MSME DIGEST With Kola Owolabi
What is money on the table?
Absolutely. I would frame the opening article around a simple central proposition: entrepreneurs often do not have a money problem; they have a “money-on-the-table” problem.The examples of Bill Gates, Dangote and Michael Dell can then reinforce the idea without turning the piece into biographies.
One of the greatest mistakes entrepreneurs make is looking for money that is far away while ignoring the money lying right in front of them, In business, I call this “Money on the Table.”
Money on the table is the obvious business opportunity that is already within your reach, but which you ignore while chasing opportunities that are more difficult, more expensive and farther away.
Imagine sitting at a table and seeing money lying directly in front of you. You do not need to borrow money, raise capital or travel anywhere. You simply need to stretch your hand and pick it up. Yet, instead of doing so, you leave the money and begin running around looking for money somewhere else.
That is exactly what happens in many businesses.
A customer calls to make an enquiry about your product or service. The customer is already interested. You have not spent a fortune finding this prospect. But instead of responding promptly, you take hours or even days to get back. By the time you respond, the customer may already have bought from somebody else.
The money was on the table. You simply did not pick it up.
Another customer who has already bought from you calls to complain. Instead of seeing the complaint as an opportunity to retain a paying customer, understand a weakness in your operation and possibly generate another sale, you begin defending your organisation.
The customer is not necessarily asking for an argument. The customer wants a solution.
Again, the money is on the table.
There is another, more subtle example. Your brand is doing well and competitors begin entering your market. Instead of asking, What is it about this market that has attracted them? you immediately begin spending scarce resources fighting them.
But competition can be a useful signal. It may indicate that you have discovered a market worth pursuing.
Visionary entrepreneurs have repeatedly demonstrated this principle. Bill Gates did not build Microsoft merely by chasing every distant opportunity; much of Microsoft’s growth came from recognising and expanding opportunities around personal computing as that market developed. Michael Dell built Dell around a powerful insight into an existing market: customers wanted computers configured to their needs and delivered efficiently, allowing Dell to exploit an opportunity within reach rather than simply copying traditional computer-retailing methods.
In Africa, Aliko Dangote provides another illustration. His business career has repeatedly involved identifying opportunities around products with large, established demand and then building capacity to serve those markets at scale. The lesson for the MSME is not to copy Dangote’s scale, but to copy the habit of looking carefully at where demand already exists.
This is where many small businesses need a change of mindset.
Before asking, Where can I find more money?, ask:
What money am I currently leaving on the table?
Are existing customers buying everything they could buy from you?
Are enquiries being converted promptly?
Are complaints being turned into opportunities for improvement and customer retention?
Are satisfied customers referring others?
Are there products or services you could add for your existing customers?
Are you fully exploiting the geographical market already around you?
The list is endless.
The entrepreneur who learns to see these opportunities gains an important advantage: growth does not always begin with more capital. Sometimes it begins with better attention to the opportunities you already possess.
So, the next time you feel that your business needs “more money,” stop for a moment.
Look around your business.
Look at your customers. Look at your products. Look at your enquiries. Look at your complaints. Look at your unused capacity. Look at your market.
You may discover that there is already money on the table.
Stretch your hand. Pick it up.
*To be continued in Part Two.*
Kola Owolabi is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria. His company, David Solomon Consulting, a foremost business plan preparation/academic writing (Manuscript/Dissertation/Journal and Conf. Papers review and editing) consulting firm, operates out of Igbesa, near Crawford University, Ogun State. He can be reached at 08023203198 ( WhatsApp line)
