Focus for the month
SMEs and Digitalisation
Strategic Leadership
Providing sound business leadership in prolonged COVID-19 crisis
It is almost two years since the world has been grappling with an economic meltdown brought about by COVID-19. Each day seems to bring new contradictions, worry, reduced staff engagement, low incomes and mounting pressure from demanding Board of Directors...
Why African SMEs should seek mentorship from failed entrepreneurs
SMEs are the biggest employers and taxpayers to governments. And yet, as studies have shown, many start-ups don't celebrate their first birthday. A record number of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have been wiped out in Africa this year as...
Five top strategies for SMEs growth and sustainability
Entrepreneurs usually start businesses with a lot of enthusiasm and high hopes of an immediate breakthrough. Because of this conviction of imminent success, some overlook the step-by-step procedure needed to ensure the growth and sustainability of their businesses. This mishap...
Corporate Culture: The Leader’s Secret Winning Weapon
Dear Reader, let's go on a visit to two financial institutions offering similar products and services. These financial institutions' employees have all the qualifications required for their positions. At Financial Institution "A", the staff attend to every client with a...
Building Team Cohesion: a daily puzzle for an SME leader
If you are a leader of any SME, managing people is one of the most challenging tasks you face daily. Whether you supervise an individual or a group, people are generally tricky and unpredictable most of the time. But your...
How SME leaders can improve the financial wellbeing of their staff
Entrepreneurs exist to solve problems. Through job creation, they help solve one of the core problems in the world -unemployment. In Africa, where unemployment rates are incredibly high, entrepreneurs' efforts must be highly applauded. Yet still, entrepreneurial leaders have an...
Personal and Professional Transformation
How strong is your foundation for success?
Every success in life has a foundation on which it is built. Like a multi-storeyed building, the stronger the foundation, the firmer the structure will be. Let's put this into...
Three dilemmas that show leadership maturity
Work is more than a source of a paycheck. It is a source of belonging too. That said, work can equally be a source of frustration and exploitation depending on...
Saving and Investment: Valuable lessons from Asians
In every town or city across Africa, thousands of Asians, particularly Indians own flourishing businesses. They are the minority in terms of population on the continent, yet the wealthiest and...
Creative Entrepreneurship Education
A Bird In Hand -The dilemma of Customer Centrism
Marketing executives know just how challenging it can be to acquire new customers. It does not mean, however, that maitaining existing clients is any easier. As the COVID pandemic has...
How technology can accelerate financial access to start-ups and SMEs
Across Africa, financial institutions find it difficult to lend to small businesses. Start-ups and SMEs are regarded as high-risk portfolios owing to their unstable sources of income and low collateral...
Digitalisation that works for small businesses
At our recently concluded Sustainable SMEs Focused Dialogue, one of the speakers urged participating business owners, managers and those who intend to start businesses to make informed decisions before adopting...
Three proven ways to test your business idea
There is empirical evidence all over the continent of failed starts ups. So many ideas that would have probably turned into multinationals, have failed to stand the test of time...
Key Factors That Help Start-Ups To Succeed
Successful businesses are built by the sweat, and sometimes blood, of the founders, as well as a wide range of other critical factors without which the venture will only become...
Effective Business Planning for 2021 – Consider this 3-Item Checklist
We are into the early days of 2021. Individuals and companies are laying strategies to recover from the devastating effects of COVID-19 and possibly return to profitability. Although there seem...
Education and Personal Development
What Faith-based institutions can do to support the youth
According to data provided by Pew Research Centre in one of their studies, it could be estimated that by 2050, Sub Saharan Africa will have over a billion Christian and Muslim population. The UNDP’s projection of 2019 also indicates that...
Let your ideas take over as an entrepreneurial leader
For most businesses, December is when plans are made on how their first quarter (and rest) of the ensuing year will look like. Although such a key strategic function is normally executed by top management, (leadership), with the oversight of...
Reasons why many fail in business.
Dear reader, we dedicated the month of October to providing information on the management of small businesses. Well, the month is coming to an end, and so is the year. Some of you have reached out to us on the...
Important career questions to ask yourself
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has gone beyond human imagination. From millions of deaths to the collapse of businesses and loss of jobs, COVID-19 will forever be remembered as a monster. Even as there is renewed hope with vaccination...
What are your career prospects now?
Young graduate Enock Walusimbi is worried about his future. A fresh, 2019 graduate of Accounting and Finance from Makerere University, Walusimbi left the institution with shoulders high and his head even higher in his dream of a brilliant future ahead...
Four Common Investment Mistakes You Should Avoid
Saving and investment can be sweet when you start to get returns. However, the same can be sour when you make costly mistakes that washes away your investment. And all of us are prone to mistakes which sometimes can be...
