BA: There are certain barriers to young Africans who want to move into entrepreneurship. These barriers aren’t only to them starting up their own companies or enterprises, but societal restrictions and pressures into them following a more traditional career path such as law, medicine or finance to name a few. How do you think that these young Africans can overcome these challenges?
SK: It all boils down to environment and supportive family and friends. Becoming an entrepreneur is the hardest thing, except making a baby,that you will ever do. It can be a lonely, hard road and it is up to the person to ensure that they surround themselves with the right kind of people and the right support structure. Susan Jeffers wrote a book called “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway”. In life we have many, many fears. People will be negative to something they don’t understand. Young Africans are more fortunate than their predecessors in that they have access to more information and resources. Education is the key and the internet makes more things accessible and possible. Read more, try more things and if you really want something bad enough, go get it.
BA: To start an organisation, a few challenges do occur which might make the development of that idea difficult. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome those challenges?
SK: If you have an idea, testing the idea is important. Just because you think something is needed, does not mean that is will be a marketable idea. Also, most ideas these days exist already. Doing the research and making changes accordingly was what we did. With Infointeg, the Trust Seal at the time was ahead of the curve, now, its growing. We were too early and made the change. Now we have a product that solves a real problem, which customers have confirmed. The other important aspect is to either have a partner who is slightly technical who can build a sample/prototype or to be slightly technical yourself.
Finding support is also a challenge, look for business plan competitions, accelerators, incubators, entrepreneurship hubs and spend time speaking to entrepreneurs going through the process already. You’ll soon see where you are and what you still need to do.
BA: What advice do you have to all the young people who want to do something like you, get involved in the entrepreneurial sector? Maybe they have an idea, what will you advise them to do to take that idea forward?
SK: If you have a job, keep it, but work on your idea after hours or weekends to build up a cushion for when you eventually take the plunge. New entrepreneurs will always underestimate the time taken to get the product to market and if you leave without a cushion your good idea could lose steam before it gets started. I would recommend:
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BA: On a lighter note, who is the Shana Kay outside of IntelliCred? What do you love doing when you’re not working?
SK: Shana Kay is an optimistic, happy-seeker, who believes in the goodness of people, who loves walks on the beach, having laughs with her girlfriends, sharing and connecting people where she is able to and giving back when she can.