Jordan, this small country that is poor in terms of natural resources but rich of hard workers and brilliant minds. Jordan's economic growth and employment rate cannot currently absorb all the job seekers that we have in this country; unemployment is a threat that worries all Jordanian youth.
To ensure that Jordan’s many bright young minds were not wasted, Entrepreneurship became a priority of Jordan's policy makers some years ago and education and skills in this area were strategically utilised. This means that now this generation of Jordanians is increasingly intellectually and culturally inspired- with self-belief and determination- to start a business. As Jordan actively seeks and attracts organisations who drive entrepreneurship and innovative solutions to unemployment, startup businesses have many more opportunities to shine.
On a personal level, my professional experience with youth programs in Jordan-as well as the community work I do in youth capacity building, where I have been guiding entrepreneurs in self-development and communication, has motivated me to share the below advice about what leads to a successful deal with investors. I hope you find it useful!
Transforming your business idea into action and "hunting" an investor is not only about a brilliant pitch… On the contrary things start even before meeting the investor! See here what I mean:
- Make sure you have a mature unique business idea that is needed, doable, and can be commercialized (“commercializable”).
- Have your "research-based" understating for the market, its needs, available similar ideas and prices. For example, you may develop brilliant software- but when you do your research, you may find that it is already available as an open-source and free download on the web. So skipping studying your market may waste your time and efforts, and even kill your momentum as a motivated candidate who developed a creative but not innovative product.
- Ask the experts… A fresh experienced eye never does any harm (and will almost always positively add to your journey).
- Choose your investor smartly and tailor your approach to each one… approaching a technology lover to open a restaurant may only fill your inbox with rejecting letters!
- Be ready to meet the prospective investor with a brilliant approach and a rich but briefed presentation. Handle their questions with full faith in yourself and your idea… heredifferentiate between "confidence" and "Ego"!
- Once you start to feel the feasibility of your business idea, go and seek legal protection according to your country’scopyrightlaw, and don’t over promoteyour unprotected idea everywhere.
- Accept failure as a ‘quality check station’ that helps you to assess yourself, your idea, your approach and any other detail you may have dropped due to being extremely motivated….
Finally, I sincerely emphasize that it requires enormous courage to leave a secured job and choose to be an entrepreneur. Be confident that proper planning, accompanied with will and determination will get you there!
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