5 Reasons Why You Need To Join An Entrepreneur Community
Ever heard about an “entrepreneur community?” Business owners can get business inspiration through several means and from various places. The right business inspiration can be the game changer that your business needed all along. Hence, as an owner of an SME in Africa, it is crucial to take advantage of all the avenues where you can get sound business inspiration.
One of the avenues to take advantage of is an entrepreneur community. Today, business owners can join entrepreneur communities within their vicinity or reputable online entrepreneur communities like the SME360 community. Are there any benefits to joining an entrepreneur community?
Well, there are several advantages to being a part of an entrepreneur community and here are some of them:
1. Learn From Other People’s Experiences
One of the virtues of a great business owner is the ability to glean from the wisdom of others and possibly learn from their experiences. This is one of the benefits of joining an entrepreneur community. In this community, you will learn about what is going on in other businesses. You will learn about the challenges they faced or are facing and how they overcame them.
Reputable entrepreneur communities like the SME360 community provide platforms for entrepreneurs to share their experiences, including the pitfalls they fell into along the way. Hence, giving you an idea of the common challenges any SME in Africa is likely to experience. Furthermore, these stories will help provide a template that you can use to maneuver similar pitfalls when they come your way.
You will learn from the success stories of other entrepreneurs and their failures. Derek Anderson (founder of Startup Grind) stated that there is a huge similarity between Entrepreneurship and failure. Furthermore, he stated that successful entrepreneurs fail the most but what separates them from others is their relentless search for solutions and the zeal to keep pushing.
2. Sharing Trade Secrets
Despite the exhilarating thrills that comes with starting an SME in Africa, many entrepreneurs have found out that the beginning phases of any business can be overwhelming also. One of the ways to get through this is having entrepreneurs give you tips and secrets that helped them when they were in your shoes. These secrets will be your anchor and guide when the going gets tougher.
The SME360 community provides members with trade secrets from experienced entrepreneurs that will help their businesses thrive. As you begin to try out the secrets provided in your entrepreneur community, you will figure out what works for you. Trying and tweaking these ideas will help you arrive at the best solution for your business.
The best part about these entrepreneur communities is that you also get the opportunity to share your own secret with others. You can call it your own way of adding value to the lives of other entrepreneurs.
3. Networking
Any SME in Africa that intends to grow must prioritise networking. Networking is a requirement for both personal and business success. While some people are born with the skill to meet and interact with new people, others need to learn it. Networking is one of the foremost reasons why most entrepreneur communities are established.
Networking with other entrepreneurs does more than help you meet new people. It helps to enhance your business or brand visibility. Entrepreneurs in your community can easily recommend you when the opportunity arises. You will be their first line of call when business deals arise and vice versa. Also, entrepreneurs in the same entrepreneur community tend to do favors for each other and reference each other when the need arises.
4. Learning To Be Accountable
No business owner should remain in a room where they are considered the smartest. In other words, being in an environment where you are constantly challenged is crucial to the growth of any SME in Africa. If you constantly hang around result oriented entrepreneurs, chances are that you will be challenged to do the same. Likewise, hanging around people with exceptional work ethics and lofty goals will influence you into the same practice.
Human nature births in us the desire to succeed in an environment where there is healthy competition. This healthy competitive environment is one of the reasons why you should join an entrepreneur community like the SME360 community. In these communities, entrepreneurs are compelled to share their goals and strategies, hence, compelling them to be accountable for everything they have discussed with the group. This will motivate you towards achieving them as you would not want to return to the next meeting without any positive update on your plans.
5. Acquiring New Business Skill
Most reputable entrepreneur communities provide opportunities for members to learn new business skills regularly. One of the ways that they are able to achieve this is by highlighting either one or multiple members in the same community. Then they ask them to teach others in what would look like a mini-summit. In these summits you can learn how to be a better negotiator or improve productivity and enhance team spirit.
The skills you will learn from these communities will help make your entrepreneurship journey easier and enjoyable. The more skill you learn the better your business handling. Sharpening a business skill like negotiation, will save you cash on unnecessary expenses. Hence, enhancing the overall profit of your business. Your business will thrive if you constantly learn new business skills and apply them.
Conclusion
Entrepreneur communities like the SME360 community help create platforms that will encourage the growth of any SME in Africa. Members of these communities will learn from the experiences of other entrepreneurs. Furthermore, these communities help to provide platforms to meet other entrepreneurs. Hence, enhancing business visibility.
You will also be part of an environment that encourages healthy competition. Hence, challenging you to do better and be accountable. You will learn new business skill and share trade secrets with other entrepreneurs. Joining an entrepreneur community will benefit your business in several ways. Hence, the reason why we recommend that every business owner should be a member of at least one entrepreneur community.
