What No One Teaches You About Starting and Growing a Business
By Andile Khumalo
Entrepreneurship often looks glamorous from the outside. However, building a business requires difficult decisions, resilience and a willingness to learn from failure.
Things I Wish I Knew captures this reality through the experiences of an entrepreneur who has navigated the pressures of business and finance.
The book offers a candid account of building and growing businesses. It draws on real decisions, consequences and outcomes from the author’s entrepreneurial journey. Rather than presenting entrepreneurship through formulas or abstract theory, it focuses on what happens when business decisions meet real-world pressures.
Lessons from the entrepreneurial journey
Things I Wish I Knew explores several challenges that entrepreneurs encounter throughout their careers. These include funding negotiations, leadership decisions, governance and cash-flow pressures. The book also considers the personal cost that entrepreneurship can impose. Consequently, readers gain a perspective that extends beyond financial performance and business growth.
Short stories and case studies make these lessons accessible and practical. More importantly, they show how early decisions can shape later outcomes. Success does not always guarantee sustainability. Likewise, failure does not necessarily signal the end of an entrepreneurial journey. Instead, both experiences can provide valuable lessons when entrepreneurs reflect on them honestly.
Things I Wish I Knew should appeal to aspiring entrepreneurs and established business owners alike. It offers insights for readers who want practical guidance rather than theoretical frameworks. The book encourages entrepreneurs to approach decisions with greater clarity and intention. It also highlights the importance of resilience when circumstances become difficult.
Ultimately, Things I Wish I Knew succeeds because it presents entrepreneurship as a continuous learning process. Its greatest strength lies in its willingness to share hard-won lessons. Readers can therefore reflect on their own choices while considering how today’s decisions may influence tomorrow’s business outcomes.
About the author
Andile Khumalo is a seasoned entrepreneur and chartered accountant with more than two decades of experience in business and finance. He founded and leads KhumaloCo, an investment firm with interests across technology, media and marketing, real estate and corporate services.
Khumalo also serves as a non-executive director on the boards of JSE-listed Grindrod Limited and Sabvest Capital Limited, as well as Airports Company South Africa SOC Limited. In addition, he founded I AM AN ENTREPRENEUR, a specialist enterprise and supplier development company. Through the organisation, he supports small and medium-sized businesses across South Africa with practical, tailored solutions designed to build lasting capacity and impact.
- PUBLISHER | Penguin Random House SA |
- ISBN | 9781776393268 |
- Recommended Retail Price | R370.00 |
- Classification | Entrepreneurship |