The first edition of 9mobile’s mentorship program, ‘The Hack,’ has been established to help and develop entrepreneurs in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) area.
The program attempts to address specific difficulties encountered by entrepreneurs, with a focus on the SME sector’s endless possibilities.
Tricia Olufemi-Olumide (Triciabiz), a business expert, provided ideas and tactics for grooming, scaling, and overcoming problems in business.
She said: “You need to develop different quality levels, new features, improve technology, look across complementary products and services offering, sales channel optimisation and promotional strategy in growing your business.
“In growing your business, market penetration is important by knowing who your target audience is, selling your existing products to new markets or internationally, and considering developing your products to attract more sales.”
Saidat Lawal-Mohammed, 9mobile’s Director of Marketing Communications, said the initiative is targeted at small businesses and entrepreneurs looking for support to grow their businesses, and that the company has partnered with Triciabiz and a few other people with business experience to add value to small business owners.
She said: “I urge every participant to implement some of the information gathered, which is why it is The Hack. It is a way to learn how to jumpstart, wherever you are. That is the purpose of calling it a hack because they have pictured a hack or two that they can begin to implement in their own business and start to see the result almost immediately, changing the ways they are doing things currently.”
Karn Gulati, Director of Strategy at 9mobile, spoke on technology as a strategic facilitator for start-ups in enterprises, noting that start-ups should be realistic, participate in delivery and marketing, and leverage digital technology to solve problems.
He said: “Technology enhances and improves staff productivity, ensuring you keep it structured, simple and learn to attract investors, and rely on data-driven decision-making through analytics and programming.”
