6 Tips to Build a Business That Will Last Decades

As Crown Worldwide celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, I am being asked the same question over and over again: What’s the secret to keeping a business alive that long?

It’s not that easy to answer. To be honest, it’s a huge anniversary and one I never thought I’d see when I started the company in 1965.

I remember when we first opened, it was from a tiny office -- just a cubicle really-- in Yokohama, Japan, with very little capital. The fact we have become an international global business of good size and strength -- one that continues to grow -- is a real achievement for everyone at the company.

I don’t know if there’s a "secret" other than hard work and perseverance, getting the right team in place, sticking to the business we know best and doing it in an extremely positive way.

But for anyone starting a business in 2015, there are a few points I can make that I hope will be helpful:

1. Be ready for a bumpy ride.

If anyone is thinking of starting a business, they should be prepared to deal with all the obstacles that come their way. It is rarely ever a smooth ride. You have to be the type of person that will persevere and push through all of those challenges.

I remember when we first started and it was a fragile business -- like all startups probably are -- we were always worried about whether we had enough money to pay bills and whether we were doing the job right. You have to cope with all the ups and the downs.

2. Have a plan and know how much it will cost.

Having a plan and knowing where you are going is key for any new business, and part of that is having adequate funding. Just how much you need is difficult to define because it depends on what type of business you are running. In our case we started out with very little capital but in the modern era, I wouldn’t recommend that.

3. Learn to delegate and choose good people.

It is not possible to do everything yourself in a successful business -- you need to delegate. Look around and think, "Who can do this better than I can? Who has the right skills?" Appoint good people -- then trust and support them.

4. Determination is more important than education.

There are many different types of people in business with different educational backgrounds, so don’t feel excluded. Some successful people are quiet, some are loud, some are good salespeople or good at finance. All can make it if they have a good team to help carry forward their plan.

A degree of formal education is helpful for anybody and I encourage it. But having a degree is not an essential part of being successful as an entrepreneur. The qualities you do need are a lot of stamina and determination.

5. Know your core values.

It is easy to think core values are something you only worry about when the business is already successful. But in fact the reverse is true: Core values are what make you successful in the first place.

Having respect for the people who work for you, believing in doing a good job in the right way, giving the customer a good experience, communicating with people, giving something back to society -- all these things are critical. Do things the right way and you’ll have a better chance of success.

6. Don’t sell too quickly.

Retain ownership of your business if you can. Don’t give it away or sell too early. So many entrepreneurs today say, "I’m going to run it for five years then sell it." But I don’t think that’s what true entrepreneurs do. Instead, that’s being a speculator.

I almost sold once in the early part of the company’s history. I had an offer on the table but had a change of heart and walked away, and it was the smartest thing I ever did.

Now we have a business at Crown Worldwide with a turnover of more than $800 million.

JIM THOMPSON

CONTRIBUTOR

Chairman and Founder of Crown Worldwide

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244498 

How To Turn An Idea Into A Business

Ever had a great idea that never got off the ground? Well here are 7 easy steps to ensure that's not the case next time...

Everyone has a great business idea at some point. A clip to hold the toilet seat up, a phone app full of pick up lines, or maybe a cricket bat with a bigger sweet spot. Whatever the whacky potential of these ideas, very few actually make their way to market.

“Now what?” the would be entrepreneurs say to themselves, “I’d love to ditch my day job, but where do I start getting my sweet idea sold?”

And it’s a real pity because there’s probably a market for all those ideas and a lot of the other seemingly hare-brain side projects people come up with.

But no more, it ends today. These crazy ideas can be kept in the cupboard no longer.

To help put an end to the waste, here are 7 easy steps to turn your next good idea into a great business. Or at the very least, see if it’s got any legs.

1. Stop Talking About It

People who talk about their ideas before acting are usually the same ones who don’t do anything about them. The talking gives a sense of taking action without actually doing anything... So stop talking about them.

2. Think Through All The Angles

Look at the idea through an investor’s eyes. Who’s the target market? What problem is being solved? What resources will be required to get it off the ground? What’s the business roughly look like?

The best way to cover off these bases is by going through a business plan template. There are a gazillion of these things available for free online.

Related: Planning A New Buinsess

3. Test It

You need to figure out early in the piece whether the idea will work, otherwise move on to the next one. But this is more than just running it by your mates – ask a sample of your target market whether they would pay for the privilege of your product.

You can always refine it, but whether people will pay for it is the real test.

4. Fossick Amongst Feedback

People will usually tell you straight away if you’ve got something good and anything they don’t like about it. This is valuable stuff.

So after discussing the product with the target market and some people who know the industry, respond to their feedback by making any necessary changes to the business plan, product and plan of attack.

Related: How To Make The Most Of Feedback

5. Find Some Support

Very few start ups are solo efforts, so find a partner. Business partners are a hugely beneficial source of support from acting as sounding boards to proving your product to others.

But don’t stop there. Forge a support network of entrepreneurs that will help you along the way. Pick their brains and learn from their successes and failures. Local meet ups are great for this.

6. Figure Out Finances

By now you know the ideas good, the market’s hungry and have a solid plan of attack. You also know it’s going to cost money to get to market.

Look at all the options – self-funding, family loans, bank borrowing, government grants, credit cards or even angel investors - and weigh up the best alternative. Know that each has its unique risks and rewards and set about securing the capital you require.

7. Make The Minimum Product

There’s no point spending months perfecting what you think is the ideal product. Get the minimum viable product together and get it to market. If there’s appetite for the basic version of whatever it is, you can improve on it in the next batch.

Until you test the market for real you’re flying blind, but if there are bites you could soon be flying high.

Now where’s that toilet seat sketch...

Source: https://au.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/startup/a/-/15309087/how-to-turn-an-idea-into-a-business/ 

Why conserving wildlife is our duty: Our grandchildren might only see rhinos and lions in movies

We have watched movies like Jurassic Park, trying to recreate extinct creatures like dinosaurs. With high levels of poaching, the coming generations might only hear about endangered creatures like the white rhino and lions if we don’t conserve them.

As Uganda celebrated World Wildlife day at the Uganda Wildlife Educational Centre in Entebbe, speaker after speaker warned of extinction of wildlife   species if their poaching and smuggling doesn’t end.

This year’s Wildlife celebration was themed around “Wildlife crime is serious crime”.
Entebbe municipality mayor Mr Vicent De-Paul Kayanja who was the chief guest argued the government to add wildlife conservation on the education curriculum.
Mr Kayanja also argued people who are sensitised about wildlife will not destroy the environment and would act as ambassadors of conservation.

“By destroying wildlife, we are enemies of our own existence”, Kayanja said.
The Executive Director of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), Mr Andrew Seguya expressed fear of animal extinction should illegal poaching and animal trade not be halted.

Seguya who previously served at Uganda Wild life Education Centre for five years (2005 to 2010) further explained that there are far reaching implications of damaging wildlife. He also pointed out that the challenge is mainly on the poor communities that live around wildlife habitats like National parks and Game reserves.
Nevertheless, Seguya said UWA recruited over 700 rangers and 80 intelligence officers last year to help in arresting wildlife crimes.

He also said the poverty among communities surrounding game reserve was affecting wildlife conservation as they have to compete for land and food with animals.
“The majority people leaving around National parks are the poorest in this country”, he said. “They should be an alternative of improving their income so they can conserve wildlife”.
James Musinguzi, who is the Executive Director of UWEC said, revealed that most of the animals at the facility are as a result of wildlife crimes.

The World Wildlife Day is celebrated on March 3, every year with a general aim of creating awareness about the importance of flora and fauna.

Source: http://matookerepublic.com/2015/03/05/why-conserving-wildlife-is-our-duty-our-grandchildren-might-only-see-rhinos-and-lions-in-movies/ 

Scientists unveil power-generating toilet

LONDON - British scientists have unveiled a toilet that unlocks energy stored within urine to generate electricity, which they hope could be used to light remote places such as refugee camps.

ublish Date: Mar 06, 2015

Students and staff at the University of the West of England in Bristol are being encouraged to use the prototype urinal, which has been developed with aid agency Oxfam and is currently located on campus.

If the unit is found to provide a reliable source of power, the researchers hope it can be installed in refugee camps to provide a constant supply of electricity -- and light.

"It is always a challenge to light inaccessible areas far from a power supply," explained Andy Bastable, Head of Water and Sanitation at Oxfam.

"This technology is a huge step forward. Living in a refugee camp is hard enough without the added threat of being assaulted in dark places at night. The potential of this invention is huge."

Each unit could eventually cost around £600 ($914, 827 euros) to build and install, providing an "everlasting" source of power, according to research team leader Ioannis Ieropoulos.

The units contain bacteria that breaks down the chemicals in urine, in the process releasing energy in the form of electricity which is stored on a capacitor within a fuel cell.

"The microbial fuel cells (MFC) work by employing live microbes which feed on urine for their own growth and maintenance," explained Ieropoulos.

"The MFC is, in effect, a system which taps a portion of that biochemical energy. 

"This technology is about as green as it gets, as we do not need to utilise fossil fuels and we are effectively using a waste product that will be in plentiful supply."

The University of West of the England team announced in 2013 that it had created a urine-powered fuel cell that was able to recharge a mobile phone.

The "Urine-tricity" project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Source: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/665546-scientists-unveil-power-generating-toilet.html

Ugandan youth build prototype aircraft

As aviation enthusiasts around the globe recently toasted to the first commercial flight of the world’s newest passenger airliner — the Airbus A350XWB (Extra Wide Body) –, somewhere in Nkumba parish along the Kampala-Entebbe Road, a group of young men was trying to put the final touches to the prototype of a small aircraft.

Today (Friday), the creation will be unveiled at an official launch at Nkumba University.

Dennis Muluuta, the spirited leader of the 25-member team — none of them with any aviation background — explains why they are building the prototype.

“We are undertaking this project to prove that although many youth across the country have failed to get jobs, we can still make a positive contribution to society. We also want to promote linkages between learning and research,” says Muluuta, who heads the Trust Investment Joint Group.

The group urgently needs a helping hand, and Muluuta says they have been pushed to the limit financially.

He claims that they have already spent sh18m on hiring equipment, paying for electricity and hiring labour, but that they need more money to work on building the prototype.

“The money we are using is from members who make monthly contributions. Personally, I recently borrowed sh5m from a bank to sink into the project,” says the bachelor of sciences in environment management graduate from Nkumba University.

The prototype being assembled under a mango tree, is 23ft long, about 5ft wide with a wingspan of 26ft. It is about 6ft high although the tail stands at about 12ft. A small staircase that one has to carefully scale leads to the cockpit. 

The pilot’s seat is improvised, more accurately, uprooted from a car. The landing gear is yet to be fixed, but a “small” car spare tyre serves as the nose wheel. 

The debate on legroom has been one of the hottest topics among the flying public, but in this prototype, you just have to put up with what is available.

Muluuta says his group has for the past four months tried to fix a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni in vain.

“We are a group of serious young people and we want to share our ideas and visions with the President. Some people have even laughed at us, asking us how this prototype will benefit the party, but we are not giving up.

“I am sure with support of the Government; we shall be able to get a plane flying in our skies in a not so distant future,” says Muluuta.

What next after the prototype?

George Walugembe, an industrial art graduate from the same university and a member of the team, says after the prototype, they will move to building Uganda’s first aircraft that can fly.

“I believe we can make an aircraft that can taxi using its own engines. We only need to get the jet engines. We would need to get engines and improve on design and material used in building the body,” says Walugembe confidently.

Walugembe says while they have used steel to build the prototype, they will use lighter materials such as aluminium to build the “real” aircraft. Modern planes are built with lighter materials such as lightweight carbon composites, carbon-fibre boosted polymer to burn less fuel.

The most expensive part of homebuilt aircrafts are the engines. Ultra-light aircraft engines on eBay vary from as little as $2,900 (about sh8.5m) to as much as $2m (about sh5.8b) for jet engines for big aircrafts.
 

The prototype aircraft  is being assembled under a mango tree

History of home-built planes

Aircraft built by amateurs in garages and in the case of Muluuta and his friends, under a mango tree, is not new.

In the US, homebuilt aircraft have been in existence for as long as the aviation industry itself. The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, the two American brothers credited for having built the world’s first successful aircraft, built their plane from home, not in a factory.

Regulation

Such aircraft is cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the equivalent of Uganda’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as “experimental amateur-built”.

In the US, to get a homebuilt aircraft the license to fly, one needs to first have their creation classified under the experimental category. Thereafter the pilot needs to get a private licence.

These licences are usually applied for by the builder before they finish building their aircraft. Thereafter, the plane is inspected by the FAA before test flights are given the green light.

Countries such as Australia, Brazil and New Zealand have similar standards. There have been pockets of homebuilt aircraft builders in Africa.

However, this trend is bigger in South Africa where there is a fully fledged Experimental Aircraft Association.
The first attempt at a homebuilt aircraft in Uganda was in December 2011 by Chris Nsamba as reported in the Daily Mail, one of Britain’s biggest newspapers. However, that project has since stalled.
Views about the project

Uganda’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) welcomes the innovation. The authority’s public affairs manager, Ignie Igundura, advises the group to closely work with them in the next phase of their project.

“I wish they had started working with us from the start. We are willing to advise them on what materials they can use to build the aircraft, how to find gravity and how to balance the plane among other things,” he says.

“When they get to the next level, we shall assign an officer to closely work with them,” Igundura adds.

NRM deputy spokesperson Ofwono Opondo says he was not aware of the Muluuta project.

Ofwono, however, adds that NRM has many volunteer groups which are outside the official structure of the party. We do encourage this kind of volunteerism, provided that they are not breaking any law in the country.

Source: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/665541-ugandan-youth-build-prototype-aircraft.html