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How to Make it in Namibia

• MEIKE NEITZ FOR YOUNG AND especially innovative businesses, Namibia is not an easy market to be successful in.

It is small, and in many ways people tend to be rather conservative and not keen to try out new products and innovations. It has a high level of bureaucracy, and despite its size, market access can be difficult.

There are, however, a number of start-ups, or now already ‘grown-ups’, that have made it in Namibia.

I’ve been interested in finding out what the most important lessons throughout their journeys were.

What advice would they give young entrepreneurs?

What is it they wish someone would have told them when they started?

Here are the answers:

Martin Ndlovu, the founder of Kamatjona, says: “Speak about your idea to as many people as possible when you are starting out. Forget about people stealing your idea and focus on validating your assumptions.

“More importantly, speak to different customer segments, key partners and even your competition. These conversations will save you a lot of time and money, because when you start a business you subconsciously get married to a handful of assumptions that start to feel like reality, when in actual fact, you could be entirely wrong about your customers’ wants and problems.

“My advice is that once you have drafted a rough sketch of what your business looks like, go out and preach it to the world, allow for people to challenge your idea, take constructive criticism, and take note of all potential partnerships that arise.”

CJ Dumeni, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Chommie Bites, says: “Get your product or service out in the market as soon as possible, because you don’t have a business until you have your first customer. From there on the customers will show you what needs attention, and what you need to grow. When the time comes, and your business starts to grow, keep your eyes set on today’s customers!

“We lost track a bit by trying to get tomorrow’s customers now, but the reality is today’s customers are better than tomorrow’s customers, because they’re here right now!”

Bernhard Walter, the co-founder and CEO of Ebikes4Afrika, says: “Due to our involvement in the bigger picture and project with many stakeholders in the field of non-motorised transport, mobility and transportation in Windhoek, we realised that even if the idea is great, the product is affordable, sustainable and in high demand, and local manufacturing offers income generation and job creation for Namibians from all backgrounds, it does not mean you will get the financial and political support you need to get off the ground.

“The amount of red tape, legislation and taxation makes it nearly impossible for entrepreneurs to grow their business if they cannot get support from the right network. Market protection and unfair competitive advantages from traditional market players and their connection to desicion-makers are a reality and hardly spoken about.

“You have to know the right people, get in their favour by letting them benefit, and not disrupt business models of established players.”

David Akinin, the founder and CEO of Jabu Logistics, says: “Make everyone in your team own the journey. Be transparent about the goals and the fears, and share in the journey, the vision and the mission daily.

“If absolutely everyone in your team feels they have an impact and a say on the growth story, the journey will be fun, and everyone will give their best. I would also not underestimate accounting. Structure processes, and get it done early. It only accumulates!”

Naude Muller, the co-founder and co-CEO of PayToday, says: “I guess the biggest lesson we’ve learnt about building a business is that you cannot spend enough time testing your product and business case assumptions.

“In the initial years we made some big mistakes by building products and features that had little to no reason to exist. As we got more experienced, however, we started spending much more time asking questions than writing code. In the Namibian context my advice would be to take global tech advice and instructions with a grain of salt.

“The whole of Namibia is the size of Pretoria – and as such any total addressable market analysis on any axis will be dismally disappointing. There are significant opportunities here, but the drivers and business moats need to be well understood.”

Ilke Platt, the founder and managing director of Poiyah Media, says: “There needs to be more emphasis on emotional and mental support for an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs would often work in isolation, and the side effects, if not managed properly, can be devastating.

“This can easily result in the closure of business, slowing down of creativity, and a lack of passion. Entrepreneurs should be guided towards a financially free environment. There’s nothing more depressing than worrying about finances and losing your focus on providing a service to fill the gap. With these two aspects through more awareness around the expectations on these critical areas and mechanisms on how to cope, a first-time entrepreneur can easily avoid major pitfalls.”

Llewellyn Adams, the founder and CEO of Donlu Africa, says: “My advice to entrepreneurs is to start with what you’ve got and where you’re at. Simply begin! Make mistakes. In fact, make a lot of them. The most important thing to take away from your mistakes is that you learn from them, since that is the only way you can improve.

“Don’t be scared to approach successful people, however, exercise extreme caution. The most common mistake is to talk about money with potential investors in the initial conversation. That’s the easiest and fastest way you’re going to lose them. Get to know them first, tell your story, and make them see why you’re passionate about it. Only then can you have the money conversation.”

Melkies Ausiku, the founder and CEO of Lefa, says: “Human beings are very simple, they need more of something and less of something to make their lives easier. Figure out what you want to take away from people that is making life difficult, or give them more of to make their lives easier.

“At Lefa we’ve developed our business model around such basic needs: Give people a service that is convenient, safe and reliable – at any time of the day or night. In order to define those needs, make sure to not only do quantitative research, but also qualitative research. Speak to people!

“Find out their pain points and then start a business that helps to solve those. Many founders start by thinking they’re solving a problem, but in reality they really are not, because people have other needs. In short: Start with the customer, not the product.”

Xander Cloete founder of Hope Wood Namibia says: “Whether you are starting with a big budget or a small one, make sure you are clued up with laws, finances, human resources, marketing and sales, as well as safety. One would think just the basics would cover it, but the more you know, the more time you have to focus on scaling your business.

“Which brings me to my next point: planning. It is super important, and I do not think it is shared enough. Plan a lot, plan for everything and every single minute of your day. And when you are done planning all that, plan some more.”

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