Business Challenges and Prospects
Business Challenges and Prospects
21 April 2023
ntrepreneur
In this article, we will explore the important factors that Ethiopian
entrepreneurs need to consider when building successful businesses. We'll
look at the current business environment in Ethiopia, discuss how to develop
a business idea, start a business, and grow it, and provide practical tips and
examples along the way. Related articles: - Make Money Online in Ethiopia: 5
Platforms to Exploit - What You Should Know to Start Online Business in
Ethiopia - Top 11 Best Online Business Opportunities for Ethiopian
Entrepreneurs By the end of the article, readers should have a better
understanding of what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur in Ethiopia,
and be inspired to take action towards their own business goals.
Busin
Before starting a business in Ethiopia, entrepreneurs must identify a feasible
business opportunity. This requires careful research and study of the market,
the competition, and the potential demand for the product or service. Here are
some steps that Ethiopian entrepreneurs can take to develop a successful
business idea:
:
One way, in fact, the most common way to generate business ideas is to
identify a problem or challenge in the local community and develop a solution.
For example, a lack of kindergarten schools or daycares could be the basis for
a new business idea.
:
It's important to understand who else is offering similar products or services
in the market and what their strengths and weaknesses are. This can help
entrepreneurs differentiate their business and find a unique value
proposition. For example, in the case of the daycare facility, you may find that
the location of the existing daycare centers is not ideal for parents, so you can
try to find a location that suits the parents.
Before investing too much time and money into a new business, entrepreneurs
should test their idea with potential customers to gauge interest and gather
feedback. This can involve creating a prototype or offering a limited version of
the product or service. Again, using the daycare center idea as an example, you
can try your own house, or rent a small house, and try the business with as
little as five to ten kids, for a couple of months. This will give you a real idea of
what the business will look like, what its challenges will be, the expected
common expenses, staff and facility needed, and so on. . .
Once a viable business idea has been identified, entrepreneurs should develop
a clear business plan that outlines their goals, strategies, and financial
projections. This can help secure funding and guide decision-making as the
business grows.
By following these steps, Ethiopian entrepreneurs can develop a strong
business idea that addresses a real need in the market and has the potential
to succeed. It's important to approach this process with an open mind, be
willing to pivot or adjust the idea as needed and seek feedback and advice
from other entrepreneurs or mentors.
Once a viable business idea has been developed, the next step is to start
the business. In Ethiopia, there are several legal and regulatory
requirements that entrepreneurs must follow. Here are some important
steps to consider when starting a business in Ethiopia:
:
Entrepreneurs must register their business with the appropriate
government agencies, such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry
or the Ethiopian Investment Commission. This involves providing
proof of ownership, the business plan, and other relevant
documents.
:
Depending on the nature of the business, entrepreneurs may need
to obtain additional licenses and permits from government
agencies, such as the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of
Agriculture.
:
Entrepreneurs should open a separate bank account for their
business, which can help with tracking expenses and managing
cash flow.
o Obtain funding
:
Access to capital can be a challenge for Ethiopian entrepreneurs,
but there are several options available, including government
programs, microfinance institutions, and angel investors.
o Hire employees
:
Entrepreneurs should carefully consider their staffing needs and
hire employees with the right skills and experience. They should
also comply with labor laws and regulations, such as minimum
wage and working hour requirements.
Starting a business in Ethiopia can be a complex process, but with the
right guidance and support, entrepreneurs can navigate the legal and
regulatory requirements and set their businesses up for success. It's
important to seek advice and mentorship from other entrepreneurs,
business associations, or government agencies to ensure compliance and
avoid common pitfalls.
:
Entrepreneurs should consider expanding their business to new
regions or markets within Ethiopia or even internationally. This
can involve adapting the product or service to meet local needs
and preferences.
:
Entrepreneurs can also consider expanding their business by
adding new products or services to their existing offerings. This
can help attract new customers and increase revenue.
:
As the business grows, entrepreneurs must ensure that they have
the right team in place to support their vision and goals. This may
involve hiring new employees or outsourcing certain tasks.
o Leverage technology
:
Technology can be a powerful tool for growth, from improving
efficiency and productivity to reaching new customers. Ethiopian
entrepreneurs should stay up-to-date on the latest tech trends
and consider investing in new tools and software.
o Seek funding
:
As the business grows, entrepreneurs may need additional capital
to fund expansion. This can come from a variety of sources, such
as venture capital firms, angel investors, or crowdfunding
platforms.
While scaling up a business can be challenging, it's important for
entrepreneurs to stay focused on their vision and goals. By leveraging
the right resources and networks, Ethiopian entrepreneurs can
overcome the challenges and unlock the potential for growth and
success.
Some examples of Ethiopian businesses that have successfully scaled up
include; • Kaldi's Coffee, which has grown from a small coffee shop to a
chain with multiple locations, and • Iceaddis, a co-working space and
startup incubator that has helped launch several successful tech
startups. By following these strategies and staying focused on their
vision, Ethiopian entrepreneurs can build successful businesses that
make a positive impact on their communities and the wider economy.
Conclusion
If you’ve got entrepreneurial ambitions, here are some tips to help you get
started.
Forget your social life. In the early days at least, you’ll need to devote pretty
much all your time and energy to the business. The pay-off, though, is that if
things go to plan, nothing beats the rewards and satisfaction of creating a
successful business from scratch.
Draw up a solid business plan. Make sure it includes goals that are SMART:
specific, measurable, appropriate, realistic and timely. It doesn't guarantee you
success, but it makes it more likely. It can give you a benchmark to measure
your performance against and helps to keep your focused.
3. Cash is king
‘New’ business doesn’t necessarily mean ‘new’ idea. Some of the most
successful businesses simply take an existing idea and do it better. Just look
at Apple. They didn’t invent the personal computer or the MP3 player – they
just improved them. So don’t be put off if your idea has been done before.
Instead, think about how you can improve it by doing it differently.
As the saying goes, ‘people do business with people’. So you need to get out
there and talk to people. Networking is a relatively cheap way to market your
business – and one of the most effective.
Do you have any top tips for starting your own business? Or perhaps you’re
already a successful entrepreneur? Join the discussion on Twitter by including
#ACCA in your tweets.
4 Methods to Sustain Long Term Business Growth
Every business owner has a vision of continuing to grow, however not everyone
has a business development strategy in place to ensure long term success. As
with all companies, eventually they will reach their peak and enter into the
stability phase of their business life cycle.
Having business extensions as part of your long term growth strategy is the key
for thriving overtime and is one of the simple fundamentals which can help
your business consistently ensure it remains relevant.
The supporting products must be compatible with your main products. This
allows your business to promote the new product in an easier fashion and the
marketing aspect becomes straight forward.
For example, a business which primarily sells ‘fresh milk’ as their product can
diversify their product line by introducing new flavours in different packaging
sizes. Overtime, this can be further expanded by utilising different forms of
milk such as almond per flavor.
The business growth strategy for supporting products doesn’t end there. There
are many other growth opportunities available, especially when businesses can
merge current trends into their products.
For example, sustainability is currently a large trend and many consumers are
making their purchase decisions based on products’ environmental impact.
Continuing on from the same example, the business can introduce sustainable
packaging and milk sources (e.g. oat) into their product line.
Further down the track, the business can debut healthier versions of its
original product to expand the supporting product range.
Rebranding
Rebranding gives businesses the potential to completely refresh their image
and is the equivalent of a reset button.
Rebranding can also occur in the situation where a business engages in the
merging or acquisition of other businesses. If this occurs with businesses that
are overseas or share very similar products, then focusing on your brand
messaging and revaluating visual identity will be of great importance.
Once your business has reached the stability phase, conducting a thorough
analysis will save time and money as opposed to experimenting without
direction. The stability phase marks a milestone where the business isn’t
necessarily growing but is staying in a safe zone, and creating changes without
data is too risky.
To ensure business growth, this should be done at least once a year to grasp
all the knowledge on market demand and this should be a staple in your
business growth strategy.
A long term business growth strategy must having a blueprint in place for
changes in operational cost if expansion were to occur, as growing without
planning this will hinder business growth and may even create a backwards
step.
Regardless of the path chosen, the most important point to remember is that
business owners must always carefully plan the strategy and no impulsive
decisions should be made without considering short term and long term
implications.
Chasing constant business growth is overly idealised, however there are often
times where remaining in the stability phase and thoroughly planning is the
smarter choice.
1. You could grow very quickly, which sounds great, but then you could
incur into the problem of how to fund this rapid growth and how to find the
resources to support it.
2. You could grow too slowly and stagnate.
3. You could be losing sales and eventually go into bankruptcy.
As Fast Company states, a powerful brand comes from its ability to develop a
personal connection with its customers. In order to get them to return to you
and build your brand, you need to really focus on developing and sustaining
these relationships over time.
First of all, you need to identify your niche. As quoted in a previous article:
"If you try and sell everything to everybody, you successfully sell nothing to
anybody."
David Finch, Purple Frog MD"
Secondly, you need to really identify who your buyer persona is, what their
pain points are and show them how you can help them. The trick here is
to educate and inform your customers, not interrupt them with ads. So
reaching out to them individually on social media with ad hoc posts, or writing
very informative blog posts/white papers/guides that cater directly to their
needs, is the best way to nurture a relationship with strangers and be found by
more potential customers.
If you want to learn more about this technique of educating not interrupting
your prospects and customers, download this free ebook that will tell you
everything you need to know to grow your business through running inbound
campaigns
We all love growing our businesses, but if it comes down to the scenario one
described in the intro, where the growth is too quick, you should always be
prepared. One of the big issues that is holding back companies in the UK from
growing is the lack of internal resources, but if you know where to find them
externally when in need and have good working relationships with freelancers
or other similar companies to yours, then you can be confident that you will be
able to handle any kind of job that comes your way.
Another great way you can leverage collaborations with other businesses is by
starting to refer customers to them and asking them to refer some to you in
return. In that way you will have a very solid network of referrals and a
continuous stream of new clients coming in.
If you start considering customers as more than just a sale, but you introduce
the possibility of them coming back time and time again, that will increase
their lifetime value to you. For instance, if you can work out that the average
customer makes a annual purchase of £10k and you manage to get them to
stay with your company for around 3 consecutive years (instead of 1),
their lifetime value to you will be £30k. If you can get the relationship going for
more than one year, then, that is effectively £20k in new business.
That is why your business should have a marketing plan and budget for 'new
business from old customers', and you should start treating your client base as
leads and prospects.
By delighting your customers, not only will they be returning, but they will also
become promoters of your business, bringing in more customers in turn.
The issue with this is that, as James Allen from Bain says, 80% of companies,
when asked, believe they deliver a superior proposition to their customers, but
if you ask the customers of those companies, in only 8% of cases do they agree.
They refer to this as a delivery gap, the difference between what you think
you’re doing and the reality of how customers perceive you.
Try and integrating surveys and net promoter scores into your business,
asking your customers to give you feedback after every interaction. In that way
you will have an objective view on customer satisfaction and will know what
areas you need to improve in.
You know you have achieved this when you have a sales conversion rate and
revenue that you can consistently forecast. This can be done by implementing
repeatable models and processes that will save you planning time and assure
you success every time and with every customer.
Another great idea is to try and hook your clients and prospects into a retainer
model, rather than getting them to pay on an individual sale basis, so that you
have some predictable, fixed income every month.
Having engaged employees often means having happier and more loyal
customers, getting from them a higher level of productivity and work quality
and spending less in recruitment costs. In order to keep your employees
engaged and motivated, create a positive environment, reward high-performing
teams and recruit the right staff that will fit in your company culture.
In business, it's never a case of discovering a model or strategy that works and
sticking to it for decades. The world changes quickly, and you need to be able
to adapt. Keep analysing all your strategies on a regular basis (and that is more
than once every year) to identify what works, what needs tweaking and what
isn't working and therefore it's best to concentrate your resources elsewhere.
Conclusion
These are quite a few tips, and you can either go for all of them, or choose to
really focus on one and measure whether it's giving you the growth you want or
not. In any case, always analyse the effects of any strategy you implement in
your business, in order to ensure you are on the right path for success.
ኢንተርፕርነር ሺፕ ማለት ምን ማለት ነው?
ኢንተርፕርነር ሺፕ /የስራ ፈጠራ / ፅንሰ ሀሳብ የተጀመረው ለ 18 ኛው ክፍለ ዘመን (1700 ዎቹ ) ሲሆን
ከዚያን ጊዜ አንስቶ ይህ ቢዝነስ አስተሳሰብ ሲቀነቀን እስከ አሁን እስካለንበት የ 21 ኛው ክ/ዘመን ደርሷል፡፡
ብዙዎች ይህንን ፅንሰ ሃሳብ ከግል ስራ ፈጠራ (በግል ስራ መጀመር) ጋር የሚያያይዙት ሲሆን የምጣኔ ሀብት
ባለሙያዎች ደግሞ ከዚህ ባለፈ ተጨማሪ ትርጉም እና ትንታኔ ይሠጡታል፡፡
አንድ አንድ የምጣኔ ሀብት ባለሙያዎች ኢንተርፕርነር (ስራ ፈጣሪ) ማለት ከዚህ በፊት ያልተጀመሩ
/ ያተሞከሩ/ ትርፋማ ስራዎች ለመጀመር የሚደፍር እና ሊከተሉ ለሚችሉ ኪሳራዎች ሃላፊነት
ለመውሰድ የሚደፍር ነው ይላሉ፡፡ ሌሎች ደግሞ ልዩ ልዩ የፈጠራ ስራዎች ወደ ገበያ የሚቀርብን
ሰው ስራ ፈጣሪ /ኢንተርፕረነር) በማለት ይበይናሉ ፡፡ አንድ አንድ ግለሰብ ኢንተርፕረነር ነው
የሚያስብለው አዳዲስ ምርቶች እና ምርት ሂደቶችን በማስተዋወቅ ሰፊ የገበያ ድርሻን ለማግኘት
የሚሞክር ነው ሲሉ በርካታ የመስኩ ምሁራን ይገልፃሉ፡፡
ይህ በእንዲህ እያለ በርካታ የምጣኔ ሀብት ባለሙያዎች በመሰረታዊነት በአንድ ነገር ላይ ይስማማሉ፤
አንድ ሀገር ምጣኔ ሃብት ለማሳደግ እንዲሁም በርካታ የስራ ዕድሎችን ለመፍጠር ሁነኛው መንገድ
የስራ ፈጠራ (ኢንተርፕርነርሺፕ) መሆኑን። ከእንደኛ ዓይነት ሀገራት ( እያደጉ ባሉ ሀገራት) አዳዲስ
እና ጀማሪ የስራ ዘርፎች በስራ እድል ፈጠራ፣ በገቢ እድገት እንዲሁም በድህነት ቅነሳ በኩል ለሃገሪቱ
የሚያበረክቱት አስተዋፅኦ ከፍተኛ በመሆኑ በእነዚህ ሀገራት ያሉ መንግስታት ለእነዚህ አዳዲስ የስራ
ዘርች ድጋፍ ሊያደርጉ ይገባል፡፡
2. ቁርጠኝነት፡-
ይህ የስራ ፈጣሪዎች ባህሪ በተለየ ሁኔታ እንዲሰሩ የሚያደርጋቸው ባህሪ ነው፡፡ ስራ ፈጣሪዎች ከሌላው
በበለጠ ጠንካራ ሰራተኞች ናቸው ሃሳቦቻቸው እና የአሰራር እቅዳቸው ከተግባር ጋር ሲጣመር ቁርጠኝነት
ይባላል፡፡
3. ፅናት፡-
ጠንካራ ፍላጎትና አላማን ይዞ እስከ ስኬት መዝለቅ የፅኑ ሰዎች መለያ ነው፡፡ ይህም ሲባል በጥንካሬ
ያለማቋረጥ ላስቀመጡት ዓላማ በትጋት መስራት እና ለአስቸጋሪ ሁኔታዎች እጅ አለመስጠት ማለት ነው፡፡
በርካታ ሙከራዎች ባይሳኩ እንኳን እስኪሳካ መማርና ለስኬት መድረስ የስራ ፈጣሪዎች ዋነኛ መገለጫ ባህሪ
ነው፡፡
4. ለለውጥ ዝግጁነት
ገበያው በሚፈልገው መልኩ አካሄድን በማድረግ እና ለአዳዲስ ሃሳቦች አዕምሮን ክፍት ማድረግ ማለት ነው፡፡
የገበያውን እውነታዎች በመረዳት ተለዋዋጭ የገበያ እቅዶችን ማዘጋጀት ተገቢ ነው፡፡ ይህም ለአንድ አዲስ
የስራ ፈጣሪ ወሳኝ ባህሪ ነው፡፡
5. መሪነት
ተገዢ የሚሆኑበት ሕግ በማዘጋጀትና እና ግልጽ የሆነ ግብን በማስቀመጥ ወደ ስኬት የሚያደርስ ልዩ ክህሎት
ነው፡፡
6. ጠንካራ ፍላጎት፡-
ይህ ባህሪ የአንድን ስራ ፈጣሪ እስከ መጨረሻው እንዲፀና የሚደርገው ሲሆን ሌሎችንም በስራው ለማሳመን
የሚረዳ ነው፡፡
7. በራስ መተማመን ፡-
ይህ የእርግጠኝነት ባህሪ ሲሆን ጥርጣሬን ከሕሊና በማስወገድ አንድ ፈጣሪ ሙሉ አቅሙን ስራው ላይ ብቻ
እንዲያው ያስችለዋል፡፡ በራስ መተማመን የሌሎች ሠዎችን ትችት እና አስተያየት ያለምንም የአቋም ለውጥ
ለመቀበል ያስችላል፡፡