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| Inspire Afrika Representative: Anita Ashiru |
Inspire Afrika recently had the prestigious opportunity to give a presentation at the AIESEC Regional Training and Motivation Seminar for Thika Region in Kenya. Inspire Afrika’s representatives Leyla Ismaily and Anita Ashiru’s topic of choice was naturally Youth Entrepreneurship. This is mainly because of Inspire Afrika’s vision to empower young African minds by arming them with knowledge about ordinary African entrepreneurs doing extra-ordinary things.
Below is a summary of the main points covered at the presentation:
- Do What You Love – Entrepreneurship is about more than finding a niche in the market and filling it with an innovative product or service. You need to be passionate about the business you are starting, that way when things start to go wrong you will have enough fight in you to pull through. That notwithstanding you must have knowledge about what you’re doing, it cannot simply be built on your love for that particular area.
- Be a Healthy Person – Running a business is a very funny thing; it’s not the 9-5 employment that our parents planned for us. When you are passionate about your business it becomes what you sleep, eat, dream and do for fun. You have to put yourself first, always. You need to know that if you look after yourself you will be happy healthy person and sooner or later your business will be a happy healthy business breaking the bank.
- Always Be Prepared to Pitch – I have said it on this blog numerous times and I’m saying it again, we live in a world where who you know is often more important than what you know. This strongly relates to youth entrepreneurs because of that fact that we meet new people all the time; at parties, at school, at family gatherings etc. You must always be able to say what your business is in fewer than 3 minutes. Perfect the pitch and you will reap the rewards.
- Spend Smart – We all have people that we admire and that we would like to emulate unfortunately as entrepreneurs we don’t have the budget that our idols do, not yet anyway. So you are a tech entrepreneur who was fortunate to visit the Microsoft offices, good for you but that does not mean you start buying the latest most expensive computers. Spend when necessary and save as often as you can because things will get rough and you are going to need that extra money at some point.
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| Inspire Afrika Representative: Leyla Ismaily |
In conclusion there is no exact formula on success in entrepreneurship, but we (Inspire Afrika) do what we can to inform the masses of the many successes coming out of Africa. After all, knowledge is power!
