As an entrepreneur, you can be involved in a project to make product or to offer services or both and this is the reason why your business exists. In order for your business to survive, you need to generate revenue by selling those products or providing services that are needed by your customers.  As a business owner, you strive to create value for your business and customers through projects. The majority of projects are happening in the business environment whether you are conducting them to improve your business or to improve the lives of your customers or potential customers.

Why projects are needed? Projects are needed to solve problems or to take advantage of opportunities. In order to do that, you need to work with your project’s stakeholders to give you practical and financial support. A stake is something of value that is at risk. It can be something such as financial, human, physical, or capital.

Who is a stakeholder?

A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in your project and can have an impact or be impacted by it or its outcome voluntary or involuntary. They can be individuals, groups inside or outside your business. Voluntary stakeholders take a stake and risk to have a profit from your project. They can be investors, shareholders, employees, suppliers or customers. They decide to take the stake and risk knowingly. However, involuntary stakeholders are those who may be harmed because of your project activities. They can influence your business performance. They are the government through regulations, the community, and the environment.

You need to identify them, know who they are, what their expectations from your project are, and what is the level of their impact on your project? You need to meet their expectation, if you don’t your project will fail.  For example, you need to know the need of your customers and offer them the exact product and services they want. If you don’t meet their expectations, they are not going to buy your products or use your services and your project will fail. Another example is if you want to convert your attic, you will need the permission of your neighbours through the council planning permission. If you don’t meet your neighbour’s expectation from your project they can reject that project and your project will fail. So your neighbours are members of the community where you live and they have a say about your project BECAUSE IT can disrupt their day to day lives.

You need to always engage with your stakeholders so that they know what is going on and listen to their concerns in order to act and meet their expectations. Your customers or potential customers are also amongst your project stakeholders and you are in business to meet their expectations. In order to do that, you need to listen to them and know their requirements about the product or services you are developing in terms of THE quality, costs, time frame. However, It is hard to balance your project time, costs and quality. In order to do that you need to know what is most important for your customer? Is it to produce the product WTHIN THE budget, ON time or according to the quality specifications?

The customers’ quality requirement specifications are the conditions on which your project outcome will be assessed DURING THE acceptance process at the end of your project. You should have a list of all the features or preferences your customer would like to have on the product.  Your customer should state for example the features the product Must have, Should have, Could have and Would have so that you can produce that product according to your customer’s requirements. If the product is not as specified, it will be rejected at the end of the project and your project will fail. You will need to rework the product and fix the error and this will need more money and time.

As mentioned earlier, you are involved in business to create value for your business and your customers and generate revenue through projects. If you are an employed professional, an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur conducting the project for your business and want to monetise the project outcome; you will need to check if there is a market for your project outcome by researching: what the needs of your potential customers are? What is the pain they are going through? What are they struggling with as a result? And what is the solution you are offering them?

How to identify the need of your potential customers? You can conduct a survey asking specific questions concerning what you want to achieve. This survey will provide you with the key information that you will need such as the pain that your potential customers are experiencing, their gender, age and income bracket, the product that they need in order to solve their problems etc. This is why it is crucial to know your story, because those who went through the same hardship will be drawn to you and will be your potential customers who will be consuming your content and products and using your services. Your story can be about challenges you went through or a success story.

Projects exist to solve problems or to take advantage of an opportunity. As an entrepreneur, you can be involved in a project to make product or to offer services or both and this is the reason why your business exists.  In order for your business to survive you need to generate revenue by selling those products or providing service that are needed by your customers. As a business owner, you strive to create value for your business and customers through projects. Your customers or potential customers are amongst your project stakeholders and you are in business to meet their expectations. In order to monetise your project outcome, you will need to check if there is a market for your project outcome by researching: what the needs of your potential customers are? What is the pain they are going through? What are they struggling with as a result? And what is the solution you are offering them?

Maybe you are an entrepreneur, an aspiring entrepreneur or an employed professional seeking to maximise your options; our simple three-step strategy will help you have clarity in your choices and decisions so that you develop new income streams that will leverage the work you already doing and open up new opportunities for more freedom and flexibility. Remember you need to know who you are, what you like and what you want to achieve. In order to be creative and produce quality products and services you need to be passionate about WHAT YOU are doing so that you are satisfied with the result of any project you undertake.

Doing a job you don’t like may lead to serious implications on your health, personal or professional life such as stress, fatigue, physical and mental health illnesses, relationships issues, a decrease in your productivity and your business or organisation’s performance just to name a few. You can be at work but not performing to your full potential because there is a gap between where you are now and where you want to be. You will start feeling like there is something missing in your life and a tension will start building up inside you.  When you feel that way, it is a sign that you need to recognize it is time for a change whether you like it or not.  If you fail to recognise the sign and do something about it to bridge the gap, an unexpected event can force you to start the change process such as a divorce, serious illness, loss of employment or the loss of someone dear to you, a natural catastrophe or a pandemic that shut down the world economy recently.

If this talk resonates with you, why can’t you register now or book a discovery call. We will show you how to have clarity in your choices and decisions so that you choose projects that are relevant to your career, business, or dream goal.

We will also show you how to start and deliver your project successfully and monetise it so that you move to the next level and live a happier, more successful, and healthier life.

Annie Ka Wenu Dip, BSc, MSc

Project Management Coach, Speaker and Author

Branding Strategist

Founder/CEO of Life Quality Improvement Coaching

Book series: https://lqic.co.uk/authoring/

Learn more: https://lqic.co.uk/my-courses/

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/annie-ka-wenu/episodes/EPISODE–1-HOW-TO-HAVE-CLARITY-IN-YOUR-CHOICES-AND-DECISIONS-ei0cnq