Do you think that focusing on getting too many government grants is a setback in business? Would that make you lose focus on what your business should really offer?

Government GRANTS -- Vice or Wise? Are you over focusing on chasing for grants and not spending time on building your business? 

Recently, I get to know of an entrepreneur who is running her own business based on grants. She is very focused on spending almost ALL her time looking for different grants and thinking of how to get more money from all the different grants from the government.

What puzzled me is ---> WHY? Why spend so much time thinking of ways to get grants from the government rather than focusing on building up the business?

The grant from government is helpful for entrepreneurs who aspire to run their own business but do not have the resources to. PIC grant is such grant which has helped many entrepreneurs in terms of getting their systems and hardwares. (you can read more about PIC grant here --> http://entrepreneur-weekly.blogspot.sg/2014/05/what-is-productivity-innovation-credit.html) However, relentlessly pursuing different grants seems pretty pointless to me.

I guess the most important thing in running a business is to have clear vision and values. Once you are very clear on those two, then the next important thing is the ability to execute through planning and strategy followed by measurements and feedbacks of results. I realised that some of the entrepreneurs do not know what they want in their business. They seem to be more focused on getting cash from the business by applying for different grants. While, this might seem as a smart move by some, my question to them is --> is this sustainable?

It is more important to build up a strong foundation for your business and think of a sustainable revenue model (yes its gonna be tough but doing things the short cut way also means that there might be little or no sustainable cash flow for the company in the future).

Your thoughts? Share with me! 

About Valerie Chai

I am the founder of starCresto Education Group (starCresto). 

starCresto was founded in year 2000 and has expanded over the years from tuition to tuition agency to enrichment courses to mentoring. I am born in a poor family and I guess that gave me a lot of drive to succeed and get out of poverty cycle and most importantly, the rat race that so many people are stuck in. I believe strongly in human capital and talent management. 

The business journey has not been all that smooth sailing with great lessons learnt from mistakes made. With all these learning, I live by my three rules in life now:

1. Think strategically

2. Behave optimistically

3. Execute courageously

Success is a matter of chance or choice?

CHOICE OR CHANCE?

Are you determined to succeed or are you leaving it to chance or destiny? Even though it is true that success might require luck and chances, the determination and choices that you make will make you successful when the chance arises :) 

CHOOSE to succeed and charge!! 

Entrepreneur Weekly - Triangle model of BUSINESS that involves ACTIVE and PASSIVE business sections

In all businesses that you do, it is important to build up a triangle that consists of a stable base and a risky tip. I call it the A + P = S model (Active + Passive = Success)

(c) Valerie Chai. ALL RIGHTS RESERVE 2014

To build a successful business, there is a need to build up a strong base of repeated business that requires very little involvement and yet gives you strong repeated cash-flow. This strong base of cash-flow allows you to take on more risky deals that can potentially give you higher ROI. If the risky projects fail, you know you always have the passive income that you have built up to cover your losses. 

Talent Management

The next question I usually get when I share this model will be --> "So what type of employees should you use for passive and active business section respectively?"

Well, it is always good to have your trusted, loyal, stable, efficient and not so adventurous employees to help you manage your business portfolio that are passive in nature. These employees should be remunerated for their loyalty and efficiency. It is important to ensure low turnover for this business section. 

The active business section requires the employees to be a risk taker, solution creator, problem solver and good sales person. However, employees who are in this section tend to be those who job hop very often and they could even learn whatever they can from you and bring it over to your competitors or even set up another company to compete directly with you. As such, it is important for you to include non disclosure agreements and non direction competition for a few years with these employees. However, it is still very important to groom, empower and trust these employees. These employees should be remunerated on commission basis and could even be groomed to be part of the partners if they prove to have the potential.     

Opportunists are usually entrepreneurs