Charles Odii the Executive Director, SME100Africa has launched his new book – “21 Questions on entrepreneurship.” This book is unique as it provides real answers to questions posed by entrepreneurs that Charles encountered through his SME100Africa journey. Charles is the Founder of SME100Africa – A a social enterprise, with the aim of ensuring African entrepreneurs succeed regardless of their socio-economic background, has grown to provide over one hundred thousand African Small and Medium Enterprises with access to finance, markets, capacity development, mentorship, networks, skills, resources and most importantly information.
Charles Odii explains, “this book is written from my extensive experience gained over a decade of starting and running a business in Africa, international travel and engagement with thousands of entrepreneurs (who have sat with me and sent me emails to ask critical questions from “how to structure businesses, to how to develop marketing strategies that support their products in niche markets and more”). The book also contains questions from my online series “Ask Charles”. The questions are extensive and aim to provide information on how to be a successful entrepreneur.”
The book will be released today – International youth day, and will be available nation-wide for purchase as well on Amazon, Flutterwave, Jumia, 100connect and more. Click here for more details.
Here are a few takeaways from the book:
- A Positive Attitude: This book will surely change your mindset as an entrepreneur. It goes way beyond teaching you the practical steps but it makes you aware of the opportunity you can leverage on for your business to succeed even through some failures.
“Ask Charles. Yes, Do it! He is the one who has the experience, the knowledge, the humility, the patience, and the passion to give you the needed advice. As he writes: “business is a dark room”. Charles’s book is the light, the guidance for all willing to start a business and become an entrepreneur. With this book, he chooses to answer the basics of how to fight your business monsters. It is a practical, easy-to-understand, and use, way of learning.
When asking for advice, it is important to consider who you ask. Charles Odii is a role model. His own story gives him all the credibility needed to advise you on how to; grow your potential, engage in a successful business, learn from your failures, and believe in success.
As early as possible it is crucial to get a mentor, but a good one is hard to come by. If you read this book, you will feel that you have found your personal – virtual – mentor who is always there in your pocket or on your devices to answer all your dilemmas and challenges. So keep it and share it with others, as you may not be only one who needs these insights, and this book fills the gap.”
Veronika Pistyur
Co-Founder Bridge Budapest
Hungary
- Your Whys: Being an entrepreneur isn’t as easy as ABC. It requires your time and effort. It goes beyond harvesting a passion but also building results; is it profitable? Are you scaling? Now, this brings us to your Whys. This book makes you break down your Whys and with this, you get a bigger picture to why you’re starting a business.
“The most important factor is to find your “WHY?”
Why should I be an “Entrepreneur”?
Inspired leaders regardless of their size of business or industry, know their “WHY?”; that is how they communicate from the inside out.
I do highly recommend reading the book “21 Questions on Entrepreneurship” as it will provide you not just the “WHY” but also the “WHAT” and “HOW’”
Dawood Marafie
Board Member Kuwait National Fund for Development of SMEs
- TURNING YOUR PASSION INTO A BUSINESS: Starting a new business as an entrepreneur is an emotional rollercoaster. There may be days where you “fail” and feel like giving up and that is okay. Yes, passion is good, but that won’t convert into a revenue stream without a solid business structure. The “21 questions on Entrepreneurship” shows you how to structure your business to help you make a living out of what you love.
“This book should be mandatory reading for all entrepreneurs, and the same goes for business owners who desire greater entrepreneurial instincts. I am delighted to be able to share this book with you, with the hope that you find it incredibly helpful when structuring better business concepts for your own business.
I applaud Charles for his achievement – and for his continuing contributions as a mentor and entrepreneur who devotes his time immensely to build the motivated community in Africa, and is a critical friend to many members of Nigeria’s start-up scene.
21 Questions on Entrepreneurship elaborates on all the possible challenges a nascent entrepreneur might face at the beginning of their journey, with a wide range spanning building company culture, finding market positions to dealing with the possible legal problems. This is an excellent book. If you are an entrepreneur, 21 Questions on Entrepreneurship is the book for you.”
Mandy Chung
Co-founder, Women in IoT,
Taiwan
Here are some other reviews:
“One of the most rewarding career paths is entrepreneurship: following your passion, being your own boss, getting to be a leader, disrupting markets, and making tons of money! It’s true, that’s what most literature about entrepreneurship tells you: entrepreneurship is awesome!
What they don’t always mention though, is that 9 out of 10 start-ups fail. The leading cause of failure: incompetence and lack of knowledge and experience.
Most entrepreneurs spend half their career learning from their mistakes. Luckily, people like Charles Odii and organisations like SME100Africa will save you the hassle of failure and take you straight to success.
Charles has travelled the world and gathered knowledge from entrepreneurs all over the globe. After listening to the challenges of his compatriots, he tailored it to the African experience and aggregated it in this A-to-Z guide of being an entrepreneur”.
Joey Zeenny
Digital entrepreneur, co-founder of Gtlogic,
Crab Notion, Lebtivity, Jellyfish Labs,
Lebanon
“Do you value the perspective of entrepreneurs? Read as Charles delivers perspective gained from entrepreneurs all across the world. What you can find inside are applicable lessons from Charles to aid your entrepreneurial journey.”
Todd A. Rose,
Liaison for the International Visitor Leadership Program, a professional exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
USA
“If you want to hear it is easy to be an entrepreneur, then this is not the book for you. On the other hand, if you want a realistic manual on entrepreneurship this is a must have!
The 21 Questions are answered with details that help clarify concerns on issues like funding, taking risks, start-up resources as well as providing the reader with templates on essentials like business plan, entrepreneurship check list, choosing the right location and coping as an entrepreneur.
In this compilation of responses to “Ask Charles”, Charles Odii, founder of SME100Africa, has delivered a well thought out, comprehensive and useful guide for today’s entrepreneurs.”
Nonny Ugboma,
Executive Secretary, MTN Foundation
Nigeria
You can preorder the book here.
