Entrepreneurial Training
In November 2021 we enrolled our first entrepreneurial class of 15 trainees. They took 3 courses through to May 2022 which included:
Identity taken by Mark Ellis – Knowing who you are ensures you are confident in the marketplace, and to be grounded in Christ is essential for a well-rounded approach to business.
Ideation taken by Richard Ahlschlager – The ability to analyse your business idea is essential to ensure that all your efforts in developing your idea is actually bankable and that there is a market for your product or service.
Business Plan taken by Steve Pilbrough – Converting your idea into a business plan is the next step and essential to be able to plan your progress but also approach funders. By this time the class had reduced to 10 students as a 4-month commitment was required. All 10 graduated with 7 business plans which were then presented to the sponsors in HCC and Dwell churches in a Shark Tank (5 minute presentations by the entrepreneurs who then faced questions and suggestions on how to improve their plans). The students paid R100 per month for their courses and generous givers from HCC and Dwell sponsored the R100 per month balance of the nominal fee.
The entrepreneurs then sought mentors to help them practically implement their business plans and some have made some significant progress.
There are no plans yet to run another entrepreneurial training course, but there will likely be some candidates that surface out of the BiaB training that want to take their business to the next level and we will convene another course in 2023, depending on the demand.