Reinventing Yourself for success as a young Entrepreneur with Esther Mwaniki

It is estimated that an average of 40,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) die within the first year. This is because most people venture into business without the necessary knowledge and skills.

Building a business is not as romantic as it seems. The business space is extremely difficult to navigate, especially for small businesses. Many times, failure will be a big part of the process.

Entrepreneurship is often seen as the solution to unemployment. There’s a philosophy that once you don’t have a job, you should go start a business. This, however, is a lazy way of dealing with the unemployment issue. This results in a lot of young people embarking into businesses without the relevant knowledge and skills that will enable them to thrive.

Therefore, there’s a growing need to understand what goes into one being successful in business.

 

1.Factors that affect Business

Some of the factors that contribute to the success of a business include;

2.Government policies

Enterprises don’t grow because we tell entrepreneurs to grow. There is an environment that enables enterprises to grow.

There has to be a favorable political and governance climate. Your business grows because of policies and its growth depends on your government perceptions.

3.Capital

You need to figure out where your capital will come from. This includes the patient capital that will sustain the business as it takes off.

Patient capital is capital that allows you to experiment while you are figuring out the business. This can come from family, friends, investors, financial institutions or money raised from your employment.

4.Skills

You need to build your skills. This could include technical, leadership or managerial skills. Leverage on mentorship that builds your business skills. One can join fellowships or programs such as the Lapid Leaders Africa that focuses on this.

5.Markets

You need to identify and grow your market. At the heart of business is markets. Find out who your target audience will be and look for ways to build your market and networks.

When one ignores the above four factors, among other things, the business space will become a challenge. These four need to be in place for any business to grow in large scale.

6.Building a Business

A business is not just about ideas. A lot of due diligence needs to be done on the part of the entrepreneur to thrive. Young people should understand that the business world is not a place for naivety.

Some of the things that should be considered before one starts a business include:

• Capital, skills and market.

This is the foundation of the business.

• Your vision.
• Your brand story.

Why are you doing the business and what will the products/services do?

• Your Financial model.

Is the financial model sustainable?

Understand the finance behind your business idea/enterprise.

The business world is not all gloom. The youth should strive to gain all the knowledge, skills and tools for more sustainable businesses to be established.

The path to Africa rising is in entrepreneurship.

For this continent to grow, we need to grow micro businesses. Africa is not just a recipient of aid. Africa is the solution to the world.

The biggest resource in Africa is the youth. We therefore need to invest in them more and empower them to thrive in business.

 

[ This is what we embarked on, in the third series of the Rebirth Webinar hosted my Esther Mwaniki.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lapid-leaders-africa_are-you-a-young-entrepreneur-looking-to-level-activity-7044571038101192704-khqq?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android ] 

Written by  Nicole Makumi– A Lapid Leader