Although every entrepreneur has big dreams, the road to becoming the next Branson, Jobs or Huffington is not for the faint-hearted. While every entrepreneur’s goals are to build a successful business and to take it to great heights, many start-ups struggle to reach that next level.

Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating effects, forcing many SMMEs to close their doors. But, on the flip side, there are many other businesses that suddenly find themselves on an unexpectedly steep growth trajectory.

If you’re lucky enough to say ‘This sounds like me,’ scaling to the next level should come with some serious self-reflection, then action.

‘There’s a difference between a dream and a vision,’ says small-business coach Mosidi Seretlo. ‘You need action steps to realise your dream.’ She uses weight loss as an analogy: ‘You don’t just dream about losing weight and expect it to happen. You have to have the right steps in place.’

Hope is not a strategy, says Lynne Frost, also a business coach, who works with start-ups to help develop a strategy in the early stages of the business: ‘This is when you have to develop an understanding of your target market and of what the competition is doing.

‘Instead, most entrepreneurs get caught up in the “doing” when they should be looking at the direction the business is going in. They may be working hard, but they also have to fundamentally change the way they run the business and take a more strategic view.’

The one hurdle everyone faces

Nthabe Zondo, who co-owns baby-food company Bumbles with Billie-Clare Dryden- Schofield, had to learn how to maintain this balance between vision and strategy. After 18 years in corporate marketing, she teamed up with Dryden-Schofield to grow Bumbles.

‘Our strategy is very clear,’ Zondo says. ‘Bumbles aims to be the leading natural, nutritional baby-food brand in South Africa – and ultimately elsewhere in Africa. We work hard to achieve this as both of us want to create nutritious food for babies and leave a legacy for our children.’

Bumbles has gone from strength to strength, but it hasn’t been easy and the company had to face that hurdle so many start-ups encounter – money. ‘Manufacturing is complex and there’s a three-month period from buying raw materials to seeing revenue,’ explains Zondo. They decided to finance Bumble themselves and use family funds, and make sure to keep the business self-sustaining.

‘You will make mistakes and you will fail. But successful people seem to have failed more times than most. You just have to learn from your mistakes and keep going.’ – Mosidi Sertlo, small-business coach

Before anything else, Zondo says, their business model therefore had to make financial sense, taking all expenses from production costs to listing fees into account. ‘The first year of any business is really about entering the market, and the second about embedding the brand in your selected markets. After that, a business must make a profit and grow its market share. Only then can you start to expand.’

Frost also raises financing as a determining factor when wanting to grow a business: ‘I frequently work with suppliers to industries and mines and when they are ready to expand, we work with them to become funding-ready. That requires a formal business plan and budget, and getting your governance in order.’

She has found that many entrepreneurs simply aren’t aware of internal and external environmental factors and how they could affect the business. ‘It’s vital to look closely at both threats and opportunities, and at your capacity to deliver, including financial, human resources and equipment needs.’

Marketing is essential

Seretlo also stresses the role of marketing, as entrepreneurs often don’t have a clear understanding of who their customers are and what they want. ‘Who’s buying your product or using your services?’ she asks. ‘How can you get them to use more of it? Don’t be so focused on new sales that you forget about your existing customers.’

She points to companies like SweepSouth and Amazon that use the power of association to sell more. SweepSouth has a referral system that rewards clients for garnering new customers and Amazon suggests new products based on past purchases. Since many new marketing approaches are tech-enabled, you have to be comfortable in the digital age, adds Seretlo.

‘I’m a traditional marketer who now has to talk to a digitised society where understanding the tech is crucial. It’s important to stay agile and move with the trends. Watch the big tech companies to understand what’s going on and where things are moving.’

It’s more than just a dream

While it helps to have more than a dream and a willingness to work hard, you don’t necessarily need an MBA, says Frost. ‘You do, however, need some knowledge of and insight into the practicalities of running a business and it will help to have a business coach and/or mentor.’

‘You will make mistakes, and you will fail,’ Seretlo says. ‘But then, successful people seem to have failed more times than most. You just have to learn from your mistakes and keep going. You need the mental resilience to fail and still get up.

‘People think success is a magical thing, but it’s really about being able to fail and get up again as many times as it will take.’