Dear Entrepreneur,

Don’t forget to think seriously about the big picture. Your vision; where you see your venture many years from now. It is easy to get caught up in the day to day running of your startup that you forget to give very serious thought to the big picture.

This is exactly what happened to me. Of course I know what our mission is where we want to be in 10 years, except, I hadn’t given a lot of serious thought to what the path to our grandiose vision would be.

This was how I found out: An investor with whom I was speaking to about our product, GrainMate, asked a question which caught me off-guard.

I told him we are currently producing a few hundred units of GrainMate from our facility in Kumasi every couple of months. And then he asked me; what’s your plan to scale from 200 units to 200,000 units?

And then it hit me that I hadn’t really thought about that. I hadn’t thought about the product development route, the supply chain and logistics of key parts and the distribution channels required to scale from 200 units to 200,000 units.

I was focused on the day to day aspects of our business; trying to refine the product, doing small production runs, satisfying immediate orders, etc. that I and failed to give very serious thought to what the strategic path to our vision would be.

Our audacious vision in 10 years is to see 1 million farmers in sub-Saharan Africa rise out of extreme poverty and hunger through the impact of our products and services, whether directly or indirectly.

If this vision is going to happen, then it was absolutely necessary for me to start thinking of the path to that vision.

What about you? Are you thinking about the big picture? Or you are still caught up in the today? The answer lies with you!