03 Sep 2023

A business should not be profit driven but rather seek to provide a solution to the everyday problems of the community to grow.

Speaking at Youth Development Fund (YDF) workshop held at Maruapula Community Hall recently, Botswana Savings Bank (BSB) head of strategy and customer excellence, Mr Tshepo Mothoeng, told participants that an effective business strategy promoted disciplined resource management to ensure that resources were used optimally to achieve strategy objectives and also created value for customers.

Mr Mothoeng said the business value preposition, which included price, quality and services, therefore played a vital role in positioning ones company for the long run.

Consequently, he encouraged participants to develop a wealthy mentality, which he said focused on opportunities in every situation in order to explore and see potential growth.

“Which is why it is very imperative to every business person,” he said. For his part, Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, Mr Tumisang Mangwegape-Healy, said the workshop aimed to assist the youth to fully understand how to fill in the YDF forms and effectively come up with good business plans.

“There are many resources and business ideas that young people can tap into and they should understand that business is not for everyone and it does not come easily thus it needs perseverance and endurance,” Mr Healy said.

YDF beneficiary, Mr Ronald Mpaka, narrated how he endured and survived the problems after his media company, funded in 2017, was raided of all the equipment, including that which belonged to business associates.

“All my work had been stolen and my clients wanted their work and even took me to the court to demand their money back.

I was depressed and lost but God saw me through as I pushed through and applied for YDF again and I got financed again and now my business is back on board,” he said.

Mr Mpaka implored young people to never give up on their dreams saying “success does not come easily but one will face problems and business might even close down but that should not keep the entrepreneurs from going.” ENDS