HOW TO BE YOUR OWN BOSS.

From a young age we are told that education is the key to every door and it is a key to success, but nowadays the rate of unemployment in South Africa is extremely high. One would swear that you have the key for a wrong door. Even if a person is qualified for a certain job, it is still hard to find employment without the required number of years of experience. Some people spend years, struggling to provide for themselves and their families due to lack of job opportunities.

Entrepreneurship comes in handy, when employment is lacking. An entrepreneur is a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money. It is not everyone who can be an entrepreneur. It requires people with entrepreneurial mind. It requires special skills and a lot of planning. It requires solid business strategy, market place and managing skills to manage the organisation. Sadly, a business that is not well planned tend to fail within a year of its existence and a well-planned business is likely to prosper.

Entrepreneurs always seeks new opportunities. They create and distribute wealth by exploring and exploiting possibilities of mobilization funds and skills. Entrepreneurship contributes to building the economy of the country. It helps create jobs to the ones in need. When you open a business, you automatically help yourself and those who do not have an entrepreneur mind or does not have any business ideas to start up their own businesses. That way, social ills such as poverty will be reduced because people will have an income to provide for their families.

First of all, starting a business require a start up capital. It is always advisable to start small, start with what you have and see where that is taking you. People often face failures and challenges along their way to success. Some businesses have to close down due to lack of funds and poor decision making. However, it is not every business that require a huge start-up capital. For example informal business like, selling sweets on the streets does not require a huge start-up capital. It does not even need an investor. That kind of a business just requires time and patience as it is going to generate small profits.

In order to sustain a business, especially a small business that is still crawling, one must seek advice from people who have sustainable businesses, People who have been into business for a while and people who understand aspect of business. Doing  research and finding out what is in demand on the market also helps to decide exactly which product one is going to sell. 

In our county, South Africa, we are very lucky because there are different workshops where they teach people how to start, manage and sustain a successful business. There are also organisations such as SAB Entrepreneurship that promotes business awareness through training and it supplies grants as start-up capital for small businesses.

BY: ZANELE MAGAGULA

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