MODUL 1: KNOWING MYSELF AND THE BUSINESS
What success really means is a matter of definition. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, you need to take a hard look at yourself. Starting the right business requires knowing yourself. If you know your strenghts and what you enjoy, you are more likely to tackle a business problem that is best suited to your skills and interests and is less sensitive to your shortcomings.
The good and the the bad news is that as an entrepreneur, you won’t have a manager charged with directing your efforts or peers helping you implement, and your new team will be quick to tell you only what you want to hear. Thus, the burden is on you to capitalize on your strenghts, find co-founders and team members to fill the gaps and find mentors and advisors you trust.
In this module we will focus on finding out your strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, your self-image, and the first description of your business.
MODUL 2: GENDER STRATEGY
The training wants to enable young women to earn a steady income and build a future. This includes nurturing a long term perspective related to issues such as continous personal growth, parenthood, family life and how to cope with traditional family roles.
Also, being a female entrepreneur in West Africa is not only about self-sufficiency. It is also about social safety in an environment dominated by men.
In this module we are going to reflect on gender stereotypes, prejudices against women and identify the inner and outer barriers on your way to a successful business in the Nigerian environment.
MODUL 3: PERSONAL EFFECTIVNESS SKILLS
Every day we spend time and energy on achieving our goals. But even the same goal can be reached with different costs by different people. Our personal effectiveness depends on our innate characteristics – talent and experience accumulated in the process of our personal development.
In this modul we are going to focus on time management, communication and negotiation skills in business environments, and we are going to review few rules around the topic of ethics and compliance.
MODUL 4: SUCCESS AND FAILURE CRITERIA IN YOUR BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
What success really means is a matter of definition. And success can change over time. We want to understand how you are going to define success for your business. Furthermore, we will analyse together which factors e.g. personal, environmental, socio-economic (bribery, patronage), cultural, religious, generational etc. could influence your success.
Can failures be part of your success? All successfull business people have to deal with failure. Failure is part of success. In this module we will review together, how you can cope with failure and what skills are needed, in order to learn out of failure and move forward in your business.
MODUL 5 -6: BUSINESS PLAN PART 1 & 2
Now you are ready for getting into business details and generating a realistic plan for your business. A business plan is a document that contains the operational and financial plan of a business, and details how its objectives will be achieved. It serves as a roadmap for the business and can be used when pitching investors or financial institutions or debt or equity financing.
We will review together all the needed contents of the business plan and you will get a ready template you could use for the next steps. At the end of this module you will have a clear understanding of all the contents of your business plan. Home you will be able to complete your business plan. In module 8 you will be able to share your business plan.
MODUL 7: PRACTICAL SESSIONS 1
In this module we will focus in the morning on providing all needed information in oder to empower you to create your MVP (minimal viable product). MVP is that version of a first product which allows you to collect the maximum amount of validated learning from customers with the least effort. Your homework will be to create the MVP and have it ready for presentation in module 8.
In the afternoon we will focus on your elevator pitch. The elevator pitch is a brief speech that outlines your ideas for your product, service or project. The name comes from the notion that the speech should be delivered in the short time period of an elevator ride, usually 45-60 seconds. Your homework will be to have your elevator pitch ready for presentation in module 8.
MODUL 8: PRACTICAL SESSIONS 2
This is our final session. You will be presenting your business plan, your MVP and your elevator pitch.
You will have the chance to pitch in front of Nigerian bank representatives and convince them to support your business. We are very confident that you will master well!