Leena Gehlot, the president Entrepreneurs’ Organisation Kenya, Tracy Kimathi, the 2020 winner of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) Kenya regional finals, and Amber Prior, the president GSEA Kenya. Tracy is the founder of Tree_Sea.mals and a student at Kenyatta University. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NMG
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Quarterly Labour Report for April–June 2020, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) decreased 5.3 percent from the same quarter a year ago to 64.4 percent.
LFPR is a measure of the proportion of a country’s working-age population that engages actively in the labour market, either by working or looking for work. When broken down into age cohorts, the 20–24 age group, the age we expect to be completing a tertiary course, had an LFPR of 53 percent. The 15–19 age group was the only age group that was lower at 25.2 percent.
All other age groups ranged between 72.4 percent (25–29 years old) to 83.9 percent (55–59 years old). Data from the same report shows that the LFPR for the 25–29 age cohort, the age group for university graduates, fell 10.2 percent to 72.4 percent.
It was the only age group that experienced a double-digit drop. The statistics highlight the economy is not creating enough quality jobs for our youthful workforce, and they have also been the most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This phenomenon could be a factor behind the high number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya. According to the Kenya Business Guide, more than 80 percent of enterprises are MSMEs, who employ about 14.9 million Kenyans. Every year 400,000 MSMEs collapse. Over 90 percent do not survive their second year.
Business experience, which is crucial for success, takes time and money to acquire. It is even more important in a rapidly changing world. A positive mentor relationship can increase the chances of success of a business by helping the leadership to tap into and learn from the personal, practical successes and failures of others.
For student entrepreneurs, such relationships can highlight how their academic qualifications can help them navigate a path to achieve their career and personal goals. There is only so much about a person's experience you can gain from books. Most authors are uncomfortable revealing everything about themselves in books. Some personal experiences may be too intimate to be shared, yet how a potential mentor dealt with it can help an inexperienced entrepreneur's career.
The long working hours, high-stress levels, trying to gain traction, and just juggling staff, co-founders, and family, can lead to depression and hamper an entrepreneur’s productivity. Talking to a mentor can take up some of the slack by acting as a confidential sounding board to share concerns and test ideas, with their years of experience serving as hard assurance to placate the entrepreneur’s fears. With the support of their mentors, student entrepreneurs can learn to set goals, build leadership, and time management skills, advocate for themselves, develop self-confidence and refine their belief systems and ethics.
Mentors who find their mentees motivated and skilful enough will facilitate introductions into their network, reducing the time spent to acquire new customers and build personal and business reputation. The most valuable aspect of mentorship is that each partnership is unique. So how can student entrepreneurs seek out mentors that can serve them well?
Someone in the student’s extended circle of friends and family is likely to be acquainted with a successful entrepreneur. Such connections are easy to build. Volunteering is another approach to making new connections. Through positive community outreach, the student entrepreneur accomplishes in-person contact with their stakeholders and puts their business in a positive light. Industry-specific expos, conferences, and speaking events have a networking component designed to connect people with one another. They are an opportunity to expand your professional network and meet potential mentors, while learning more about your industry. At the events, one can talk to as many people as they can without being too forward with their goals.
The LinkedIn professional platform is also a medium for finding potential mentors based on one’s business and professional interests. Kenya’s 50+ hubs, ranging from accelerators, co-working sites, incubators, and innovation hubs are great spaces to meet other people for collaboration, ideas exchange, and learning.
In these spaces, the student entrepreneur can seek out other entrepreneurs that they can extend their service or product to or indirect competitors — entrepreneurs in the same industry targeting a different market segment, or geographical location.
The entrepreneurs have been in business for a much longer time than the student are also potential mentors. Whatever the situation, once the student has met a potential mentor, the next step is to do their homework to determine if they are the right fit.
They should do a background check on their potential mentors that includes direct, but respectful questions about their backgrounds and, specifically, their relevant experience. This is after the initial meeting, where the student entrepreneur used a soft approach to introduce themselves and before asking for more substantive interaction.
The mentor should have plenty of experience to draw on relevant to the student entrepreneur’s goals or industry, for example. What does he or she do and how will it make the student better at enabling their business to thrive? If everything does not add up, the student entrepreneur should step back and reassess the potential partnership. Mentors are helpful when it comes to getting a second opinion, but in the end, it falls on the student entrepreneur to make the right decision. Since 2013, Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (EO) Kenya has provided mentors to student entrepreneurs.
Carol.musyoka@gmail.com Twitter: @carolmusyoka
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