SMMES SHINE AT DUT CENTRE FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP’S TWO-DAY IDEATION BOOTCAMP
Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) came out in numbers to attend a two-day Ideation boot camp hosted by the DUTs Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Durban Botanic Gardens. The boot camp commenced on Thursday 25 April up until Friday, the 26th of April.
The boot camp unpacked the fundamentals of understanding and knowing your business better. Director, Mr Solomon Nyamurima, delivered a key note presentation based on Market validation, Business Operations and maintaining business growth.
“The number one reason for businesses failing is because there is no market need. You need to be able to identify a need for your product or service because passion does not sustain your business but the need of a market does.” Said Nyamurima.
Nyamurima defined Market validation as a process of determining whether your product is of interest to a given target market. “The bigger the number, the better results you get.” He said.
When running a business you should understand that there is always competition to any business. Try to do a self-introspection from time to time. Ask yourself questions like, who are your customers and how do you reach them. Once you are finally able to do that, you will achieve a flourishing business.
In his presentation he touched on the importance of knowing your business model. This is basically how you as a business owner create, deliver, and capture value to and from the customers.
“When speaking about creating value I basically mean how one packages a solution to the customers/clients as a business owner. In terms on delivering value, you need to understand customer value. Know who is going to get benefits from your products or services. There needs to be someone in your company who captures value.” Justifies Nyamurima.
Business owners need to understand the total cost to their companies. The cost which is directly associated with each product or solution sold is called your cost of sales. When you think about income you also need to think about what it costs to deliver your product or service your customers, before you have any income left to pay yourself.
“If you don’t understand the details of your business, you are going to fail. You need to know how you make money, understand your income, be able to differentiate between profit and sales.” Said Nyamurima
If you don’t dream it, you don’t achieve it.
- Story by Nomvelo Mkhwanazi
- Photographer: Bheka Nxumalo
