The Agribusiness Lab 3

Business Lab: Part 3

The Entrepreneurship Way – the step by step process that leads an individual to beginning an enterprise.  These are – Routine, Trigger, Ideas, Opportunity, Planning, and Start up. Sharing our experiences, each participant grouped themselves according to which stage they believed they were at and explained why.

Our facilitators David and Rina listened and determined whether we were correct in our assumptions. At the end of the exercise each person did have a fair idea of their stage however a number of participants were actually farther ahead than they thought. This business lab then represents a powerful catalyst towards moving forward in each of our endeavors.

Note: A successful business depends on what? – A Plan, Market Research, Resources? The Answer is that it depends on YOU, the business owner, your passion and dedication. One must understand who they are, what they are good at and what their passion is! This foundation represents to a great start to a business.

A reshuffling of groups led to the another exercise referred to as the Human Bingo. Each participant was given a grid of unusual questions such as Have you ever wrote a poem or song? Have you ever traveled? Each question was answered by a different person. The first to have 3 columns or rows ended the game. Once again this exercise had a hidden meaning that is built upon a previous concept. It’s aim was to identify the characteristics of  each individual all of whom intend to become future entrepreneurs.

These qualities include: Task oriented, People Oriented, Opinionated, Open Mindedness, problem Solver, Strategist, Innovator, Communicator, Presenter, Risk taker, Flexible, Charismatic etc These are the strengths of an entrepreneur and what they need to succeed. As previously mentioned your inner strengths and skills should form the foundation of your business.

In order to identify each participant’s characteristics  we were asked to utilize the Pyramid. The pyramid helps us explain what characteristic we have and what skills we have learned. Once a budding entrepreneur is aware of what he/she is capable of, they can then learn more about their areas of interest through a variety of ways, such as learning by doing or formal education, in order to improve their skills.

Here is an example of tech4agri’s Pyramid. In order to enrich one’s pyramid it is advised that you share with others, for example a colleagues suggested that ‘video editing’ be placed in the ‘specific knowledge’ section due to the videos that tech4agri has published on its youtube page.

Follow on to the next (video) post: The Agribusiness Lab 4: A Business begins for the conclusion of the lab as we explore  The Personal Business Model Canvas which helps the business owner to decide whether he/she should execute a business idea or not.