4 overlooked mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting a business in africa

trends-and-insights-africa by: mutungi johnstar

Statistics indicate that about 90% of all startups fail. Entrepreneurs young and old are starting businesses each day in Africa and are driven especially by the need to provide for their families. These entrepreneurs are faced with many challenges and one of the key challenges is the lack of adequate funding plus the failure to access cheap capital among many other limiting factors.

But even for those able to rise above these many challenges, there are many mistakes these entrepreneurs make either while launching or building the businesses that condemn them to failure.

Here are four overlooked mistakes most entrepreneurs make when starting their businesses in Africa;

Starting with no Team

Every business must have a team of people behind it. It has to be a greatly talented and driven team but versatile too. The more versatile the team, the bigger the chances of succeeding. Beyond the skills the team members bring to the table, versatility of mindset can be very critical. Team members must be ready to continually think beyond the original idea, ready to innovate, and change things along the way but not just fixate on what they already conceived.

If it takes a change of product, a rebrand, or a rethink of the marketing approach along the way, the team has to be able to make fast unanimous decisions.

For instance, when the tough times come which they will, a few surprises arise such as betrayals, unanticipated pitfalls, name it. Only a versatile team can together think themselves out of a hole unanimously and recover better.

Having no teams and uncoordinated slow teams are one of the many reasons a lot of businesses will fail. Especially in Africa, limited by resources, most entrepreneurs make the mistake of starting with a small or weak team and this condemns them to early failure.

Being a Solopreneur

If a great team is surely critical for your business, then a great co-founder(s) is a must. On a general scale, startups with co-founders have been found to have a better chance of success than companies with a single founder/owner. The partnership created by the co-founders brings a lot into the game.

Co-founders will bring to the table skills and experiences that the main founder may not possess. Topping up on that, running a successful business requires handling a lot of things the right way and therefore you need people on the team with critical skills and good experience.

A common mistake in Africa is a tendency to do things alone. And in a lot of cases choose a family member or friend for purposes of registration of the company and yet what you need is a co-founder, a partner with a different set of skills and extra resources to get the business off the ground.

Lack of strategies for fast accelerated early growth

A company that will survive needs to put together strategies that help them grow fast after the launch. Such may include securing enough funds, building the right partnerships, and putting together a great marketing strategy to reach a critical number of customers or followers in the early stages.

Usually, startups fail as soon as they run out of cash. Without readily available capital to fuel fast growth, most businesses will struggle to grow. And without that much-needed fast growth, startups will not bring in enough revenue to give them that sustainable power and elevate them to the next level.

Not growing fast enough even for startups with a lot of things in place may condemn them to failure. A business that is not growing is dying.

It's therefore very important to launch a business after figuring out how you will accelerate early growth sustainably. Every entrepreneur craves fast growth and therefore it's important to plan for it. The more successful startups get off the ground fast. And similarly, most that fail start too slow.

Having no mentorship

Entrepreneurs come from everywhere and most times have never launched or run a business. Research has it that founders who engage with mentors will improve their bottom line tremendously. Finding a mentor with experience in your industry can be invaluable but for the most part, most people start out in business with little or no mentorship.

Mentors simply know the things we don't know at the moment. They can expose us to new ways of looking at things, lend us a different perspective, and provide focus. This is why mentorship is not only for new and young entrepreneurs but also the seasoned -Bill gates still considers Warren Buffet his mentor. But in Africa, most people prefer being a lone wolf and start out with no guidance and this is one of those factors that explain the high rate of failure in startups especially in their first year of business.

Yes, there is a lot of information on the internet as regards starting and building a business. Every entrepreneur must spend time learning from a lot of the resources available online and also follow and learn from a lot of businessmen on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and so many more.

Unfortunately, there is a limit to the value you get by absorbing content. A real person with whom you can bounce your ideas and help you solve real challenges and also hold you accountable is a whole lot different value.

A person with whom you have a relationship and who can keep you focused is what you need before starting off your business venture.

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