Andrew Mcgregor: MD, the Business Plan.

(From Moneyweb (South Africa) - AAGM)

Byline: Belinda Anderson

With us in the studio now we have Andrew McGregor. He has some advice for us on how entrepreneurs and businessmen can sharpen their vision.

Andrew, you advise people on their business strategies - what is the trend that you find with entrepreneurs? Do they always have a good conception of the business that they want to start?

ANDREW McGREGOR: Belinda, not always, sadly. What we find when helping people who have existing businesses as well as start up businesses, is that people have no idea that often they don't realise that there's a vast difference between what is seemingly a good idea and what is a solution that can really fly as a business.

MONEYWEB: How would a business person know if they had focus?

ANDREW McGREGOR: It's probably one of those things that is really hard to know. You know when you haven't got it, or rather you would know when you have got it. One of our rules of thumb is that, if you can articulate your focus in seven words, then you've probably got focus. And, by articulating it in seven words, you have to do a couple of things. The first thing that you need to do is look at your business and your products and the benefits that your clients will get from that perspective. Don't worry so much about what you are providing your market - what benefit do they perceive they are going to get?