Nigeria’s leading business solution provider, The Business Hub (TBH), held the maiden edition of the Start to Scale Summit, an event that was specially curated to provide small businesses with practical and actionable insights to help them scale their businesses, last week.
The theme of the summit was “From Startup to Scale-Up: Strategies for Explosive Business Growth”. According to the Head of SME Products, Mrs Bolanle Tyson, The Business Hub is passionate about SMEs because they provide about 96 percent of employment and contribute about 48 percent to the GDP. She added that it is disheartening to note that many of them do not survive the first five years, and TBH is working to change this.
Tyson explained that research showed that challenges encountered by SMEs in their early years are lack of infrastructure, access to finance, and lumping financial transactions with personal accounts, making it difficult for financial institutions to know their turnover, capability, and how much they need to scale up their operations.
Hence, The Business Hub is positioned to assist SMEs in registering their businesses, providing post-incorporation support, and setting them up with business banking accounts that attract zero account maintenance fees for the first three years, among other benefits.
In her keynote address, Miss Tobi Eyinade, Co-founder of Roving Heights, advised entrepreneurs on factors for scaling.
They include re-assessing cash flow, using accounting software for inventories and financial statements, setting realistic milestones with forecasts and projections, developing standard operating procedures, outsourcing operations, and hiring exceptional talents to complement their competencies.
Eyinade also advised entrepreneurs to invest in automation and tools, be truthful to themselves, dilute their equities or seek help to grow, adopt sustainable management practices, and explore grants and angel investors.
She also said entrepreneurs desiring to scale should conquer fear and small-mindedness because when nothing is ventured, nothing is gained.
Business conversations with successful entrepreneurs were also highlights of the summit, as was a pitch for microgrants by seven young entrepreneurs.
Emmanuela Tijani, the Product Marketing Manager, moderated the fireside chat titled “The Right Way to Start a Business”, which included Mrs Abimbola Bamigboye, CEO of Audeo, and Mrs Chioma Ifeanyi-Eze, Founder of Accountinghub.
Several points were raised during the chat, including the importance of entrepreneurs choosing an idea that solves a problem, researching it, understanding the risks, and weighing the venture’s viability before embarking on it.
Entrepreneurs were also asked to consider putting in place a proper structure, hiring the right talent, stocking products with higher margins, focusing on the numbers, and having enough cash to run the business.
Some of the new solutions introduced at the event will be featured on the new TBH platform, including discounted access to business tools and services such as logistics, HR, accounting and bookkeeping, mobile data, and so on, as well as a revamped website for easy business registration
