BUSINESS
By BiztechAfrica – June 25, 2012, 10:29 a.m.
Kenyan ICT innovators need to grow their business skills if they want to succeed.
This is according to the Kenya ICT Board, which staged a development training seminar for Tandaa innovators in Nairobi last week.
The participants, drawn from Round 1 and 2 of the Tandaa grant process, were given pointers on running a successful business.
The Kenya ICT Board Marketing Director, Eunice Kariuki, challenged them to invest in understanding their market which will guide them on what product was most appropriate. “You must understand who your product or service is designed for. You should know what motivates a person to remove their wallet and purchase a product,” she said.
Kariuki called on the budding techpreneurs to take risks, recognise their legal obligations, invest in professional advice, learn about money management, and keep abreast with new technology for their ideas to scale up to profitable entities.
“When you fall, like it mostly happens, always get up,” she advised.
The participants were also given talks on tax returns, monetizing their innovations and dealing with copyright issues.
One of the attendees, Joshua Mankone, whose company Sharper Innovations won a grant this May, said: “I learnt that I need to build a business rather than an application. We have been doing it the other way round.”
