Sbi Magazine

I have been an employee and an entrepreneur, from my perspective being a small business owner is one of the most empowering things a person can do. It gives them quite literally full control over their financial and professional future. As an entrepreneur, someone has the opportunity to become completely responsible and look at their own lives from an authentic and responsible standpoint. In the world of entrepreneurialism, there is no one to blame other than you so you cannot play the victim! As a business owner, you call the shots and make the strategic decisions needed for your company to be successful. Entrepreneurialism breeds accountability in people.

It is my belief that many of the problems and ineffective professionals in the global workforce today have learned negative and self-preservationist behavior from their time spent in large and over-sized corporations. The problem with an employee is that by rule, they are supposed to operate according to a structure and abiding by someone else’s rules, many times the employees who are most effective are the ones who keep their heads low and “stay out of trouble”. The competitive nature and drive that people have within them naturally is typically withdrawn and subdued over time as a person become a “Better Employee”. How many times have you met someone who has worked for large corporations their entire careers who was particularly inspiring and motivational? Or how about someone who had a paycheck their whole lives striking you as being extremely creative or revolutionary in their thinking? It doesn’t happen, because if they were they would have been fired and probably would have started their own business!

My background is in franchising and I have spent the past ten years of my life working in the franchise industry with franchisors and franchisees around the world. The reason I have fallen in love with this business and this industry model is that it takes the entrepreneur in everyone and moves that passion forward through a cultivation process that brings out their “inner-entrepreneur”. By giving someone the confidence, the coaching and the business systems to go into business themselves as a franchisee, you have literally empowered that person to create their own destiny professionally and hopefully personally as well. It takes the benefit of a larger, well-defined business model, experienced mentorship and the explosive power of an entrepreneur’s hunger for success. Together, the two elements have the ability to create a very powerful recipe for growth.

It is my belief that the global recession we have been mired in has been directly related to this “Big Company / Big Government” attitude that most countries have moved towards. It is astonishing to me that no one seems to realize how inefficient and unprofitable the large majority of extremely large, employee-driven organizations really are. It continues to astonish me even to a larger degree that governments around the globe continue to believe that they should get deeper and deeper into the private business community. This is absolutely the wrong line of thinking and it breeds this entitlement and employee-like behavior. Of course, I agree that we need structure, we need rules and guidelines, but capitalism and the power of entrepreneurialism is what will pick our global economy up and get it on its feet again.

Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s better to teach a man to fish than to just give him the fish.”? By giving a person the confidence and ability to start their own business, or at least THINK like a small business owner you have moved that person forward for life. They now have the ability to think on their feet, be proactive and hopefully never play the victim role again in their professional or personal future. If we all could get into this state of mind and begin looking at the world as a place of opportunity and potential instead of trying to protect our jobs and individual corners of the world, we could build a very exciting global network of business-minded, proactive, positive thinking people.

According to Wikipedia, “An entrepreneur is a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. In the context of the creation of for-profit enterprises, entrepreneur is often synonymous with founder.”

Let’s see if we can break this definition down into bite sized chunks.

Entrepreneur as an Undertaker

This term indicates a certain amount of initiative that drives an individual to do something tangible with an idea they have conceived. This initiative is in context of a business startup.

Entrepreneur as an Operator

This term is indicative of an individual willing to get in the thick of things and develop the business from the standpoint of administrator and marketer. In effect, an entrepreneur must be willing to do everything needed to manage the business they are seeking to develop.

Entrepreneur and Accountability

An entrepreneur understands that the buck stops with them. They are willing to be responsible in the development and affairs of the business.

Entrepreneur as Risk Taker

There will always be the risk that a business startup will fail, but the risk an entrepreneur puts forth may also result in a profitable business. The entrepreneur understands the risks and determines to move forward in spite of those risks.

Entrepreneur as Founder

In the context of a successful business start up the entrepreneur is listed as the founder of the business. This individual did what it took to move their idea from the thought process to a reality. This is hard work and, if successful, their name will always be linked to the business. Some may consider this to be a portion of the legacy of the individual; certainly it can be a highpoint in a person’s work history.

There is an exhilaration that comes with entrepreneurialism. The road may be difficult and you may have to get creative in solving problems you’ve never encountered, but you are, in that moment, the quintessential entrepreneur. You have chosen to take the initiative to operate a business. You have determined to be accountable for all phases of your business startup and you recognize and accept the risks involved in business development.

Entrepreneurialism is not for the faint of heart, but for those who walk through the various steps listed above there is an incredible amount of satisfaction knowing that the work you have done will not only benefit yourself and your family, but the customers who will benefit from the product or service you provide.

There is no denying the fact that Nigeria has had more than its fair share of national misfortunes. The decades following independence from British colonial rule in 1960 saw this strategically located sub-Saharan nation plunge into political uncertainty and economic disintegration. Non-inclusive policies and a historic overdependence on oil exports left the vast majority of Nigerian’s in abject poverty and appalling human development conditions. The return of democracy in 1999 finally brought with it the promise of positive change, as Abuja announced ambitious plans to reverse its downward spiral in global rankings and effect radical transformation in the lives of its people. For Nigeria, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel came in the form of rapid entrepreneurial development, which former president O Obsanjo banked on to take his country to the top 20 world economies by 2020. The thrust of this vision has been carried forward by current president UM Yar’Adua, as Nigeria continues on the road to economic repair and sustainable growth.

Of the many pressing challenges facing Nigeria today, youth unrest and violent crime are arguably the most distressing. Even though credible data is lacking, local media reports indicate that half the Nigerian population of 148 million are youths, 95% of whom are unemployed1. Decades of economic stagnation and poverty have conspired to drive a large chunk of this figure to crime and violence from early on. There is little doubt that the country’s long-term goals are irrevocably tied to its ability to reclaim this youth force from unrest and mobilise its economic potential.

Basic Challenges

Before arriving at the means of tackling youth unrest, it is important to consider the developmental obstacles facing Nigerians in general, and its youth in particular.

* The country’s infrastructure deficit runs into billions of dollars, a situation that severely impairs entrepreneurial development. In July this year, the government announced it requires $150 billion2 over ten years for investment in various infrastructure sectors; especially power, roads and railways. Business opportunities are, moreover, not equitably distributed over rural and urban areas, a condition that hexes development of new ventures and expansion of existing ones. A practically non-existent rail network and the extremely poor condition of roads have combined to further hamper the country’s business environment and investment climate.

* Electricity is another area of concern in this context. Power availability is far short of demand, to say the least, and supply is largely erratic even in relatively developed urban areas. Most businesses are forced to run on expensive generators, while frequent outages leave many other facing break-ins and other criminal activities.

* The communication infrastructure too calls for massive restoration and growth, especially telecommunication and internet services. These two sectors were prime focus areas under former president Obasanjo, whose government outlined massive revival programmes aimed at enhancing the reach and percolation of the Internet and phone services. Nigeria’s existing and emerging entrepreneurs alike continue to face tremendous hurdles in connecting with markets and potential investors. Although there has been tangible development in the communication sector over the last decade, it still presents enormous challenges.

* Entrepreneurship development has also been hamstrung by a slew of financial factors, poor access to credit for small businesses being the most prominent. The absence of credit and tax regimes sympathetic to entrepreneurial realities is a core area of concern, together with the predominance of lending through debt over equity.

* Low standards of education, restricted access to vocational training programmes, limited use of technology and the high cost of doing business in Nigeria are additional aspects requiring resolution for the country to achieve rapid entrepreneurial growth.

The Way Ahead

Clearly, there are diverse issues that negatively impact business development in Nigeria. For its significant youth population, decades of under-investment in the social sector and the failure of employment generation programmes have combined to create a climate of unrest. The volatile mix of rampant poverty, inflation and joblessness has led to a situation where criminality is very often the only means of survival.

Reversing this trend calls for a fundamental shift in official outlook and vigorous changes in four key areas:

* Training and Education: From the perspective of entrepreneurial development and youth mobilisation, the importance of wholesome and practical education simply cannot be overstated. The Nigerian government appears to understand the magnitude of its importance, and successive regimes have undertaken sweeping policy decisions in this direction. Before leaving office in 2007, president Obsanjo made entrepreneurial education mandatory for college students of all disciplines across Nigeria. The current dispensation under President Yar’Adua continues to place great importance on vocational training and skills development programmes for the youth by way of equipping them to meet business challenges. However, such measures need to be standardized across the education system and quality-upgraded to meet current realities.

* Government Programmes: As of 1999, the federal government has initiated several landmark measures to foster enterprise development, including setting up of the National Directorate of Employment, the Medium Enterprises Development Agency and the Bank of Industry. However, more effective steps are called for in order to increase youth participation in developmental schemes and in shaping social consensus on important macroeconomic issues. Encouraging youth leadership in both the public and private sectors remains crucial to leveraging their full economic potential.

* Financial Restructuring: Access to capital being one of the biggest setbacks to promoting youth entrepreneurialism, Nigeria needs to focus on devising and implementing radical policy changes in the financial sector. Banks and lending institutions require outlook-reorientation and sensitising to small business requirements as part of effort to boost financial access to emerging enterprises.

* Rural Barriers: Special attention must be given to develop business opportunities in rural areas, which significantly lag behind urban regions both qualitatively and quantitatively. Sufficient care must be given to enforce policies that favour localised and socially relevant enterprise across the varied Nigerian landscape.

The problem of youth unrest in Africa’s second largest economy cannot be viewed in isolation from its larger socio-economic challenges. Nigeria must acknowledge its historic failure in meeting the aspiration of its youth, and come up with creative solutions that sufficiently harness their energies for durable and inclusive prosperity.