FINDING THE RIGHT PATH AS AN SME

PART II                  

Thinking about tomorrow is thought that bring fear for a jobless youth. Speaking of jobless; it is the talk of any young person in an African setting right from Lagos to Johannesburg or from Addis Ababa to Senegal’s capital Abidjan. One such a thought creeps into our minds, the next thing is to venture into business and for obvious reasons as an SME depending on ability in terms of capital and opportunity ability isn’t easy.

Having gone through a university and trying some entrepreneurship within that period-campus period- I can tell you it is not easy minus the right traits and, capital and opportunity. The African university education system has not changed largely to empower the youth so that they can be job creators and not job seekers. I tried and my dream still lives on and I hold onto to date. I strongly know that a dream is not enough but I, with each passing day believe in the wake of tomorrow, I will find my niche in this competitive and rather non empowering society.

                                                         Jerk of all trades

This is the beginning of most entrepreneurs anywhere around the globe. As a new entrant and furthermore an SME, one has to be the manager, accountant, sales person/marketer before growing to be a job creator. The transition is not an easy one though since a lot of time is spent in trying to establish the business at personal level before recruiting other employees. Venturing into a competitive market as a new entrant has had lots of challenges for start ups. Providing an inferior product or a copy paste of an existing one for manufacturing cases provides for no opportunity of breaking in the existing competition.

                                          Analogy of numbers

Numbers in most cases don’t lie. Doing a market survey as a start up is the first technique of finding the right path as an SME. The numbers are very crucial in establishing the market segments hence providing a good opportunity for identifying your niche as an entrepreneur. With the numbers at hand, the next move is coming up with a USP (Unique Selling Point). The presence of selling does not mean narrowing yourself to just unique marketing strategy; it starts with the product itself. Provide a solution to an existing problem with a certain product or fill a gap that exists in a uniquely way that even imitators cannot set you off the market hook when they encroach into your already established market. In Kenya, the service industry is a green one that people have not greatly explored for economic empowerment, research is another field that hold room for SMEs that we have not poached into. You can be the bridge in these gaps and many more others and you are set for entrepreneurship.

                                                Maintaining the path for posterity

No businessperson ventures into business so that tomorrow they can close them out of frustration. They dream of their business existing as long as they exist themselves on even live longer. This is true if you are prepared that frustrations in business are a must. Prepare well on how to react to frustrations in business if they arise by first identifying the frustrations that might arise and planning for them adequately. You are in other words putting your business into quarantine for safety purposes.

Finally avoid theories and myths from other in your business life. Maintain the you-customer-business bond greatly. Keep it strongly and create new ones every often while working hard to keep them for as long as possible. With these, your business is set for posterity and you are on the right path as an SME.

Copyright 2015

Geoffrey Ndege

Geoffrey Ndege

Geoffrey Ndege is the Editor and topical contributor for the Daily Focus. He writes in the areas of Science, Manufacturing, Technology, Innovation, Governance, Management and International Emerging Issues. For featuring, promotions or support, reach out to us at info@dailyfocus.co.ke
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