OPINION
By Michael Jjingo
Our children have been home for nearly two months now and are about to return to school. However, it is not too late to give them challenges and tips that could turn them into entrepreneurs. This could include training and helping put your children’s chosen business idea into practice.
There is a lot that children can do instead of watching cartoons on television all day.
If you live in a town, you and your children can engage in urban farming. Some parents are already doing this and nurturing children into farmers.
Encourage your children to develop and hone their business ideas as well as put in place business plans. The good intentions might sound nice, but it is the positive actions that matter. Sprinkle your good idea with a little bit of passion.
Forming structure
Crafting a business idea is the easy part of the journey, but creating the business structure is not. The business structure involves people with authority and responsibility. For this structure to work, a robust performance management system should be deployed.
You need a business concept to determine what a venture will do and its value addition to the prospective stakeholders.
A brief about the business concept should explore the market need and one’s plan to address it as well as a unique value proposition.
Market
These budding entrepreneurs should consider researching the market and the competition.
Some of the benefits of conducting a competitive market analysis include implementing stronger business strategies, warding off competitors and capturing market share.
Registration
To achieve convenience in your operations, it is advisable to consider registering the business. This will not only enable you to get recognised but will also help you with getting contracts and financing. The lifeblood of any business is the funds invested in it.
Funding can help a young person become an entrepreneur by giving them the necessary monetary support to at least run a hypothesis on the idea and convert it into a concept.
Promotion
Plan and execute a marketing and promotion strategy for your products and services.
Back in the day, setting up a business only required funds and physical premises.
Today, there is much more work regarding scoping the niche, carving out the value addition or the severe problem that requires a quick solution and marketing the product.
Marketing focuses on increasing the awareness of a product and getting it in front of potential customers.
Promotions are the final marketing steps as they provide the incentive to turn visitors into buyers. Marketing is about awareness, while promotion deals with conversion.
The writer is the general manager of commercial banking at Centenary Bank
