“Uganda tops the countries with the highest rate of failing businesses. As a nation, we are a highly entrepreneurial country. For the last five to seven years, we have remained among the top three in the whole world in terms of enterprise creation. However, another dismal statistic shows that we have for long been the country with the highest enterprise failure rate,” reveals Enterprise Uganda Executive director; Charles Ocici
Why would a country that is not over populated with self-made business leaders have only a few of businesses go the whole distance? Ugandans are opportunists by nature yet many young entrepreneurs in particular have generally low growth expectations, few innovate or vary product lines making creation of additional business more common than expanding an existing one.
According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), 28% of adults own or coown a new business. With all the resource endowments in the country, isn’t it high time for us to move from just a promising entrepreneurial country to one that’s actually the most entrepreneurial?
If we look closely, it’s not an issue of resource materials but poor record keeping, mixing business capital and personal money or personalising of company profits are what we need to game up! Entrepreneurs across Africa often cite access to capital as the biggest barrier to growth but money alone is unlikely to produce significant results, financial discipline and mindset change does.
The Growth Office, an online digital marketing agency, strongly believe that an entrepreneur’s surrounding network has the biggest potential to impact their future and for this very reason, they have partnered with Hangout Foundation to organise an annual workshop called Startit360, focused on supporting small businesses each year that have shown high interest to grow.
“We will bring together a network of valuable creative minds in business, inspiring speakers, and strong strategies in business development and marketing to share strategies with startups, and freelancers but mostly putting emphasis on creating sustainable and relevant networks for business owners and co-owners.” – Says Daaki Joshua, Founder of Hangout Foundation.
We believe this platform is the future of Uganda’s entrepreneurial status moving away from what it has been branded by GEM reports to new statistics; helping creative thinkers, cofounders and freelancers who are looking at developing strong brands start with a higher edge – Joshua added
This the workshop will be hosted at Forever Resort in Jinja on Saturday December 8th for not only interactive talk sessions but also interactive activities that will engage business owners, to think out of the box. Many tested and tried business models will be trained as well at only At the end of the workshop, The Growth Office and Hangout Foundation are giving a grant worth $500 to the most exciting and innovative start-up/entrepreneur. The grant will support the venture in digital marketing and establishing a strong online presence. The grant is open for all attendants to register and apply. Apply here www.startit360.com
