General

Imagine you wanted your child, Kofi, to take a swim class. You hire the best tutor you can find, Teacher Ama. She then proceeds to teach Kofi every single muscle movement necessary to make him an expert swimmer. Kofi learns breathing techniques, body positioning, arm-and-leg coordination, and he memorises every one of them perfectly. By the time Kofi is done with the classes, he might as well be a tutor to you yourself because he can remember everything Teacher Ama taught during the class. By that standard, A+ is all but guaranteed. When the exams are due, and you are confident. Kofi is confident. He knows what to do. Kofi remembers what to do and is very ready to do it. Let us all now remember that Teacher Ama hadn’t given a single one of those lessons in the water. She did what she was hired to do: teach swimming. If Teacher Ama throws your child Kofi into the pool on finals day, what do you think will happen? Will all the book knowledge in the world help? I mean, Kofi knows what to do. But what you and Kofi will both realise very fast is that some things can be taught, like accounting cycles and business administration principles. If we want to truly train entrepreneurs to fight COVID, we need to get people to practice it as this is the only means to get meaningful results. Some things, like true entrepreneurship, are only learnt, through practice. If you wonder why many companies fail though their leadership are very highly educated, the above analogy is my theory. You might know how to add numbers, understand the principles of trading, and be an accounting wiz but without getting into the proverbial water, that wouldn’t make you a seasoned entrepreneur. I am still learning to appreciate this fact even the more. Some of Ghana’s biggest companies have been built by seasoned entrepreneurs who started out without much of a formal education. Yet, side-by-side, their financial ratios would trump many businesses in the formal sector, easily. Our Makola Market Millionaires remain proof of this. And oh they are; those market women really are millionaires, dollar millionaires. Relevant to the subject matter, classroom entrepreneurship is an unnatural environment. The fundamental flaw of most efforts at entrepreneurship education is that it occurs in the most common artificial environment: the classroom. Entrepreneurship education has been very necessary and should be all the more encouraged. In today’s world, some degree of formal education is always necessary if one wants to acquire wealth. Most people know that by now. I am only saying that the theories and principles taught in the classroom can only be well applied in practice, and mastered through practice in a real situation. Classroom entrepreneurship, just like with Kofi, is an unnatural environment as far as the subject matter is concerned and not a real business environment executing a real business idea into which you’re willing to invest your money and that of your friends and family. One can say business entrepreneurship is social entrepreneurship. One main reason for running a business is to make money – profit. Nonetheless, the inadvertent result of this is social services because businesses creates jobs, contributes to public fiscal health and boosts the overall economy. Arguably, wouldn’t that be in line with the literal definition of “social” “services”? I assume the economic preposition is that when 1 Ghana Cedi is spent, it triggers about 10 Ghana Cedi worth of indirect investment. When you pay for labour, the recipient of said payment will spend that money buying consumer goods or services. Indirectly, you have contributed to the growth of all those other relevant sectors. The moment that labourer spends that payment you gave him, you then have affected all the suppliers and distributors and the transporters connected to the relevant sectors of his spend, and those connected to the just aforementioned sectors as well. Even the Government gets to benefit through taxation.  This has been the singing tune of some of the world’s rich and wealthy, as their response to being called out on their relative inactivity in charity and other philanthropic deeds. Because the fact is that the original intention of an entrepreneur might not be to engage in social welfare, but it inevitably ends up there by default, in a sense. Business/Social entrepreneurship and COVID-19 Even with a vaccine in sight, this novel coronavirus continues to cause unparalleled havoc in almost every sector of our lives. Our medical practitioners and other key volunteers have served as essential frontline workers. Without their immense efforts, the already very bad situation would be much worse. Do you know who else we need to thank God for – Veronica Bekoe, the inventor of the now famous Veronica Bucket. Her invention is now being used all over the world. It is indeed a global village and in this village, Veronica Bekoe is worthy to be counted as a frontline responder in this period of great peril. Her invention might have come before the COVID outbreak but look at how much in demand the Veronica bucket is now. It’s currently a staple in our homes, offices, schools and churches. Auntie Veronica’s invention helps to fights a health crisis. She’s a biological scientist who did not patent her invention, her gift to the world, be in intentional or unintentional. A welcomed gift that we are lucky to have had. I’m just saying that bucket is very important.  Ask yourself this: what and who are going to fight the economic effects of the coronavirus? Heavy borrowing of money? I hope not.  If, as I tried to illustrate earlier, indeed business entrepreneurship is social entrepreneurship, and business entrepreneurship is crucial to social economic welfare, it is safe to suggest that promoting business entrepreneurship amongst Ghanaians should do a great deal to fight the economic effects of COVID.  The World Bank thinks same… or close. In a report titled The African Continental Free Trade Area, Economic and Distributional

My favourite definition of ‘entrepreneurship’ is “the creation or extraction of value”. Simple, right? It means wherever you are, if you are creating extra value for yourself or bringing out more worth in whatever you do, then you’re entrepreneuring! …if that’s a word. It means an entrepreneur need not only be those that start/have a business or a side hustle. By this definition, you might have countless ways and opportunities to be an astounding entrepreneur in your everyday life and not even know it. Value comes from an idea becoming a business. When you get a great idea, it has all the potential in the world, and all the risk in the world too. These kind of cancel each other out. We tend to put too much value on just ideas and that’s the wrong approach because an idea is just the start, just the first and arguably the least of many hurdles to overcome until you milk actual value from said idea. I don’t react the same way I used to when I chance on a great idea. Because a great idea is as valuable as no idea if nobody does something good with it. In fact, badly executing a good idea might cost you more than having no idea at all. A good idea might mean something, to someone, somewhere, but until the right idea is paired with the right person and the right systems, it means absolutely nothing. Some people sit on an idea for decades, imagining the virtual value of the imaginary billions of dollars they will make when their idea takes off. An idea is nothing until it becomes a profitable, worthwhile endeavour that lives and breathes OUTSIDE OF YOUR HEAD. It is important that a good entrepreneur understands that the sky is the limit when a good idea takes off properly, and hell is the bottom if that idea should fail and fall when badly executed. Nonetheless, it all still starts with an idea. We all at one point in time have had an idea about how to make more money, how to get more value. Don’t forget that by my favourite definition of entrepreneurship, you don’t have to leave your job and stop everything to be an entrepreneur. But from where do you start? It starts from an idea, a great idea, a great and grounded idea, an idea you are passionate about, one that brings you satisfaction to see executed. One simple trick to getting that idea is to think of one thing that frustrates, and then think of how to solve it. Boom! Just like that you have your great idea. I might have oversimplified it but it’s true. Some of the world’s biggest and brightest ideas have come from solving everyday problems. You don’t want to leave the house to buy stuff – shop online. There’s too much darkness around you at night– invent a lightbulb. Our very own Veronica Bucket is still proof that a great idea can still be a very simple one from our everyday lives. 3 questions about your idea. Is there really a market for your idea? Don’t be a victim to misleading market demand. Let’s take rice for instance, simple rice. It’s a staple, it’s not hard to understand, and it’s literally everywhere, in every home. Everybody is eating it. So, if you were to import quality rice, people would buy it, right? The answer is not an outright yes. Nonetheless, yes there is a huge demand in the current market for rice but how much of that market is truly YOURS? Misleading demands could make you think all is simply there for the taking. Without the proper business setup, you’d find everyone buying rice, but not yours. Who can you share your journey with? While developing your idea, it’s always best not to do it alone. Statistics show that companies that have co-founders grow a lot more faster than those that are run alone. Don’t separate yourself from the world with your trillion dollar idea. Find people you trust who can help you with your idea and guide you to focus. Is it scalable? To ensure your idea is easily scalable, imagine if you were doing a million times more of what you’ve started. Will you still be able to make profit after increased operational costs? A scalable business can maintain its performance levels as sales increase. Don’t be one of those people complaining to clients that you have a lot of workload so they have to understand why you’re failing them. People get that a lot with new businesses. The current times we live in might make it easier to go global, but also easier to become obsolete. Markets are changing very fast and innovation is the word of everyday. Getting people with whom you trust to develop your idea, who share your passion for the journey, is also important to growing your business. Running a Business The most common notion of an entrepreneur involves running a business of some sort. If you want to run your idea as a business, then regardless of the nature of the business, you need to fundamentally understand these simple steps that complete a cycle. → Invest funds → Get Customers → Sell Goods/Service → Get Paid → Reinvest Funds… then the process restarts. Again, very oversimplified. Now let the idea evolve outside your head. The moment you act on your great idea, it’s showtime! It’s no longer virtual reality. Extreme care should be taken so as not to start off on the wrong foot. Know your peers. Don’t be looking for ideas concerning meaningful healthcare by talking to a taxi driver. He might say something smart every now and then but that’s not his field. It is important to find likeminded people in your sector that you’ll have discussions with. Know your customers. RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH! Research a lot about the sector you are looking to get into. Remember what you read on misleading market demand earlier. Always ask yourself, ‘how

We’ve previously talked about what it takes to make “the leap” from employee to entrepreneur; an empowering milestone that is often accompanied by a feeling of excitement and confidence. The Leap is certainly an event worth savouring but the journey ahead is likely going to be impervious, as Vusi Thembekwayo recently stated: “It is always clear in the beginning, messy in the middle and obvious at the end”. Most startup founders launch a venture off the back of a big spark, niggling certainty or revolutionary idea. Yet, that brilliant hunch is only as valid as the entrepreneur’s ability to execute and get things done with relentless momentum under conditions of extreme uncertainty. To turn an idea into something groundbreaking, entrepreneurs need to form a crystal clear long term vision while constantly making short-term operational decisions. Something groundbreaking = hunch + intention.  Here comes the “messy middle”: while there is clarity around the idea and final goal, what is unclear at this point is the “how and when”. What’s next? How do I grow? Where do I advertise? When do I hire? These are just a few of the dilemmas that every entrepreneur faces. Some call it ‘the art of execution’ – the ability to turn a vision into a set of actionable steps, orchestrated to position the venture in a crowded and complex ecosystem with limited resources, while delivering value to customers, finding product-market fit and building brand equity.  We would be lying to you if we said that there is a secret recipe for this. Instead, we spoke to six startup entrepreneurs and leaders across West Africa in agritech, e-commerce, fintech, and insurance, collected a series of tactics that helped founders turn a brilliant hunch into a groundbreaking venture. While no-one can pull up their sleeves for you, we’ve done the next best thing and distilled their insights into a series of recommendations here that have made the lives of other startup founders’ easier. Many startup entrepreneurs frame their business ideas in a solution-first way and thus end up building solutions that make sense in their minds but do not effectively solve the problem(s) their customers face. Entrepreneurs are more likely to suffer this pitfall when they build fully-fledged solutions without testing their ideas over and over again. Sometimes, entrepreneurs get sidetracked by the front end of social media and their own popularity and lose focus on building the right product, which often includes the least fun parts of making their venture grow. Richard Adarkwah (Founder of Insurerity and Graduate of the Accra program in Ghana), advised founders to “…focus on building a good product and actually be able to sell, rather than being popular on social media, [when] your books don’t show good sales.” Ayo Dawudo (Founder of Loystar and Graduate of the Lagos program in Nigeria) added, “early-stage startups also develop the key relationships needed to sustain their product in the marketplace.”  Quite simply, figure out who your customers are and what problem(s) they face, then you can build a solution that works. What that solution is will often not be obvious in the conception stage, but excellent customer development will help guide you to it eventually. As a startup founder, this is something you should do often, and to different kinds of audiences. Not only will you get feedback on your business and product from a diverse set of viewpoints, but you might also get lucky and kill two birds with one stone: winning a cash prize at a pitch competition. Don’t just do it for the money though – take it as an exercise to practice pitching to diverse audiences, and refine your idea. The more you pitch your business, the more you are able to recognize its deficiencies that escaped you before, thus helping you continuously hone your business idea and model in a way that is responsive to the market you are looking to serve. Being in a program that allows you to make and refine your pitch is highly beneficial in this regard, as Yutaro said, “…I realised the benefits of going through [the Founder Institute program] especially in structuring a pitch deck and presenting it.” Nail your 60-second pitch.  In addition to providing regimen and structure, accelerator and incubator programs are good curators and aggregators of mentors across multiple sectors. A good startup accelerator or incubator program will probably not be a cakewalk, because starting and running a successful startup venture is not easy, and so it is always a good idea to find and connect with mentors who are leaders in the sectors you want to start your venture in. When you join such programs, be ready to let your ideas evolve because they almost certainly will. Cameroon’s Stephanie Kingue, Founder of Dwelner and Ghana graduate, and one of the startup entrepreneurs we heard from advised entrepreneurs in incubator programs to “be open-minded to benefit fully from the mentors and also from the different teachings available.” Learn from others who have done it before, have put processes in place and walked the talk. Your journey will be far easier when you do. The key learning that emerges from this is that while you hustle to get a product to market, you should not stop focusing on your personal growth and on growing the support network around you because that is where the greatest opportunities will come from. We hope these important insights on how accelerator programs have helped founders navigate the ‘messy middle’, will further help you think about how you transform an idea from a brilliant hunch to a groundbreaking venture.  ***************** This article was based on the virtual panel discussion, Making it: Meet Founders Successfully Launching in West Africa, hosted by the Founder Institute Ghana. This article was written by groundbreaking.africa and the Maxwell Investments Group in partnership with Founder Institute Ghana. *****************  The Founder Institute (FI.co) is the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator. Since 2009,  FI has helped over 4,500 entrepreneurs get the focus and support needed to build businesses that matter. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters