10 Common Challenges Faced By African Entrepreneurs
The life of an entrepreneur is filled with challenges and obstacles. The challenges faced by African entrepreneurs are multi-faceted. This is due to the multi level nature of problems and challenges in Africa.
The 21st century fortunately has provided entrepreneurs with resources to handle these challenges.
If you are an entrepreneur, it is expected that you welcome challenges because any challenge you surpass becomes a stepping stone to success.
We have taken an inventory of some of the challenges faced by African entrepreneurs. We went further to provide you with some of the solutions to the challenges.
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Challenges faced by African entrepreneurs
1. Cash flow management
Managing your cash flow is very important to the survival of your venture. Cash is the backbone of any profit oriented venture. It is as a result of the importance of cash to organization that lack of top management of it becomes one of the challenges faced by African entrepreneurs.
It usually emanates from invoicing. This is a common thing in the entrepreneurial world. When the money owed to you for services or products come later than it is supposed to, you can have a major cash issue. You should handle it well.
2. Hiring employees
Getting people to work for you if you want to start a business or replace employees is one of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs faced by African entrepreneurs. The process of hiring can take some time and time is important to entrepreneurs.
Hiring is dreaded by entrepreneurs. The reviewing of resumes, sitting through interviews, sifting through so many unqualified candidates to find the diamonds in the rough can be terrifying. If you get the right ones, then you are good to go but if you get the wrong ones, you risk downward spiraling of your business.
The stress notwithstanding, you as an entrepreneur will do well to get the right set of people or you are in a deep shit.
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3. Time management
The management of time is a very big problem for entrepreneurs. There is never enough time. You should structure your activities to suit your time so that it works to your strength.
You can do this by creating a goal list, eliminate unnecessary tasks, delegate some tasks and finally, always review what you have to do.
4. Delegating tasks
Delegating tasks can very tricky. It is one of the challenges faced by African entrepreneurs. You have to be careful with who you assign certain functions so that they don’t mess it up.
There are people in your team that are better than you in certain areas. Delegate those tasks to them and trust them. You can supervise and make suggestions to them but remember you have to remove favoritism in your delegation.
5. Choosing what to sell
What to sell is another thing that upcoming entrepreneurs have to deal with. Choosing a niche can be a serious issue.
You can identify people that are good and have them help you choose a niche for you. You can get them to conduct a market research for using the SWOT analysis. It doesn’t have to be a big marketing firm.
6. Marketing strategy
Marketing your products or services can be the beginning of your success or failure as an entrepreneur. This is why it is one of the challenges faced by African entrepreneurs. To maximize profit or return on investment is all down to marketing.
You should become adept at creating marketing plans and advertising or you get someone who is. You need a core marketing plan.
7. Capital
Capital is very important if you want to grow your business. Capital can be very easy or hard to come by. You can work on the sources of getting fund if you don’t have any and make sure there is always capital to invest or reinvest.
8. Strapped budget
The budget is very important. Many entrepreneurs work on reduced budget despite the fact that the flow is fine. You are not working on your full potential because you never seem to have enough. You need to also get money to be able to better your budget.
9. Business growth
How does one’s business grow? It is a question many entrepreneurs have to answer. At a point, you will find out that your current structure have become inadequate for you. You will need to expand. Some people don’t get to this point. You become stagnant.
You need to do things differently to grow. Focus on delegation if you are used to doing everything by yourself. You can’t do it alone and expect to grow.
10. Self-doubt
Doubting yourself is one of the challenges faced by African entrepreneurs. If you don’t think you can, you won’t. When you get discouraged by the things happening around you or you are not growing at the pace you want, you are likely going to experience self doubt.
Become your best motivator and keep on keeping on. The end point will always be positive.
As I said earlier, challenges come in our lives but how we handle them is very crucial to our survival as a person or an entrepreneur. You will definitely come on top.
