This week Tech Hub is introducing Speed Networking Wednesday, where we will be hosting start-ups, investors, freelancers in one room. The event will be held every Wednesday between 1 and 2pm and will provide a platform on which attendees meet and discuss what they are doing and hopefully create win-win opportunities.
Why is this important?
In today’s fast paced environment where the environment is changing by the second, it pays to be part of a movement and to be connected to people in the know. There is always a temptation to feel that one knows everything when they never venture out. Let’s face it we live in a globalised world.
Last we week we wrote about Oliver Mtukudzi and the lessons we picked from his illustrious career. The article was among many that were written by people who felt that the super star did indeed teach us one of two things about entrepreneurship and life itself. It’s true that venturing out and meeting new people is good and we should grab every opportunity presented to us to meet with others and share our experiences.
You might be running a business that is stuck and is not growing due to the lack of markets and exposure. Attend Why start-ups need networking? a meetup could connect you to someone who wants your product, or they might know someone who does. The point I am trying to make here is if you stay in your comfort zone and don’t venture out you will never connect with right opportunities. This is why some businesses never grow and then die despite being great at what they do.
As an entrepreneur you must invest in meeting new people and cultivating relationships with others. Through networking you are able to develop new opportunities, find referral partners or even business partners. At one of the regular meetups we host we have witnessed many people go through a eureka moment after rea,lising that the solution to their problem was available all along.
They had just not found it because they had been trading in a vacuum, all alone and with no clue the solution was that simple.
We interact with a number of entrepreneurs and they have a lot of problems. We will list some of the common ones here;
* Lack of capital – by far the biggest challenge facing many entrepreneurs. A number actually indicate that they can’t start their venture because they lack capital. We have our opinion on this which we share in future articles, suffice to say, many businesses have been started with very little or no capital.
The founders of such businesses did what many view as impossible. Riding on their faith and drive they succeeded in convincing customers to go with them even though they didn’t have money.
* Lack of growth – every business will come to a point where it becomes harder and harder to find customers. Many entrepreneurs have been experiencing this problem of late and have told us as much during our networking sessions. As an entrepreneur through networking you can meet new customers or generate new ideas to identify a new way of growing your business.
* Lack of skills – In an environment where most businesses are technology driven, some entrepreneurs are struggling to get the right person to build them an application that helps to turn their bright ideas into reality. On the other hand we have many computer programmers and application developers who are struggling to get jobs
* Lack of marketing skills – another big gap that needs to be filled for many upcoming entrepreneurs is their inability to use modern marketing tools such as Facebook, Whatsapp to market their business. A number of entrepreneurs have highlighted that they find it difficult to get started or to be effective when using these tools. When you network with others you get ideas on how to use the tools and find the most effective methods of reaching your target market.
* Lack of affordable office space – Many years it was unheard of to find different business working in single office sharing phones, printers and computers, yet these days the sharing economy is allowing entrepreneurs to cut their cost of doing business and increasing their chances of survival because their overheads are low.
Many entrepreneurs are joining co-working spaces and choosing who they want to work with and where. Coworking allows you to network every day and you meet new people every day broadening your chance to come up with great ideas!
We hope you have picked up one or two ideas on why networking is important. You can become part of the Tech Hub community by emailing hararehub@ gmail.com or calling us on +263718924393. Until next week happy networking!
