"One of the most frustrating and aggravating things in business is when someone "Over promises and Under Delivers".  What this means is that they promise you something today, for example, and they don't deliver today and when they do deliver, it is not as good as the thing they promised.

Any one of your customers that feels like you have under-delivered will be angry, frustrated and will lose confidence in you and your business.

It is very important that you and your employees all practice the motto "Under promise and Over Deliver". By doing this, you will always surprise your customer and they will be happy and will trust and respect your business.

5 ways to under promise and over deliver...

1. Quote slightly more than you intend to charge so that your customers are pleasantly surprised when they get your bill and it is less than what they were expecting. Never charge more than your quote!!

2. Always add on a couple of days when you promise delivery of your product or service or when you promise a response, and then deliver early.  This will please your customer and show them how efficient you are.

3. Never agree to do something for your customer that you can't do or provide properly.  Rather just say..."Sorry we cant do that" or "We don't actually do that but I'm willing to research it and get back to you about it"

4. Always stick to what you tell your customers you will do.  Don't ever say...."We will send you a quote by 3pm" if you are not 100% committed to getting them their quote by 3pm.  Don't ever make promises to your customers that you can't keep.

5. Always be truthful and honest with your customers and never be afraid to admit that you have made a mistake.  They will respect you and trust you for it."

There is something about face to face meetings that does more than any telephone call, any chat room, social networking site, television/radio advertisement and billboards could ever do. It is that personal factor that makes networking as valuable as it is today. While networking saves you days of searching for providers of services you need, similarly it has the same effect with people finding you – the more people you know and relate with, the more business opportunities you will discover.

I read somewhere, I can’t recall where, that networking is key to making your business visible. What better way to explain it. I call it the power of personal, which you can only get with meeting a person. People prefer to do business, and if they can they will choose to do business, with people not companies.  The relationship factor.

The believe best thing about networking is that it goes beyond just that one event. A perfect example is a good friend of mine went to a networking event that I did not attend. While she was there she met an entrepreneur who sells flowers online (Maybe you have heard of it:  www.maruwa.co.zw).  She told me about it, and now whenever I think of flowers I automatically think of Maruwa because my friend recommended it. I have since recommended Maruwa to other friends of mine who have used the service as well.

This means people are choosing to use Maruwa not because of any advertisements or any marketing, but because they created a relationship at a networking event and used the power of personal. This is not the only benefit of networking but I believe that this alone is reason enough to attend networking events whenever you get an opportunity to go

I am doing a course called "The challenges of Global Poverty". Its a free course I found online (you can try free courses on www.edx.org or on www.coursera.org). In this course, we address many surprising facts. One was that in developing countries, a large percentage of the  poor are actually business owners. What is even more surprising is that these business owners did not want their own children to run their own business. This is because most of these poor business owners are self-employed and are not entrepreneurs.

The main difference between self-employment and entrepreneurship is freedom and continuity in the absence of the business owner.This is to say in the case of entrepreneurs, you do not need to be present for your business to continue making money for you, while the self-employed has to be present. The self employed person works to make money, while the entrepreneur works at making money work for him.

I read this article by Brandon Kennington and I found what he said to be the perfect definition of entrepreneurship:

"Entrepreneurship is an art. It takes practice and requires a lot of knowledge of disparate areas of business. It also takes a certain mind set, which unfortunately, many business owners never seem to learn. The baby boomers are now retiring, many of whom are self employed business owners with no money to retire. They ran successful businesses for 30 years or more, but sadly they never learned that running a business and owning an automated business are very different. And after 30 years they result in two very different outcomes."

Our aim at Zimbabwe Entrepreneur Zone is to inspire ordinary Zimbabweans to start a business. A business that can contribute significantly to the development of our country's economy. That is why we are here. To preach entrepreneurship not self employment - Inspire you to create a successful retirement plan while reducing the unemployment rate.  It is time for us, as Zimbabweans, to say no to self-employment and explore entrepreneurship.

In order to ensure you do not fall prey to the wicked cycle of self employment make sure you have a business plan. Carefully lay out your objectives and constantly review them, make adjustments where necessary. Train new people to run with your vision! Employ the right people. Think big. Start something... not just something but something huge!

I had to continue on the topic of choosing the right business to start because I think I made it sound a little bit scary. I mentioned in Part 1, starting a business is hard and that there are more chances of you failing than there are of you succeeding. So I couldn't just leave it at that. It's goes against my nature. I am here to inspire! 

Having said that, you have found something that you are PASSIONATE about... What now? Is it definitely the business idea to pursue? Will this one put your name on the map and leave a mark where you passed? Will this one be the one?

Well... not exactly! You need to do research and BE REALISTIC. Do people need this service/product? Will they pay for this? If they pay for it, how much will they pay? Will I make a profit? Will I cover all costs? How will you get people to buy your goods/service? Are there dominating competitors? Can you offer a better service/product than existing businesses? How will my business be different?  

More often than not, aspiring entrepreneurs fail because they did not look realistically at the market, competitors and basically the whole business idea. One good way to make sure you do not fall prey to this is to make a detailed business plan with an analysis of customers, suppliers, competitors and any laws that apply to your chosen business. While you draw up this plan and analyse the information, consider if this really is the idea that represents a solid business opportunity.

Be passionate. Be realistic. Be inspired!

I get excited when people ask me questions about business! It really makes my day! Just last night I checked my Facebook messages, after like a few days of not checking and I found the most interesting question ever. 

                     "As an electrical engineer,which business can I do?"


What I find particularly interesting is that this person found it necessary to state which qualifications they possess.

I decided to write this blog... to help everyone who is in this particular position. Maybe you are not a qualified electrical engineer, maybe you are. Whichever way it is, my answer for this particular person and for you is exactly the same. And here it is!

Choosing a business to start all depends on you. The truth is it is very hard to start a business so you have to work hard to succeed. There are more chances of you failing than there are of you succeeding. If you want to succeed you have to work on your idea. Sometimes even through the night. Stick with it through all the stages of development. And in order to do so, you need PASSION! Ask yourself, "Am I passionate about this idea?" If you don't like what you pick chances are you will not succeed. 

 Another  important thing to note is - DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN A BOX! - Just because you are an electrical engineer it does mean you should start an electrical engineering company. What do you love? What are you PASSIONATE about?  
Maybe you want to open a bar? Or manufacture baby clothes, go into mining, fashion design or be a consultant for electrical engineering? The sky is the limit!