke at 6 pm, every day] and each day I would sit and write down my vision.
I imagined little Econet, then the smallest of three operators in Zimbabwe, becoming a national champion, then I saw it as a regional player, then a continental player. And yes, I imagined it as a global player.
The vision became a searing, burning desire. There is still much to do!
At first, I told only those who were willing to believe, like my wife and prayer partners.
If you can see it, and the human need (market) is there, you can build it! But just don’t daydream [by doing nothing to make it happen!]
Wave your faith wand, write down your vision, do your research, get together your business plan, practice your pitch, and go out to get started!
Using that small business in your hand, it is enough!
Image credit: KWB-Ubuntu Hope via AI. *Title quote by Scott Belsky.
