Control or growth? (Part 1)
Watching Shark Tank on Kwesé Inc, as well as other shows on Kwesé Inc like The Profit, you should by now understand one of the big dilemmas of an entrepreneur who has made the decision to look for investors: To get money from an investor you have to sell them shares in your business. They will also want a say in the running of the business. They might even insist on taking full control...
So what are you going to do my friend?
Sometimes, if you don’t take the money, your business will be unable to grow and might even collapse. At the same time, it means you could “lose” control of your baby!
“Oh my baby, my baby!” I hear you crying desperately.
Let me assure you now, I have been through it and so has Aliko Dangote (even if he has not told me himself). I just know that all entrepreneurs face this dilemma!
# The business wants the money!
# You want control!
__Who wins? You or the business? Or both (is that possible?)
If you're not ready for the senior class, we will excuse you for a few weeks, because this is “where the rubber hits the road”!
Oh boy! Who wins?!
If you don’t take the money, the business may never grow! If you do take the money, the business could grow to become a giant, or... your investors could kick you out and take over!
All this has happened to me before:
# I have taken money sometimes, and grown the business;
Or
# I did not take the money, fallen short and been kicked out!
Or
# I have found other ways around it!
Boy, it has all happened to me! So where do we start? Are you ready for some of my stories on this long, exciting journey we call entrepreneurship 2.0?
I am ready to hear some of yours!
"In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety," said the famous psychologist Abraham Maslow several decades ago.
There's another option, too: #Step nowhere and get nowhere!
Let’s see what you are made of.
To be continued. . .
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