| Danial Norjidi |
YOUNG entrepreneurs need to be dedicated, should not give up on their businesses too quickly, and need to give themselves a time frame within which to achieve success.
At the same time, young entrepreneurs should also consider working with established franchises.
This was said by Dato’ Seri Ibrahim bin Haji Ahmad Badawi, the Executive Chairman of Brahim’s Holdings, while speaking in an interview with the Bulletin yesterday.
Dato’ Seri Ibrahim is the founder of Malaysian brand Brahim’s food products, which has been around for 30 years. Their food products are on supermarket shelves in more than 20 countries worldwide, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and many more.
Asked if he had any advice for young entrepreneurs, he said. “There’s a lot of opportunity. If you really want to get involved in business, if you’ve got the passion for business, I think you should, because there are more opportunities.”
“You must be dedicated, must have passion for this,” he said. “The other thing is staying power.”
“There are young people who have come to see me about wanting to start a business, and then they go on to do it for just a year or less,” he continued. “They often say it’s too difficult, but you can’t do that.”
“You have to actually promise yourself that if you want to do something, to do it at least for two or three years.”
Dato’ Seri Ibrahim Haji Ahmad Badawi (2nd R), the Executive Chairman of Brahim’s Holdings, during his interview with the Bulletin. – AZROL AZMI
“Give a time frame for you to develop yourself and do it within that frame. Finally, if you do not succeed after three years, then you can consider maybe doing something else, but give it a try. You can’t start and then after six or eight months decide you’re not making enough and stop.”
Adding on, he highlighted, “You must have staying power, you must believe in what you are doing. When you start, give yourself a time frame: ‘I will do this, and give it all my attention for two or three years’. So if you fail within that time, you can say you’ve done your best. If not, after just six or nine months, ‘I’m not making enough money, I give up’, you don’t know what is ahead.”
Dato’ Seri Ibrahim also shared that one very good opportunity for young entrepreneurs is the area of franchises.
“The likelihood of success in an established franchise system, the success rate is much higher than any ordinary business,” he said. “If you want to start something new yourself, you have to develop yourself.”
“With a franchise, firstly, before you get the franchise, the company will look at you to see if you’ve got the passion, if you’ve got the drive and qualifications. Once you get the franchise, SOPs, procedures and your products that are recognised, so part of the royalties that we pay will be in terms of advertisement, promotion and so on, and you may be joining a few hundred thousand other people doing the same kind of thing. So there is an awareness of products.”
“For young entrepreneurship, I think franchises are the way to go,” he said.
He added, however, that getting an established franchise can be expensive. As such, he suggested looking up smaller franchises.
“There are some smaller franchises that are just starting, with five to 10 shops that have potential. Join up; find out who the owner is.”
He shared that his own company has ties with multiple franchises.
Dato’ Seri Ibrahim is in Brunei for the launch of a number of Brahim’s products and a recipe book, which is taking place today.
The post Give time frame for success, be dedicated to business, young entrepreneurs told appeared first on Borneo Bulletin Online.