How to maintain your SME Startups

What scares me so much is not the fact that the government keeps on telling us that there isn't any job available but the fact that each year, institutions keep on producing more and more graduates. Some at more advantage than others but at the same time, if the entire system produces at least 500,000 to a million graduate a year at least, just 30-40 percent of them will secure a job leaving the rest to source for themselves.

Thank God for this our generation having wised up to find alternatives (legit way). Just as it may seem like all youths have keyed to this new alternative believe it or not, not everyone is going to stay in it and less than half of the youth have developed a skill yet. As discouraging as it may be, it has at least given us a fighting chance at surviving.

What happens to the rest that decides to stick with most of our parents ancient mentality of working physically and not trusting anything that has to do with online transaction, well that's what we are to find out here. Most will learn a physical skill like barbing, welding, cooking/catering amongst others and will eventually set up an offline shop if getting a job is not possible.

I forgot to add a last set of persons to the list. These ones are don't put all your eggs in one basket type of persons. They get their certificate, learn an offline and online skill and eventually set up an offline business. Well, I happen to fall into this category. Who knows what works best? so it is best to have a backup backup. Lolz
In my previous posts, I wrote about my plans to for a start and the startup launch You can find it here. I have ben made to understand that there is a big difference between setting up a business and actually running the business. It is not everything you get to learn from someone, there will be a lot you will have to learn yourself on what works for you and this can only be learnt on the go.

Alright, so this post will be about the challenges I experienced and currently experiencing in my startup so that when you plan yours, you can avoid these. You can say I have paid the price for you 😁😁😁.

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Well the first challenge I experienced and still experience is this issue. The issue is not that sales are coming but how should I do the money. Should I mix both the savings and the money for stuffs together or separately? I first started with a fixed amount each day but it didn't work out because I was practically robing the business and shorting things should incase I want to restock. After the first week, I discovered this couldn't work. Then I thought to open a separate account for each stuff I sell and use the money from each to strictly replace them when finished but this didn't work also because I had other issues that arose like gas, fuel, light bill, groundnut oil etc. When they came up, I had to collapse that idea also and stuck to a single account.

The solution I was inspired to work with after careful thinking. So I decided to do a market survey again to discover the updates prices of things so as to implement necessary changes. After doing so, I then knew my profit for each sale I make and how much it will cost me to buy back. With this in mind, I decided that upon closing each night, I will transfer the profits on each plate sold for that day (rice, spag, beef, egg, noodles, chicken) leaving more than enough for a replacement and to probably buy half of the stuff again. Any other expenses will be removed from the savings account. I have full confidence in this method. Let's see how it will do in the next month.

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One major mistake I made was to be content with my first SWOT analysis. Since the environment is around a campus, my major target customers are students I found out that my customers have actually been refreshed. After I discovered this, I had to re-strategize and try to get more awareness to these new batch. The plan is still in progress not acted upon yet but soon enough. So please always check the environment.

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I as much as I was just starting and intentions weren't to make much profits. To beat the prices of others, I went so low with my prices and this almost cost me. I learnt from this to do what works best for me. The difference between me and the rest is that there's is not as quality as mine. I had 2 choices which were either I reduce my quality and increase my quantity or maintain my quality, quantity and increase price. I had to go with the latter because if I maintain the quality and quantity, I'd just go bankrupt and they will go elsewhere. The price change wasn't much and I added something to the package. So do what works best for you but do not over do it though.

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I discovered that inline with my products, most people eat with their eyes before the actual eating. I knew I needed to build up that appetite but when I looked at my food pictures, I saw that they were boring even for me. So I needed to spice things up. I dedicated a time to cook all the dishes and took amazing shots of them. Posting them made me hungry so I knew they would work 😂😂😂
Here are some samples

There are a lot I have experienced but the above are major ones. Others you can add to grow your start up is

• be unique
• learn to multitask
• there is no crime in saying we are closed. This part is so funny that it is when I have closed that I will start getting orders. There was a time I got a message to order noodles at around 10pm and I left 20mins ago. Although I was still within the vicinity but I just couldn't go back.

Just do not be too confident with your initial plans. Observe your business each day and make necessary changes. The aim is to to grow, so grow.

Thanks for stopping by.
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I still remain Trojan
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