So, you want to be a successful young entrepreneur in agriculture?
During this year’s farmers’ day celebration in Ghana, we at NOBOWA had an interesting discussion with a client who contacted us for services to start and operate a piggery farm. To be able to understand the needs of the client and provide tailored services to them, we asked a simple question. Why do you want to operate a piggery business? His response was direct, “I have heard it is very profitable, hence my decision.”
This response was not at all amusing as the potential for higher profits and gaining financial independence is what has underpinned the motivation of several successful entrepreneurs. The problem, however, is most people venture into agriculture without answering ‘the why’, ‘the how’ and ‘what’ questions of starting the business in the first place.
In recent weeks, there have been calls from policymakers, politicians, and the media for youth in Ghana to turn to entrepreneurship as a measure to curb the increasing statistics of youth unemployment in the country. Among the many sectors that have been discussed as avenues for youth entrepreneurship, agriculture remains number one. Why not?
The sector has enormous potential, as famously highlighted by the African Development Bank president Akinwunmi Adesina at the G7 Summit in Taormina, Italy.
in 2017, “the future millionaires and billionaires of Africa will come initially from agriculture”. This further illuminates the general perception of this potential to Africa and Africans. A potential that remains relatively untapped.
So why do you contemplate if you could be a successful agripreneur (agriculture entrepreneur)? There is a stark reality. About 75% of startups in Ghana fail in the first three years. This is, however, not peculiar to Ghana.
This statistic is by no means intended to dissuade you from your agricultural entrepreneurial journey. If it did, then you are certainly not ready to embark on this journey.
So how do you succeed as an entrepreneur?
While there is no silver bullet to achieving success as an entrepreneur in any sector, there are, however, some key success factors that may in fact prove effective to increase the odds of success. A few of these factors are discussed below;
1. You and the vision
You are the architect of the success, or otherwise, of your business. And the vision of your business should be much broader than making money. As an entrepreneur, you are the embodiment of this vision, and the success of your business depends on your ability, experience, and personality. You are responsible for taking the business from an idea to an entity. Passion is always highlighted as a key ingredient for business success.
This passion is demonstrated in the commitment of the entrepreneur to the idea and carrying it through to see it materialize into a viable entity. As an entrepreneur, you must be ready and open to accepting and dealing with failures and setbacks and taking key learning from them to evolve and strengthen your operations. You must be available and be actively involved to ensure the success of your business. As one successful agriculture entrepreneur so succinctly puts it, in agriculture, “the best investment is your footsteps to your farm”.
2. The product or service
You should be clear on what your market is and what product or service will fit into it. This could be an agricultural product such as cultivated crops, livestock or agricultural value chain services including input supply, extension consultancy, agritech (including the use of AI, blockchain, mobile technology or other digital innovations to serve farmers and value chain actors better). Whatever it is, you should have a product that is fit for the market.
It is important at this point to identify if the product or service serves a niche market. For example, our client considering pig production could explore selling fresh ports to restaurants and eateries, or supply them to cold stores, supermarkets, and meat shops, or sell live pigs to abattoirs. Knowing your market and how your product fits is critical.
3. Strategy/Business plan
Many businesses fail because they start without a plan or strategy. The business strategy should be backed by market research and user research to map the needs your product will serve or the challenges your service would provide solutions to. Building a profitable business means developing and implementing a stronger business model (how the business makes money).
Your business plan provides you with guidelines on the market you want to operate in, the customer base or potential users, a budget plan to ensure prudent spending, an understanding of the competition you face, potential risk to your business and how you will market your product or service.
4. The team you build
When your business is able to afford to onboard additional staff apart from yourself, who you employ and how you are able to get them to buy into your vision, understand the business strategy, and contribute to the business growth is critical. Building teams, especially at the foundation stage of a business, can make or unmake the business.
5. Funding/Investment
Your mind must be racing as to why we have not talked about funding yet. Because for most people, investment in a business is the most critical thing. Funding is the lifeline to any business. Lack of cash to invest in the business is an unenviable position an entrepreneur could find him/herself in. There are entrepreneurs who bootstrap their startups with no external funding by starting small and growing from there.
There are other funding options, including from equity investors, crowdfunding, etc. Financing for agriculture is generally a major challenge in Ghana. Where access to external funding is not forthcoming, it is advisable for agricultural entrepreneurs to start small and grow their business and brand. A stronger business model will make them investible as the business grows.
The factors discussed here are not entirely conclusive. To be successful in today’s market, regardless of the industry, entrepreneurs must be innovative, adopting digital solutions and leveraging data to optimize their business operations while focusing on delivering a greater customer experience, be it the sale of eggs from poultry production, livestock to market women, aggregating products from smallholder farmers, or providing digital solutions to farmers and value chain actors.
Whatever your business focus is, there are gains to be made in the agriculture sector.
Be bold and take the step.
AT NOBOWA, we design and provide tailored solutions and services to guide agri- businesses and individuals interested in agriculture to ideate, plan, start and manage their agriculture ventures whiles connecting them to relevant partners and stakeholder for business success.
