18 Aug 2024

Youth and women entrepreneurs have been encouraged to utilise Market Players, an entrepreneurial support organisation.

Market Players founder, Ms Katlego Mokgethi said during a workshop dubbed Embrace your Beauty at Moshupa District Show recently that the organisation was based at the University of Botswana where it had entrepreneurship hub that offers co-working spaces. 

“One of our primary services, is offering training and mentorship to youth and women who own small businesses. We essentially try to up-skill them so that they can be able to enter the market, compete and take their business to the next level. We also want them to be eligible for funding because most small businesses end up being rejected for funding because they are high risk,” she said. 

She noted that bringing valuable business management skills to women startup entrepreneurs would ensure that no woman was left behind with special emphasis on supporting women in male dominated sectors. 

Ms Mokgethi said the programme was a vital tool for achieving gender equality under Sustainable Development Goals emphasising that for the country to achieve gender equality women must be able to participate fully.

She explained that the  entrepreneurs were free to come and use the facilities such as meeting rooms and work stations especially those who did not have operating spaces or office space. 

Furthermore Ms Mokgethi stressed that they found it fit to up skill them because most of them were not operating properly citing that some did not keep records, had no business strategies and plans. 

Therefore, she said it was vital to up skill them and guide them on how to operate their business using the international best practices. 

The organisation recently introduced the online tool kit for developing business plans, which would enable them to understand their business plans. 

This, she said, would also be helpful because in most cases entrepreneurs would hire someone to do their business plans which made it difficult for them to explain the plans to investors, suppliers, financiers and even customers. 

Ms Mokgethi said, “we want to be practical and be part of the actual drafting of their business plans so that they can understand their business better.” 

Beyond training and mentorship, she revealed that the organisation did market access, trade missions and many facilitations to ensure that entrepreneurs were able to access different markets. 

“We leverage trade agreements that Botswana was already signatory to, which changes the mindset of our small entrepreneurs to not only focus on the local market but rather consider the international market,” she said. 

She further confirmed that the organisation had over 500 business persons subscribed to the database, adding that they enrolled 150 women entrepreneurs and graduated 128.   Ms Mokgethi advised the attendees to always think out of the box so that they could be able to expand their businesses. Ends