Good business climate: A key to the success of any business

At one time or the other, we have ‘seen’ life as too complex and complicated. This is experienced by adults when they undertake their daily responsibilities and mostly when they experience failure to generate income. It is severe stress.

In the Africa of today setting, with few employment opportunities, the way out for most people is agriculture or business. For those in towns and cities, the latter is the way of life. Yet, they say, doing business is not a cup of tea for everyone. It has a lot of challenges. Facing a challenge in the process of doing business does not make you quit from such a business rather the challenges you face provides great opportunities for your business to grow.

Just think of the young person with no money in Dar es Salaam city. To earn a living, one has to borrow Sh10,000 to buy a box of bottled water and hawk it at a meagre profit. Then, after hawking them for a day in the sun, they pay the owner back and retain probably Sh2,000 or so as the income for the day.

Think about the lady, who buys porridge flour for less than Sh10,000 and borrows from a neighbour a thermos flask and a few cups, and start hawking “Uji” to earn a living. The heartbreaking stories are too many for how people started their businesses.

A cross-section of hawkers in the city don’t have a single coin as capital. Instead, they depend on established business to borrow goods, and after selling at a profit, they make their living. Only later on, slowly by slowly, they are able to build up a capital to start their own business.

I know a person who had to work for months without taking a single coin from her meagre pay to buy a sewing machine. Yes, with that small monthly savings, her dream came true.

I have read the profiles of 24 entrepreneurs who started very small but have grown and selected for the final round of the 4th Citi Micro-Entrepreneurship Awards (CMA) in Tanzania. The awards are organized by a Citi Foundation in partnership with the Tanzania Association of Microfinance Institutions (Tamfi).

The backgrounds of the entrepreneurs show that some turned their hobbies into business while others it was the need to overcome daunting challenges. For instance, one of the shortlisted candidates who initiated a business as a means of overcoming the challenge is Daniel Mpanduzi. His profile is very interesting. When he was undertaking his Master’s degree, it was when he decided enough was enough.

His sisters were not allowed to go to secondary school, so the business idea of establishing a secondary school came into his mind. Mr Daniel started a secondary school just with three students. You can imagine that starting a school with just three students, but today the school is a viable business enterprise--a boarding school for boys and girls.

There is power in starting small and growing big. Yes, with small capital you can realize your dream of owning a big business. Note that for any business to thrive, it requires enabling environment which include but not limited to government, customers, legal, political, economic, technological and social-cultural factors among other factors that affect the functioning of any business. This means that in one way or the other these factors influence peoples’ willingness and ability to undertake entrepreneurship activities in a particular area.

A micro-entrepreneurship should be encouraged for the good of our nation. In today’s business world, entrepreneurship is generally considered an essential engine for economic growth of any nation and for poverty reduction. However, this can only be realized if a favourable business environment is assured to entrepreneurs.

Saumu Jumanne lectures at the Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE)