Succeeding as a career entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs usually start new businesses taking on risks and rewards. Many of these new businesses may not live for more than two years. Despite the challenges, there are entrepreneurs who succeed at every business they start up. How can one succeed as a career entrepreneur?
David Kiwanuka, an entrepreneur, says: “The mistake most people make is them taking their entrepreneurial start-ups as a hobby and not a job they can make a living from.”
He adds: “I have met quite a number of people who end up making this mistake. To them, entrepreneurial start-ups are more like another way to spend their free time,” he says.
Building a network
Taking on entrepreneurship as a career may require one to factor in the need of building a network they can easily rely on. This, according to Frank Mugerwa, an entrepreneur, helps the business grow over time. “To survive in business, one needs a network they can easily rely on,” he emphasises. Without these, he adds, one’s business is doomed to fail in the shortest period.
Additionally, he also talks of the need for one to keep their network intact. Without doing this, he says, one may not be able to grow the financial muscle of their business.
Invest in skills
Most importantly, Mugerwa also says an entrepreneur who has just started out has to invest in learning skills that are relevant to the kind of field they are in. “Going out there to do just entrepreneurship can’t take one far. It is important for entrepreneurs to invest a lot in investing in learning new skills that are relevant in their areas of specialisation,” he says.
Kiwanuka David says: “Business is about people, how you deal with them considering what they would want. In this case they are bosses.”
Planning
Kiwanuka adds that he has to plan extremely well if they are to take off. “Many small businesses in Uganda fail to progress in Uganda because the owners fail to plan adequately for their businesses. This gives their businesses a short lifespan. This is very common in Uganda much as we are known to be an entrepreneur nation,” Kiwanuka says.
