The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
A lot can be done instead of the usual routine of waking up children to spend the day on TV cartoon networks
COMMENT | Michael Jjingo | Ideas are easy; Implementation is hard – Guy Kawasaki. We need to get our younger generation to start craving to own a business at a tender age. That way, we shall inculcate the passion for business management, call it job creation in the next generation, contrary to the expectation for jobs and employment. All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.
Wait a minute, if over 75% of Ugandans are known to be entrepreneurial, then why do we have fewer businesses formed, and even fewer new businesses living to celebrate the first birthday? Our children are home for over two months. Could we utilise one month for an entrepreneurship challenge, which will entail training plus practice of the chosen business idea. This should certainly depend on the children passion and talents.
Instead of the usual routine, of waking up the children at home to start with washing up and then spend the entire day on the TV cartoon networks, there is a lot that can be executed at home. Some parents are doing urban farming at home, which nurtures children into farmers. Others are doing zero grazing to interest the children into farming. Some parents have requested their maids to leave as a way of creating the gap to train the children at home, in regard to domestic chores.
As the young people hone the business ideas, better to create a business plan at the onset. Good intentions might sound nice but it’s the positive actions that matter. Let us sprinkle with a little bit of passion on a good idea, as we do the business plan, the future will be assured.
Better to create a simple business structure. Launching or even crafting a business idea is the easiest part of the journey, but not the business structure. This entails planning for the future, considering the past. The structure involves people, of whom authority and responsibilities must be balanced. As the business survives, for the structure to deliver, a robust performance management system should be deployed
The business concept should be determined, which will define what the business will do, and the value addition to the prospective business stakeholders. A brief about the business concept will explore the market need, the devised solution, together with the unique value proposition, that should outmatch-the competition.
The budding young entrepreneur should consider researching about the competition and the market. This involves researching major competitors to gain insight into their products, sales, and marketing tactics. Implementing stronger business strategies, warding off competitors, and capturing market share are just a few benefits of conducting a competitive market analysis.
As a matter of regularising and certainly achieving the convenience in operations, it is advisable to consider registering and formalising the business. This entails searching and reserving the business name, plus the registration of the business. It will not only enable the business to achieve the much sought for recognition, but also be able to contract and receive financing.
The lifeblood of any business is the funds invested in it. The first and most pivotal use of funds is to get the business off the ground. Funding can help a young investor become an entrepreneur by giving them the necessary monetary support to at least run a hypothesis on the idea and convert it into a concept.
As a way of strengthening the young business, better to get strategic partnerships and allies, that are long-term, with clearly defined goals for the partnership. The partners bring that value that the startup would not have attained single handedly, which will go a long way in supporting it to survive.
Plan and execute the marketing and promotion of your products and services. Back in the days, setting up a business only required funds and opening physical premises, then the customers would walk in. Today, there is much more work in regard to scoping the niche, curving out the value addition, or the serious problem that requires a quick solution, and marketing the product to gain the uptake.
Well, marketing focuses on increasing the awareness of a product and getting it in front of potential customers. Promotions are the final step of marketing. They provide the needed incentive to turn visitors into buyers. All in all, marketing vs promotion is about awareness vs conversion, and both are pertinent.
Our young generation should always embrace that Mentorship. There are many ways of avoiding the repetition of the avoidable mistakes, but the best would be the mentor-mentee interactions that will offer the hindsight and guidance regarding how to go about the business. The mentor offers frank guidance to the mentee, which is augmented by the mentor’s
experience.
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The writer is the General Manager Commercial Banking at Centenary Bank
