Students trained to be entrepreneurs

The Goa chamber of commerce and industry (GCCI), along with the non-profit organization ICreate, has trained commerce students from 18 colleges across Goa in a five-day entrepreneurship training programme to enable the students to become creators of jobs rather than job seekers when they finish their studies.

After the 'Change your mindset' programmes conducted by ICreate, students come out with business ideas, which the GCCI, ICreate and Goa commerce teachers association help to polish into feasible business plans.

The programme is held in education institutions across the country, covering students in the age group of 17 to 23 years, and 11 best ideas are picked to compete in the national business plan competition of ICreate India.

After institution and regional level competitions, the 11 students coming from diverse family backgrounds from different parts of the country will compete in Goa at the Entertainment Society of Goa premises in Panaji to have their business idea funded.

The business ideas in the competition cover a wide range of fields from organic manure, juice parlour, hand made gift articles, cleaning services, tiffin service, hot air balloon to a unique heating and cooling system.

"Under the tie-up with ICreate, the Ghas conducted training for women in rural areas of Goa like Canacona and Sattari and the women came out much more confident and knowledgeable about business tactics at the end of the programme. With close to 70 master trainers, Goa has the biggest pool in the country under the programme. The GCCI has also discussed with banks to make the process easier for entrepreneurs seeking finance," GCCI president Manguirish Pai Raikar said.

He said that entrepreneurship programmes are also being planned for inmates of Aguada jail and sex workers in Goa to make them independent.

"ICreate training programmes are devoid of the jargon that go with business management training. Our programmes are more on how to go about practical implementation of business ideas. We do handholding for youngsters and people from rural areas with viable business ideas for six months. We take care of the mentorship so that the budding businesspersons realize the importance of a foolproof business idea as against thinking only about finances for the business," Dr Aruna Bhargava, one of the founders of ICreate said.

ICreate India CEO Ulhas Kamat said that with 10 million youngsters in the country, it will be difficult to secure a job with each one looking for employment rather than self-employment.

Township training with Ekasi Entrepreneurship Academy

Cindy Krawe, TSiBA's Community Training Courses Co-ordinator, has recently launched a joint venture project with Silulo Ulutho Technologies to create a training academy in Khayelitsha. Ekasi Entrepreneurship Academy aims to empower township entrepreneurs by giving them the necessary skills and training to grow their businesses.

Ekasi Entrepreneurship Academy opened for business on 23 July with its first intake of nine entrepreneurs. Ekasi means "township" in Xhosa and the name was chosen with a long term dream of opening many of these academies in townships all over Cape Town. The courses are aimed at entrepreneurs with start-up businesses or individuals who have an idea for a business that they want to start. The first course is 12 weeks long and covers topics such as Business Essentials, Business Plan Writing and Mentorship. The course costs R2000 and classes run every week day morning from 08h00 - 10h00 until 12 October at Silulo's Head Office at Khaya Bazaar. The course facilitator, Cindy Krawe, teaches the training material. Cindy has been involved in community training since she graduated from The Tertiary School in Business Administration (TSiBA) with her BBA degree in Entrepreneurial Leadership in 2010.

Cindy noticed the overwhelming number of unemployed people in her community and decided to do something about it. She explains, "From the research I conducted, some of the reasons for the high numbers of employment were due to the fact that people didn't have job finding skills, they did not know how to use a computer or type out a CV and if they were lucky enough to secure an interview, they didn't know how to adequately prepare for it to make a good impression." Cindy and TSiBA entered into a joint venture to start the TSiBA Community Training Programme which forms part of the Ignition Centre. Founded in 2007, the TSiBA Ignition Centre is a hub dedicated to extending TSiBA's mission of "Igniting Opportunity" to reach beyond their students and into the communities they come from. The centre offers support to community members and aspiring entrepreneurs through specific training courses, mentorship programmes, networking opportunities, access to business networks, office infrastructure and business instruments. 

To date, the Ignition Centre has helped over 200 entrepreneurs and one of the major success stories is Luvuyo Rani of Silulo Ulutho Technologies. Luvuyo is a former teacher and started his computer sales business from the boot of his Corsa Lite. He first came to TSiBA to seek help with managing growth, finance and compliance. Silulo Uluthu now has more than 18 internet cafés and computer training centres in Cape Town and has recently opened its first internet café in Queenstown, Eastern Cape. Silulo Ulutho was the perfect choice as a joint venture partner because they are committed to empowering individuals with knowledge to create more successful township entrepreneurs.

To book a place on the next course in October, you can contact Nomthandazo Mlungwana at Silulo Ulutho Technologies on 021 361 3212 or email Nomthandazo Mlungwana thandiez@gmail.com. 

Top 10 Leadership Qualities

 

Although it is famously said that leaders are born, not made, the fact of the matter is that leadership, like all other qualities is also something that can be developed into an individual. Likewise, there are certain qualities and traits that are common to individuals commonly perceived as leaders, Although it is easiest if an individual has those qualities naturally, there is no doubt that they can also be developed and nurtured in a person.

Having A Purpose

All leaders know exactly what they want and have a clear sense of vision of how to get there. Only if you can clearly and exactly know what you envision for the future, and have an exact sense of your goals and purposes can you actually chart a way of getting there.

Decision Making

A good leader is not afraid of taking decisions, even though he knows that the actions of others, and their success and failure will lie on him. Taking the initiative to make a decision is what allows leaders to step forward, take action and work towards the goals.

Not Afraid To Take A Risk

All good leaders know that their every action will not be a success; however they do not allow this to hold them back from taking action or making a decision. If you make a decision, there is a chance you will fail, but if you don’t, there is a guarantee that you will. As a result, taking no risks is the sure way to getting no gains, and no real leader should be afraid of taking a risk.

The Power To Motivate

A good leader is nothing without a strong team, and it is a fact that a strong leader is well aware of. Therefore, to be able to get the right course of action, leaders need to know how to motivate their team and taskforce towards working on that goal, and thereby succeed.

Working In Teams

Again, a good leader is nothing without a strong team to take support and help from. There is a subtle difference between a strong leader and a dictator, and in the long run only the former can be truly successful.

Strong Sense Of Self-Knowledge

To have a strong understanding of one’s capabilities and limitations is another important feature for all leaders to possess. Only when one truly understands their weaknesses can they use their strengths to work past them.

Honesty And Character

All good leaders must be prepared to be accountable for their actions. A leader has strong followers only if they truly trust and respect him, and that arises out of complete honesty and integrity only.

Constant Learning

Like all successful people, leaders know that they have as much to learn as they have to teach. One can learn from the simplest of men and that is not a fact that should be taken lightly.

Good Communication

Explaining your ideas to your followers is an important quality in a leader, as is being able to effectively convince others of your aims and visions. Hence, it can be said that communication is one of the key aspects to good leadership.

Helpful

And finally, all leaders should know the importance of helping others. Whether just to help them reach their common aims, or help them develop their own, it is important that leaders always be willing to help others.

Google commences online training for 500 entrepreneurs

GOOGLE Nigeria has announced the commencement of the “Succeed Online” training series, in an effort to help Nigerian small and medium business owners make better use the Internet in reaching
more customers and meeting their business goals.

Bunmi Banjo, the marketing manager for Small Medium Enterprises products at Google Nigeria said that the goal of the Succeed Online training series was to educate small and medium business owners on crucial tips that would help them boost the impact of their online presence.

In other words, while having a website gives businesses an opportunity to showcase their goods and services, they can further benefit from a comprehensive online presence which include good use of social media, listings, blogs etc. These tools are available to them at no cost.

The “Succeed Online” training is an educational series by Google to help business owners understand how to manage a wide range of internet tools that can take their businesses to the next level. It is a part of the Get Nigerian Businesses Online programme (GNBO), launched in September 2011, which has so far enabled over 25,000 SMEs in Nigeria to build their own websites for free.

The GNBO programme is a joint initiative by Google and partners such as Ecobank to help SMEs create their first websites and help them make the most of the opportunities offered by the Internet. See www.gnbo.com.ng for more information.

Participants of the Succeed Online programme are current GNBO website owners, who have expressed interest in enhancing their online presence. Some of the other topics to be covered in these sessions are:

• How to use platforms such as Google Trader to list various products and services for immediate sale
• How to use social media and YouTube videos to interact with customers and get valuable feedback for improving their businesses
• How to use Google’s ‘Insight for Search’ to improve the content of their websites.

While these sessions are currently offered to GNBO website owners only, many tips and tricks on improving websites and building an effective presence on the Internet can be found by doing a simple online search.

Top 10 Signs You Are Made To Be An Entrepreneur

By Fred Gratzon
Someone forwarded me a request for information put out by a USA Today reporter. He was writing an article about entrepreneurial personality traits. He wanted suggestions from “experts” in compiling his list. The idea was to help people decide whether they should seek self-employment or not.


P.S. Additions, enhancements and/or subtitutions are heartily encouraged.

Fred’s Top 10 Signs You’re Made to be an Entrepreneur

10. You are unemployable. You can’t hold a job. You don’t want to hold a job. And you react to getting a job the same way a cat reacts when you try to give it a bath.

9. You are anti-authoritarian. You can’t fathom the thought of being anything less than Boss, President, Chairman, Don, and/or Emperor.

8. You have the uncanny ability to get other people to do all the work.

7. You are always looking for and/or seeing economic opportunity everywhere and in everything. While at a concert, you occupy yourself by estimating the evening’s take and its gross margins instead of listening to the music.

6. You spend more time and energy looking for easier, faster, cheaper, more effective ways of accomplishing something than if you just did the task outright.

5. You would enthusiastically trade a life-time pass to Disneyland for one ride in the Vomit Comet. In other words, you would give up a secure, even-keeled, bland existence for a life that whipsaws uncontrollably between exhilaration and terror.

4. You don’t see lack of money, lack of knowledge, and lack of experience as barriers to entry. You are also not deterred by the existence of formidable competition.

3. You favor multiplication over addition and you lull yourself to sleep by calculating price-earnings ratios.

2. You would happily invest your home’s equity and your life savings (and your mother’s life savings) in your start-up.

And the Number One sign you are made to be an entrepreneur . . .

1. When you project future earnings, your spread sheet shows that by Year 5, you can buy Argentina and sell it to Brazil.