Dzuka Africa StartUp Hub- Limbe

28/07/2022

OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE AT LIMBE START UP HUB!

ATTENTION ALL EMERGING ENTREPRENEURS! Office space is available with 2 desks; spacious for 4 members. Located in Limbe, Raynor Avenue, second floor in Shire Building (formerly where FM 101 was). K75,000 per month inclusive of water and electricity. For further inquiries call/Whatsapp 0888 413 225.

20/04/2021

StartUp Name : Impact Light Solar Systems
Cohort 2018-2019
Dzuka Africa StartUp Hub Blantyre

On October 17, our brother Precious Chaponda was rushed into the emergency room following a … Dipo Chaponda needs your support for Help our brother walk again

10/12/2020

03/11/2020

DID YOU KNOW?

02/11/2020

21/10/2020

STARTUP SURVIVAL ESSENTIAL

A brand presence – online and off

Even before you have a product to sell, you need to start making yourself known. This helps you find potential customers, beta testers, even people who may work with you in the development of the product.

How to get publicity on a budgetMaximize your online potential. With a proper use of keywords that identify your company or service, you can target your ideal customer base. In addition, social media – including blogs, social media sites and directories like Yelp – provide a free or cheap source of publicity.Hang out where your customers are. Find blogs, Facebook groups, forums or other places where people with the interests your company shares, and join in the conversation. Don't jump in with promotions, but rather develop relationships. Kevan Lee, director of marketing at Buffer, wrote about six popular ratios for social media content on the Bufferapp blog. All of them lean heavily toward sharing content with others and retweeting as opposed to posting self-promoting content. However, he also said, "Self-promotion can work when you add value and engage."

Attend industry conventions your customers go to. Foussier said these are good places to talk with potential talent for your team, in addition to meeting with investors and customers. Even if you don't set up a booth, bring cards and brochures to share.

Become a known expert in your field. Becoming a trustworthy source gets you followers, increases your network and makes people more likely to purchase from you rather than an unknown. Chris Myers, CEO of BodeTree, suggests writing articles for magazines and developing relationships with reporters who write about your industry. Guest blogs and guest lecturing accomplish this, too. Finally, you can "borrow" expertise by sharing applicable articles, infographics and memes that pertain, even peripherally, to your product or service.

Starting a new business is risky, but if you begin with the essentials in place, you stand a better chance of success. Those essentials include more than a good idea and enthusiasm. With a strong network, publicity, funding, a way to reach your audience and, of course, the right product, you can set up the foundations for a successful venture.

20/10/2020

STARTUP SURVIVAL ESSENTIAL

A plan for profit

Every business is interested in profit – but what exactly does that entail? Are you profitable if you can pay your business bills and have some left over for yourself, or when you've paid off your business loans? Or is it when you start making as much as the salary of the job you left to go on your own? Having the goal firmly in mind can help you determine if or when to declare defeat.

Whatever your definition of profit, no startup makes it without funding, and, in fact, Gilley recommends that you have a fully capitalized business plan before getting started.

How to get funding

These days, there are plenty of ways to get funded. Here are a few of the most popular.

Small business loans are simply loans for businesses. There are commercial and government-sponsored loans, so be sure to check all angles when applying.Crowdfunding sites, such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo, let you ask for donations in return for prizes, which can be everything from shout-outs to promotional gear to pre-orders. If your product is unique or quirky and you have a good social media presence, this can be a good way for startup funds.Angel investors. These are usually millionaires who are looking to invest in the Next Big Thing or to promote an industry they have an affinity for. "Angel investors used to be a difficult group to find ― not so any longer," according to Entrepreneur Magazine. There are investment events, online networks and groups of investors you can contact. You can also check with your local network.

For more financing methods, check out this Business News Daily guide.

19/10/2020

STARTUP SURVIVAL ESSENTIAL

The right location

Real estate is not cheap. In addition to buying or renting your work area, you have to consider utilities, upkeep and insurance. According to an article in AZ Central, 1.2 to 8.9 percent of a small business' sales go to pay the rent. If you pay more than that, you should reconsider your space.

Online "locations," as defined by domain name, are cheaper, but still require consideration. For example, you'll want a website name that describes your product or purpose well enough to show up in a search. That way, you'll find new customers searching for a solution who don't know you. (You can also purchase more than one domain name and have them point to the same website.)

How to make the best use of your spaceResearch before you rent. "Your physical location can still be an important factor in the success of your business," business consultant Larry Alton said in SmallBusinessComputing.com's blog. Your locations, both physical and online (as defined by your website and social media), need to be convenient for your target audience and those businesses or people you need to network with. Price is a factor, but must be weighed against customer convenience.Go virtual. While it's exciting to have a storefront or office for your team, a virtual space might suit you better. "Opt out of renting an office. Until you're established, you can run your startup from your apartment and coffee shops. Or you can have a virtual office, which is cost-effective and great for startups with team members all over the world," according to the Young Entrepreneur Council in Forbes. Cloud-based programs like project management software and video conferencing tools can enable everyone to share information and communicate with ease.

By the same token, a virtual store can help you build a customer base without having to spend a small fortune on non-inventory essentials, like displays and shelving, cashiers and other service personnel.

Rely on Small Business Computing to help you better understand small business technology so you can make the best buying decisions for your business.

13/10/2020

START-UP SURVIVAL ESSENTIALS
A product people want

This may seem obvious, but one downfall of a new business is developing a product that, although a great idea, does not answer a compelling need or inspire enough people to spend enough money to make it profitable.

"Be mindful of the problem you're solving for your users. When aware of the problems of your specific customers, you can have a better idea of your market set," said Brad Matthiesen, founder and CEO of ClassForward, an education tech company based in the Harvard Innovation Lab.

How to build the right productConduct market research. Foussier recommends spending half your time in product development and half your time in finding and engaging your target market. Talk to your target consumers. Run ideas past them. Learn their pain points and how you can help them. Not only do you increase your chances of building a product in line with their needs, you also build a pipeline of interested consumers.See it through the eyes of your consumers. "Your consumer sets the rules – it is a startup's responsibility to fully understand what they want – not how they see your product," said business coach Graham Gilley.Test before you invest. This is more than testing to make sure the product works. It means testing the product with your ideal users to make sure it does what they want. Doing this early in the process can help you find your direction.

"If [your product] fails in a testing process, then it's [easier] to correct it than if you spend two years building up a product to have it fail," said Jodi Goldstein, a serial entrepreneur and managing director of the Harvard Innovation Labs.

12/10/2020

START-UP SURVIVAL ESSENTIAL & HOW TO BUILD IT?

A strong peer-support network

For new entrepreneurs, a network of peers and mentors is of greater importance than product and finances.
"If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all the truly successful people I've met over a lifetime, I'd say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts," wrote Harvey Mackay in "Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty" (Currency Doubleday, 1997).
Will Foussier, CEO and founder of Ace-up, said a strong network is key because it connects you with a talent pool, potential talent, industry experts and people who can provide legal advice.
"My advice for new entrepreneurs would be to think about the environments that are going to help you build momentum, get visibility, develop connections and have access to resources," he said.

How to build a support network

Find a business innovation lab. Foussier highly recommends business labs as a way to connect not only with young entrepreneurs at the startup stage, but also with successful businesspeople and serial entrepreneurs who are interested in mentoring the next generation. Check with local colleges or look for online groups like WeWork.

Join a professional organization for your industry.

Join the Chamber of Commerce or other local business organization. "It can enable you to get quality feedback on what you're doing and see if there's a real demand for the type of products you're building," Foussier said.

09/10/2020

Personal branding for entrepreneurs in the age of clutter
MoneyControl • Oct 07, 2020 11:13 AM IST
By Jayadevan PK


For most people looking to build a personal brand, there’s a simple idea to follow: get people to know, like, and trust you.

Note to readers: Hello world is a program developers run to check if a newly installed programming language is working alright. Startups and tech companies are continuously launching new software to run the real world. This column will attempt to be the "Hello World" for the real world.

Some founders are very popular on social media. Take Kunal Shah or Ankur Warikoo for example. Seeing them, several operators and sometimes founders ask how they can build a personal brand too. Turns out it helps them land better gigs, promote their product, and open doors.

Now I won’t pretend to have a lot of insight on how they built their brands. Clearly, a lot of hard work has gone into it. But for most people looking to build a personal brand, there’s a simple idea to follow: get people to know, like, and trust you.

The thumb rule, as proposed by Bob Gurg and John David Mann in their book The Go-Giver goes something like this: “All things being equal people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like, and trust.”

These pithy lines are repeated often by marketers and business folks in the context of doing business. And it works for personal branding as well. There are a bunch of things you can do to get people to know, like, and trust you. Content marketers seem to have had a field day with the famous KLT principle so a simple Google search will throw up some good advice and a tonne of garbage on how to do that. So we won’t go into it. Instead, we’ll talk about some does and don’ts as you build your personal brand.

What you need to do before you jump into a whole lot of tactical things, is to really dig deep and define how you want to be perceived by everyone out there. For your business or career to benefit from that, that definition should be aligned (at least loosely) to what your business is. This will help you stay on message even when there’s a lot of noise out there.

So let’s take an example. Say you run a software product company that builds and sells a note-taking tool. When you jot down what you want to be known for, it could be: productivity, habits, and smartness or say entrepreneurship. This should also be something you enjoy reading about or are deeply curious about at a personal level. Once you are through this exercise, pick platforms that you want to focus on. Start with one platform and branch out to others. In this case, Twitter or LinkedIn might work better as opposed to say TikTok or Instagram.

Also Read: Startups: Get, set...go IPO? Not so soon

On platforms where you’re trying to build your personal brand to help your business or career, try and fight the urge to participate in conversations that aren’t aligned to these. Try also to fight the urge to talk about things you haven’t deeply thought through. This will help build credibility and trust. Building publicly and sharing insights you uncover also helps get more people to know you.

It follows that you’ll go deep into these topics as you build your business. As you pick up knowledge, share it freely with people who follow you on the platform of your choice. You’ll read, watch and consume content that blows your mind. Share your excitement with others. Thank the creators. Engage with them. Attribute and credit where it’s due. These again signal trustworthiness and integrity.

As you become more knowledgeable about a certain topic, you’ll form opinions of your own. Those are worth taking note of to create unique and new content. This can help you become more of a thought leader. A simple thumb rule to judge whether your content is unique or not is taught in journalism schools: if a dog bites a person, it’s not a story. But if a person bites a dog, it’s a story. This means anything that’s changing the status quo is a story. These unique insights will come to you only when you understand the status quo very well and then start forming patterns, connecting dots, and so on.

It doesn’t guarantee hundreds of thousands of followers. For that, you’ll still have to do some serious marketing. If you get these basics right, you’d be able to confidently build a personal brand. As always, nothing happens overnight. It takes years to build a strong personal brand and it pays to be consistently on message.

Jayadevan PK is a former technology journalist and recovering startup founder. He now works with Freshworks Inc as an evangelist, focusing on efforts around brand building. He’s also a commissioned author at HarperCollins.