The Journey Towards Starting My Own Business

Life prepared me for the adventure I currently live. Growing up, I lived in the UK with my brothers. I remember CNN was a permanent fixture on our TV anytime we visited our parents in Nigeria. My siblings and I dreamt of having our own 24 hours news channel for Africa one day. My parents, maybe to ingrain the Nigerian tenacity in us, ensured that we all returned to Nigeria to have our university education. That was how I got my B.A. in Creative Arts from the University of Maiduguri. This period shaped me (story for another day), and created in me an undying hunger to stay ahead of the pack.

When I returned to the UK, my parents wanted me to do an MBA (which on reflection wasn’t a bad idea), but I had other plans. I did a Masters in Media Production at Birmingham City University, and went straight into studying for a Ph.D. in Media & Cultural Studies at the same university. While studying, I got an internship with CNN. What a dream come true that was! I went into CNN immature and naive, and came out self-aware, passionate about news media …and I had discovered Facebook and blogging. I set up a blog which was originally called An IQ for News, and later became IQ4News.

Getting Started

In the early days, IQ4News was where I shared my reflections on current affairs coming out of Africa. After I graduated, I got into an accelerator programme which came with a £3,000 seed investment, training programmes and working space. I prepared a business plan and in October 2010, I launched IQ4News as a company.

To pay my bills, I worked as a freelance journalist, a visiting lecturer, and in communication management roles at a couple of charitable organisations. While working meant I had a steady income, it also meant less time spent building the business. I found that most of the Africa based companies that I approached to advertise on IQ4News were at the time sceptical about supporting a start-up. Something that has changed significantly today.

It was 6 months before I made my first advertising sale. Then I made one mistake that many small businesses make, I stopped reviewing my business plan, and quickly lost my unique selling point (USP) – that thing that made IQ4News stand out among other news websites.

Vision, Mission and Goals

Why is a business plan important? It sets out what your business is, what you want to achieve, how you will achieve it, and it helps a prospective investor see the potential return on investment (ROI). It is natural for your business plan to adapt and evolve as you grow, for example, it is always a good idea to review your marketing strategy especially as this is a fast changing environment, and as you learn more about your target market, you will want to review how you reach them.

Similarly, as your competitors respond to you, you also need to respond to them by making sure your products and services are relevant and competitive for the market. Changes to the law, changes in the economy and all such external factors are reasons why you should review your business plan.

There are internal factors to: you lose staff or your business is ready to take the next level up.

Review your business plan as often as you need to, factor in your real figures (e.g. the actual revenue and expenditure as opposed to what you estimated), customer feedback and things like social media insights are also important aspects of your business plan review process.

But forgetting your business plan altogether like I did means you no longer have a direction.

“Good business planning is 9 parts execution for every 1 part strategy.” – Tim Berry

What I’m reading: