Where would do you go for support for your brilliant small business idea?

Your bank, a friend in a bank, your spouse, college buddies, relatives, a private investor you did not know until recently… more importantly, who first to tell? People who know you are always skeptical, that’s the way the world works… the more you know someone and the more the person knows you in return, their judgment will be clouded by too many considerations. Your idea will matter less than ‘the person they have known for years’; that’s human psyche.

As I mentioned before, watch this space for an announcement… you have to be patient. If the announcement has taken longer than the two weeks I initially indicated, you need to accept the fact. Nothing comes without some effort, like having to wait a few days?

So what comes to mind when you think United Arab Emirates?

Backward peripheral territory, a country built by expats, people without imagination or insight, land of camel caravans… I’m amazed at the ignorance that still prevails. Thanks in no small measure to the international press.

Here is a blog amongst several, that should give you a different perspective. It is authored by an incredible individual who quadruples as member of a royal family, businessman, thinker and press/radio columnist/commentator. I love my adopted country of 20 years.

http://blogs.zawya.com/sultan/

SMEs are the new growth sector...

A reminder...

In the next week to 10 days I will be announcing something tangible for aspiring SMEs, those with the ideas that can make a difference, individuals who have aspirations to lead the world into a better future, stake-holders of convincing new business proposals… how about micro-credit for SMEs…

Credible and clean private equity investments are available for SMEs… watch this space for the announcement… have patience…

Parrots in Dubai... a lesson to be learned?

Parrots, I’m told, cannot fly very long distances. I’ve seen wild parrots from my secondary school days in India (not seen them much, except in captivity on my recent visits). I have never seen parrots while I was in Malaysia where I was born and lived until 1969 and then worked, from 1982 to 1987.

Of all places, I noticed parrots in what seemed migratory flocks of scores flying by in batches, as the sun set in the winter of 2007 in Dubai. They were flying in formation, one flock after the other, with the occasional stray frantically finding its way, but more or less in the same direction, led by instinct. Perhaps the first time I noticed them in my 20 years in the United Arab Emirates. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them, parrots, flying far above my apartment balcony, as I sipped on my single malt.

I remember at the time, I had pointed the birds out to my wife, but she observed them far above in the fading light for a few seconds, but refused to believe they were parrots.

Well, now I am sure they were parrots.

It’s the beginning of winter 2008 in Dubai, and flocks of similar green parrots are flying in the same direction above my apartment window where I am nestled, sipping my third double vodka and red orange (some things never change, like the parrots). However, like me having migrated from single malt to vodka, some of the batches of parrots seemed to be flying at lower altitude. This permitted me to determine they are indeed parrots; green hue, long, slightly sagging tails, familiar bird calls… I could hear even their cousins (our two pet budgerigars) answering their cries. Wish I had released the budgies at that point, but they wouldn’t last the approaching summer, I thought. Charitable, conscientious human, ignoring who it was that imprisoned them in the first place!

So what’s the lesson?

No life-changing, ingenious, business leadership pointers here. I enjoyed watching every single flock of the parrots fly by as the sun set in Dubai and, continued to my 7th or 8th vodka and red orange (can’t remember how many). Following that, I had one of the soundest, most relaxing six hours of sleep I have had since 1982.

SMEs are the new growth sector. Back to how it all began. And more...

There are many economists and business gurus pointing to SMEs as the new growth sector in these troubled times. Why? Simple… because the financial models to which we have been accustomed for the last few decades do not work anymore.

There’s rediscovery in progress.

Technology and new-media savvy individual entrepreneurs are repainting how business works. Remember? That’s how it all started; mom and pop shops, someone who started a computer company in a garage, top investor and role-model who delivered newspapers in his neighborhood at one time. Back to the hard working, innovative, ambitious people with determination who built the business world as we know it today.

Out with the financial behemoths, speculators, consultants and ‘experts’ who do nothing more than cook-up more and more creative ways to hide the fact that they were backing thin air. But hang on a second, some ground realities have changed in the way SMEs can benefit from the lessons, and in the process, succeed.

Thanks to Web 2.0 (or Web 3.0 as you may feel fit to describe it) the way small business is done is changing, faster than we can even venture to say the word, ‘recession’.

More about that later.

In the next two weeks I will be announcing something tangible for aspiring SMEs, those with the ideas that can make a difference, individuals who have aspirations to lead the world into a better future, stake-holders of convincing new business proposals… how about micro-credit for SMEs…

Credible and clean private equity investments are available for SMEs… watch this space for the announcement… have patience…

Those who build can't destroy; those who destroy can't build

There are two types of employee or partner. One who builds and one who destroys. One cannot be the other. That’s human nature. You can never have an ideal mix of the two. Don’t even bother trying. You need both builders and destroyers to achieve your ultimate goals. You have to be the balance between the two.

Everyone likes builders, but no matter how much you try, they cannot be destroyers, not even for a minute. They will just make a mess of everything trying, because they also have other qualities like loyalty and conscience.

Nobody really likes destroyers. But they seem amiable, agreeable to any situation, in-control and confident, qualities on which other employees like to rely. Use destroyers well. They don't mind.

When you have reached the state of business affairs when you need to take the step from small to medium or leap directly from small to large, you need both kinds. Builders and destroyers.

Destroyers have a tendency to migrate to whatever comes next when they get bored destroying. Then they turn their attention inwards at what they are supposed to be protecting. Keep the destroyers well-remunerated on ad hoc tasks. Never ever tell them more than they need to know. Never teach them everything you know.

If one destroyer leaves, get another. They are easier to find than builders.

Employ relatives? I take back my earlier comments. Please, oh please... employ your husbands and wives.

If your wife/husband does not work or run an alternate business, she/he is probably doing a great job taking care of the children and the home. Or so you’d like to think. Wives/husbands do not like being left out of the income chain, no matter how critically they contribute to holding the ship above water at home. No matter how much you try to convince them they are doing a wonderful job. They must be part of the revenue chain for you to succeed. Otherwise you are in deep trouble, without having a clue for years from where the trouble is coming.

Here are a few examples of what your wife/husband may decide/do while you’re hard at work (clueless) building your small business. Warning: it may take you years to realize what’s really happening.

A)You are involved emotionally with one of the men/women you employ.
B)You have a hidden partner of the opposite sex on whom you are spending most of your income
C)You are re-investing on everything (like your small business) except your own family
D)You are definitely hiding part of the income in case there’s a divorce
E)You are sending unaccounted money every month to your mother
F)“When was the last time you took us out?” (forget the fact any suggestion to go out is always scuttled skillfully)
G)The last relative you employed against your own policies was actually engineered by your wife/husband, though you didn’t have a clue at the time
H)Your own family are suddenly behaving like you are an acquaintance
I)Your long-time friends and associates know more than you’ve ever told them

Sorry, I can’t tell you more. All these happened to one of my small business compatriots, who owns a successful enterprise in Dubai. If I tell you more, some of you would know who it is. Identities are always protected in this blog.

Cheers!