My Journey as a New Entrepreneur

It is one thing to establish a business and another thing to manage the people you are working with. Setting up a business that requires that you have workers around you also requires that you have people management skills.

It's been just two weeks since I started a sachet water business that requires production and marketing. Yeah, I am just a new entrepreneur, striving to learn more and adapt to the new phases of my life.

The excitement of starting this business after several years of nursing the idea and working towards making my dream business a reality was heavenly. Although I did lots of research before starting, made some calculations, and in a way prepared myself mentally for whatever comes up, I still feel overwhelmed, I must confess. Indeed, you can't be prepared enough; reality will test you so dearly. This is my practical experience so far.

The thought of producing safe drinking water that people can buy daily and consume was quite fulfilling, and so I invested in both quality material and equipment. Ensure to follow NAFDAC specifications and finally put workers in place to work with me. So far, my challenge isn't even the business itself but people management. I wouldn't want to use the word "frustrating," but that's the suitable word to explain what they are subjecting me to currently , but I refuse to quit.

When I worked for other firms, I acted as if the business was mine and put in undiluted effort; in fact,my husband still talks about it to date. All I did was to ensure that the company was growing daily, and the CEO never ignored my input and commitment but appreciated them. Unfortunately, people aren't the same; it's normal. The workers I have currently perhaps didn't come for me to thrive in the business ; it's all about selfish attitude and cheating, playing smart, cutting corners, and the big part is not having good customer relationships with their customers during the marketing of the products. It's been a setback.

It's too early to complain anyway, but it's good that I discovered a lot already within two weeks. This is why it is always encouraged to get involved with your business actively when it is still early so you understand all the tricks before leaving it for workers to run while you supervise from afar if you have limited time or other jobs to do. Even though I have been soft with these workers, I still picked out their tricks; now I have to balance kindness with firmness.

It's been a lot of lessons so far with me as a new entrepreneur, but I feel that with time, things will normalize while I learn more about people management skills.

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