Welcome back fam!,
If You have followed this series “bumper to bumper” 😉 , by now You should have an above average understanding of the following;
- What Entrepreneurship is.
- Who an Entrepreneur is.
- Why people become Entrepreneurs
- And of course the answer to the question of whether Entrepreneurs are Born or Made.
Now that You know all those things, What next?
Go and update your CV and LinkedIn profile as “An Entrepreneurship Coach”? 🙄
Well, a lot of people do that, they attend one seminar and yala!, they go and add “something something Coach” to their profiles.
That is not the purpose of this series anyways.
The purpose of this series is to help You become an Entrepreneur (if You are not one already) and/or help You become a better Entrepreneur if You are already on your own Entrepreneurship journey.
Now straight to the business of the day.
How do You start out your journey towards becoming a Successful Entrepreneur?
Well, there is no ONE WAY or Rule of thumb to doing that.
Many routes lead to the market but when we all get to the market, we start buying and/or selling.
Just like we explored in the article TENT III : Why do people become Entrepreneurs?, there are several reasons why people become Entrepreneurs and often times, these WHYs come with their own HOWs.
For the purpose of this post, I will examine 3 major ways You can start your journey to Entrepreneurship.
Here we go;
- Apprenticeship :
Are You surprised? 😛
I am sure You want to “become your own Boss”, so why should a Boss-in-the-making go and become somebody’s apprentice?
Well, apprenticeship saves You a lot of stress in your Entrepreneurial journey.
You learn and make mistakes on somebody’s else Money.
You get to leverage on the network and networth of the person with whom You are apprenticing.
Have You heard the phrase “Sitting on the shoulders of Giants” ?.
Apprenticeship is one way to sit on the shoulders of giants.
Matter of fact, the first set of ideas I played around with, I did on someone else’s Money. 😆
So I am brainstorming, some “idea from hell” comes to my head, I put it down in a presentation, send it to my boss and 2 weeks later we are implementing…
Technically, if we go by what I had in my “akant” when the idea came, there was no way I would have been able to implement it all by myself..but here we are implementing the idea courtesy of what?… I apprenticed under somebody who has more Network and Networth than I currently do.
Also, the first set of business lessons I learnt, I learnt them while “apprenticing” under somebody. I documented some of them in my book, “Vital Lessons from my Boss”.. Click here to download it free of charge.
One of the best Entrepreneurship Models in the World
I currently live among the IGBOs in the South East region of Nigeria and I must tell You they run one of the best Entrepreneurship models in the world. They are also the sole occupiers of Alaba, Aba, Onitsha and other major business premises in the country.
Say You want to venture into the “Spare parts” or Electronics business, You don’t just gather Money, go buy spare parts and start selling…. Nwanne m, You willi lun (run) down in no time *in my Igbo accent* 😈
What do You do then?
You look for an “Oga” and you go apprentice under him for 3-4 years.
In that period, You learn the nitty gritties of the business, You make contacts with Oga’s connects in China, Japan, Taiwan,Indonesia etc.. after the 3-4 years, Oga gives You “seed funding” depending on how well You served him and then You establish your own “Seun and Sons Nigeria Limited (Importer, Exporter, General Merchandise) “ and you are in business. 😉
That is one of the best ways to start your Entrepreneurship journey.
Here are your action points if You want to follow this model.
- Determine which problems you want to solve AKA Which Business You want to venture into
- Look for someone doing WELL in something similar to what You hope to do. Emphasis on WELL.
- Apprentice under him/her whether he/she pays You or not
- Learn the core of the business,
- Then You can venture on your own.
By the way, I am not the only one that thinks this model makes a whole lot of sense.
Hear what Jack Ma, China’s richest Man and the owner of Alibaba and Aliexpress has to say about it
This post has gotten quite lengthy and I dont like lengthy posts myself. 😳
Please permit me to discuss the other 2 ways in another post.
In the next post, I will share 2 other ways by which You can start your entrepreneurial journey.
You can drop your email in the box below so I can send You the post once it is ready.
Yours in this hustle,
P.S. I got the feature image from https://www.awai.com..before somebody comes and sues my ass.
I am Seun Ogunmola I help People and Organizations to leverage on Technology to achieve their goals Faster, Easier and Cheaper.
I also write on diverse subject areas including Finance, Business, Productivity and Governance.