Zoho tasks SMBs, startups on organic business growth

A Technology Company, Zoho Corporation on Friday encouraged Small and Medium Businesses (SMEs) and Startups to build their businesses organically without any external investor or influence.

The Country Manager, Zoho, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, gave this counsel in an interview with our reporter in Lagos.

Ogundare said that achieving organic business growth meant that the business managed to successfully increase its output and sales using the resources and strategies it already had available.

He said that the key thing for every entrepreneur or small business was to have a purpose, adding that when SMEs know why they are in business, then half of their problems are solved.

“Generally, what I tell people is for them to know why they are doing what they are doing. When you know the why, there is a purpose for what you are doing, and you will easily know what direction you are going.

“In Zoho, our purpose is to provide solutions; standard solutions to businesses to help them scale their business. This is our Why.

“So, there must be a problem you are targeting,” he said.

The Zoho country manager added that when a startup knew why it was in business, then it could begin to standardise its products.

He said: “when people like what you are doing and you are actually solving a problem, people will come to you and they will talk to you and standardise what you are doing.

Ogundare noted that a lot of businesses made the mistake of starting out in a big way and ended up actually spending too much money.

He said that there are a lot of options for SMBs and startups to choose from that would not break their banks.

He said one of those options was Zoho products, adding that their products for businesses were affordable and would not overwhelm their budgets.

Ogundare said that if Zoho, which was a privately-owned company, could achieve much without any influence, then the same could apply to any SME.

According to him, there is no external investment in Zoho, there is no loan and everything is built organically by looking inward.

He stressed that despite Zoho being a privately-owned bootstrapped company it had developed in the last 25 years of its existence to have 100 million users globally.

“I think this is very encouraging. This is what Zoho is trying to say not because we want to brag, although we can brag about it.

“It is at the same time to encourage small businesses, startup communities, to tell them that if Zoho can do it, then they can also do it.

“We started in 1996 as a company, so as of today we have 155 applications that we provide for a lot of organisations and currently we have presence in 150 countries,’’ he said.

Ogundare urged SMBs to think global and act local, saying that this was the Zoho mantra.

According to him, when you are thinking global but acting local, you are actually focusing on the pain points of the local SMBs and businesses in Nigeria.

The country manager said that it was trying to encourage homegrown business, adding that SMBs are one of its targets.

“Every business will start small. Even, the Bible says, do not despair, you are moving on.

“So, an SMB today can become the Unicorn of tomorrow,” he said.

He stressed the importance of technology in doing business, saying that the company provided its customers a connected ecosystem with everything working together seamlessly.

Ogundare said that technology helped to save cost and time, so it was a must for fledging SMBs and startups.

It was reported that Zoho is an Indian-owned multinational, maker of cloud-based business software started in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu as the Founder and CEO.

Vembu, who owns a majority stake in Zoho with his siblings, started the business as AdventNet along with two siblings and three friends.