“Understanding where you are now, where you want to be and what you need to get there are the three most important questions you need to be answering as an entrepreneur,” Susan Situma the Vice President, Head SME Banking at Barclays Kenya says. This is the reality check for anyone who runs a business.
She adds that the questions help you map out your business’s journey in terms of what you need to gather, the kinds of people who will help you, the resources you need to accrue and what they will cost. You can then be able to work backwards to find out what you need to set up now so that you can achieve your business’ goals.

“An investor will always be looking for the financial information of input and output,” Susan Situma says. She adds that most entrepreneurs don’t usually have that information because they need the deal now, without actually thinking about the future. “The deal now will get you the money but you might not be there in two years,” she warned.

One of the problems she has seen with Kenyan businesses is that they don’t have the staying power. She posits that maybe it’s because the entrepreneurs only looked at the short-term gain giving up the long-term gain.

“You have to go through the mud initially if you want to make sure that the business is seen by your kids. Otherwise it will have a natural death after yourself. This is not what we want to build, we want to build an empire that people will be talking about,” she said.
You need to able to think short-term and long-term in order to reach your business’ goals.