Hello, my name is Gary Shotton, I’m here in Baltimore, Maryland Airport My wife and I had spent four days at the capital Washington DC. Capital of the United States of America.Now today I’m going to talk about the subject of more than one. You see we talked to different groups throughout Africa in East Africa especially and we asked them to pose tough questions for us And one of the questions was should it be wise to have an own and operate more than one business at a time? This person had been advised that that’s what a business person should do. Now. I cautioned him right away I said, you know, you’re gonna have more on your plate than you ever imagined having just one business going and you don’t want to create an environment where you’re stressed stretching yourself so thin that you don’t have time to concentrate on your business until they’re Up and running and after you get one up and running and I’m talking about several years down the line You’re gonna learn a lot of business experience that will help you with your second one But that’s down the line quite a ways, you know There’s gonna be limited capital. There’s gonna be limited money and you’re gonna come to situations in every business anywhere around the world You’re gonna say, where is my capital? I know it’s true in East Africa, but I tell you it’s true in America Where is my capital so you’re gonna have limited capital? You’re gonna have to decide where to stretch your capital your money your cash. You’re gonna have to put back on the businesses that are successful and then put back and make a reserve account so that you can get through the rainy days or the tough times or the cycle and season of your business almost everything has a Cycle and a season so you’ve got to be willing to make it through and able to make it through that season Now ask yourself. Is it logical that you could run? two businesses, three businesses, four businesses. Without even being able to run one business. I think it’s you know, the answer now there are different personalities. I will tell you that different personalities do have the ability to do more than one thing at a time. But that’s down the road a bit That’s when you have experience when you see someone that’s in their business that’s really deep in their business We’re top probably talking eight to ten years. The first four or five years you’re just figuring out what to do and the next three or four years, You’re maybe putting in processes and you’re creating an environment where you can start making some profit but in that process There’s going to be the ability to expand from one kind of business into another for instance. I bought a machine shop. Primarily, we have one piece of equipment. It’s called a lathe and mill and we produce one basic type of product But as time went on we realized our customers needed something else they needed to be able to us to be able to do welding. Well, I didn’t start out as a welding shop, but I added it My point is not to make you a machinist or a welder. My point is in every single business. You’re gonna find that there’s something additional additional services that that that you need to be supplying and that’s going to be necessarily might include a capital expenditure of another piece of equipment or at least some raw materials so that you can Expand that but this is down the line a bit. Now you’re also need to be able to make your customers happy now. I have a business that is Focused on just a limited number of customers, so I’m asking them for more of their business. I’m telling you many people try to go get another customer When all they really need to do is provide more to their existing customers. I’m telling you that your existing customers is who you want to concentrate on not a new customer. Yeah, you want new customers, but that shouldn’t be your concentration. There’s a saying that goes that it’s ten times easier To keep your current customer happy then to find a new customer or you could say it differently It’s ten times harder to get a new customer than to keep your current customer. How do you keep your current customer you listen to them? You know what they want. Let’s apply that to a food business, you know You have a restaurant you’re feeding people and they’re coming in ask them what they want new and different keep your culture, right? You know, keep it in line with who you are as a business, but add other things that’s going to take capital. Let’s say that that that you’re baking something in a bakery or making cakes Explore deeper and find out what your customer wants in my case I am able to dig deep and find out what my customer wants add more value and make my Relationship with that current company company or customer even more solid even more connected let me talk to you about Alfred the Mutua the auto mechanic from Nairobi Kenya. Wow He’s about it was about 15, 20 years working for someone else in a business related to cars and automotive. I’m summarizing what you can hear from him on our recordings and he says from a small child, He was passionate, passionate about automobiles as a little boy. He did not have the luxury of buying toys at the store. So he took ten cans and made his own cars to play with it’s the center of his heart Man, that’s what you want You want to find something in the center of your heart now after getting experience over years and years and years? He’s learned how to deal with the business side and also the technical side now about three years ago or two years ago he started his own business a Miraculous things happened, but he’s not just doing one thing. He’s not just fixing carburetors. He’s not just Adjusting the steering. He’s not he’s doing anything and everything the customer needs. He’s expanding his business through his existing customers by adding extra value. He doesn’t just make to other people’s cars He owned some of his own cars and now he adds a driver and he’s now providing drivers with a vehicle That’s what who we rode in we had a driver from Alfred Mutua’s Line of cars and he drove us for the five days six days. Wonderful, and he had everything he needed He’s also expanding to buying wrecked vehicles and buying the wrecked vehicles. He expands and does a major overhaul like bodywork and puts in the glass and repairs them. Bring them back up to new. He’s also expanding because he saw he needed a tow truck most tow trucks leave the wheels down on the ground thus it’s causing wear and tear as you’re towing away a Vehicle that has a problem. He’s building a trailer a truck so that you can load the entire car. Pull it up on to the truck. No, none of the wheels are touching the ground. My point is not to make you an auto mechanic. My point is he’s expanding his own business He talked about somebody that had a business in the garden and raising vegetables But that’s not his business don’t know do business, vegetables when you can make your business better make your business stronger see stay focused on what God has put you on that’s why it’s so part important as part of the Starting stages you find something that you’re really passionate about Just like Alfred was he’s so passionate about it find somebody if you’re in agriculture you if you like agriculture you’ve been out you want to see grows their things grow theirs where you want to rest if you like making something like a Baker, then be good at adding value to the to the the products you’re selling do what God has created you to do stick with it a long time be committed to it and Do one thing at a time now, there is a place in time in years my years, many many years I have my hands and a number of things but you know, I can’t concentrate on all those things I have three or four other things types of business going but all but one of them has somebody in charge of that business, and I’m just Checking in every once in a while. It’s a smaller business It’s working in its on its own and it has a leader in that now after 35 years. I have more than one business I do but it’s not to start with and I have a manager in each of those other ones Whereas the big one is very important to me and I’m on top of it Well, thank you for being a part of IBB talks inspiring better business. I hope these help you