6 Business lessons to learn from Lord Echendu

 

6 Business lessons to learn from Lord Echendu

 

Entrepreneurship can be a very tough and lonely journey. Since the entrepreneur needs to pull together funds, either from personal savings or from external sources, any mistake made could be very costly. To avoid these huge losses, it is more instructive to learn from the experience of other entrepreneurs.

 

A young and inspirational figure that budding entrepreneurs can learn from is Lord Echendu Ndubuisi. The Nigerian serial entrepreneur whose business conglomerate includes; Echendu Group of Companies, Echendu Oil and Gas, Echendu Sky Travels, Esh Properties, Echendu Cargo and Logistics, among others that are operating in the United Kingdom, United States, Ghana and Nigeria.

 

Here are some keys lessons that can be learnt from his entrepreneurial journey:

 

1. Pursue your passion: Many people stumble into business without any prior plan and purpose of going into entrepreneurship. This is why some family-owned businesses fail, as those who take over the businesses never had the intention of owning a business. For others, they might just be into entrepreneurship out of pressure or purely out of the need to make money; before long, these people discover that it is not as it seems, and that entrepreneurship can be a very difficult and often lonely journey, so they quit. For Lord Echendu, the passion for business was discovered at a very young age; while he was still in primary school, he nurtured this until he finally started his first venture at the age of 23. But regardless of age, let your business pursuit be borne out of passion and it will stand the test of time and the markets.

2. Be prepared: Every entrepreneur needs a preparation phase to increase the chances of having a successful business.This could mean learning a trade, registering for a professional course, getting a job, or investing some time on personal development. Whatever the route you take, preparations will always give an added advantage to any entrepreneurial endeavour. For Lord Echendu, preparation meant studying to get a degree in chemical engineering and then going on to acquire more knowledge through professional training and certifications in leadership and business management. This served as a stepping stone in establishing an oil and gas company and managing its expansion into a multinational conglomerate.

3. Start small: It was the great Chinese philosopher, Confucius, who said “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” There is no better place where this applies than in entrepreneurship. After graduating from university, Lord Echendu started submitting proposals to oil and gas companies in the UK soliciting for the job of procuring offshore equipment at competitive rates. A few got back to him, and this gave birth to Echendu Oil and Gas, and the rest, as they say, is history. So whatever heights you dream of reaching with your business, the key is in starting small, bootstrap with your meagre resources and soon more people will start believing in you.

4. Persevere: In starting out a business, challenges will be rife. So being able to push through in spite of difficulties at various stages of the business is key to the continued survival and profitability of the business. Out of the many proposals that Lord Echendu had sent out in the early days of his business, only few responded and even meeting with client needs was a challenge, but with perseverance he pulled through, and this has remained an enduring trait in his entrepreneurial journey.

5. Diversify: Although this doesn’t apply to a new business, diversification is one thing an entrepreneur should always have at the back of their minds while starting out a business. It could be an internal diversification in launching new colours, size or flavour of the same product, or more daring in opening up another business in a new sector all together. For Lord Echendu, it started out with construction, oil and gas, and then logistics, real estate and more. This diversification has helped to ensure the business sustainability and provided more channels for cashflow.

6. Give back: To whom much is given, much is also expected. As an entrepreneur, your business model should not just be focused on making sales (taking from people), you should also think of effective ways of giving back to society. It was for this reason that Lord Echendu established Echendu Unify, a non-profit organization with the aim of providing interventions to the less-privileged and reaching out to give hope to those that have somewhat been forgotten.