What Every Young Entrepreneur must know in 2018 – John Armah

<p>These nuggets in my opinion represent what could change the face of doing business in Africa for Young Entrepreneurs&period; Feel free to share and adapt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Focus- Every Entrepreneur will at various stages of their entrepreneurial growth hear that passion translates into a call to find a need to solve or a need to be created and solved&period; Often&comma; the passion we have remain mere intentions&sol;ideas and may not become successful businesses&comma; because the ideas we carry are not the success we seek&comma; the businesses established are what define success&period; For many Young Entrepreneurs&comma; determining among this lot&comma; a clear concise vision and focus on that one true idea and its possibilities that best represents who you are may make the difference for you&period; Having an array of things you do or are good at is cool as some will tell you&comma; what ticks is a clear focus on one thing that works&comma; that you are known for&comma; that has a definite bigger picture in industry terms could do the trick for you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Be Focused&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Value – The biggest challenge for many starting up is finding that unique value proposition that clearly outlines the need the market yearns for&period; Importantly it is continually understanding what Customers want and whether a company’s product or service is commensurate with the needs of the market that isn’t static&period; A company’s true moment of success is its ability to continue to offer value to its client over their lifetime through winning new clients or maximizing repeat purchases from existing clients&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Create and Rethink Value&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Product Development – Will hype&comma; photoshoots grow your Business&quest; Personal branding will only reinforce brand perception based on the product or service your company offers to an existing or new market&period; Real growth is driven through tangible and intangible products and for most part&comma; your brand perception holds real value when you can speak in real turn-over and contribution to taxes about your Business than simply looking good&comma; speaking well or posing for the camera to be respected as an Entrepreneur&period; If your Product isn’t actively marketed beyond the owner’s personality&comma; you don’t exist as an Entrepreneur&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Create and Improve Your Product or Service Offering&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Team Building&colon; You cannot succeed on your own as a Young Entrepreneur&comma; and in today’s economy you won’t find the right talent anywhere&comma; except you can mold attitudes&comma; train and inspire only to the extent that the employee hired is willing to bear&period; Increased motivation may help increase productivity but hire more for Loyalty and Attitude than for the skill potential employees claim they possess&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Create or Improve Team Culture&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Capacity&colon; Without the relevant understanding of modern tools and demonstration of knowledge in Administration&comma; Performance Management&comma; Team Building&comma; Sales and Customer Service among others you will become obscure and obsolete as an Entrepreneur&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Build Your Capacity&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Financial Performance&colon; Financial Performance is tied to sales&comma; financial reporting and controls but importantly without key metrics to assess and grow sales&comma; you will not grow as a firm or Entrepreneur&period; Research on ways to measure Client Growth&comma; Sales&comma; Tools to check finances&comma; appropriate Budgeting and proper Governance structures to increase your success rate as a Young Entrepreneur&period; Implement more OKR’s than KPI’s&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Real Growth Trumps PR&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Growth and Sales- Regardless of the PR you build around your company&comma; without tools to measure Performance you will never succeed if you don’t have the numbers to back it up with a reasonable baseline to demonstrate real growth&period; Without a proof of concept that shows real growth or potential&comma; you risk overestimating your potential&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Without increased Sales&comma; Your Passion is meaningless&period; Without measurable Impact&comma; you cannot define your level of Impact&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Business Partnerships&colon; Your Business is only as good as the Partnership agreements you draw up or enter into to help you run&sol;manage your Business&period; Seek Counsel&comma; Invest in the Process&comma; Build Trust above all&comma; do what you said you will do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Your Partner must reflect the future you want&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>• Hiring&colon; Truth is you may never get the best of talent on your first hire&period; Loyalty&comma; Attitude&comma; should be qualities you look out for in Staff beyond Skill&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>2018 is a year of numbers&comma; growth&comma; turn-over&comma; governance&comma; product and brands and certainly not about you my dear Young Entrepreneur&period; It’s no longer about You&excl; Build that business and let’s celebrate Your Business because you made it work&comma; not because You are the Business&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Profile of Writer&colon; John Armah is the CEO of the Orios Group&period; He is empowering young Ghanaian Entrepreneurs with Training&comma; Investment&comma; Strategies and Policy Advocacy to tackle some of Africa’s brightest problems in Health&comma; Technology&comma; Agriculture Services and Art&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He has over 8 years in Business Advisory&comma; Strategy and Development Services&period; An Award-winning Entrepreneur and Business Strategist with a passion for Startups Development and Growth in Africa&period; He is currently the Board Chairman for Junior Achievement &lpar;JA&rpar;Ghana&comma; as part of JA Worldwide&comma; Named as part of Forbes 30 Under 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa &lpar;2016&rpar;&comma; 20 under 40 Most Influential Business Leaders in Ghana by award-winning Business World Magazine &lpar;2015&rpar;&period; Voted 12th Most Influential Young Ghanaian &lpar;2016&rpar;&period; Ranked as the 27th Most Influential Ghanaian by ETV Ghana &lpar;2012&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mobile Phone&colon; 0541 888 877 &sol;0303 970 723&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Email&colon; johnarmah59yahoo&period;com<img class&equals;"wp-image-864 alignleft" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;mystorymagazine&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;04&sol;FB&lowbar;IMG&lowbar;1523956496895-206x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"206" height&equals;"300" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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