In partnership with the French – Congolese Trade and Industry Chamber, Target SARL trained 30 young entrepreneurs of Kinshasa city around the following topic: “Process of creating a Company and major challenges for entrepreneurs”. The outlines of this activity are the purpose of this publication.   

A family picture on which everybody is laughing, warm handshakes between participants, exchanges of contact details as well as phone numbers amongst some participants, exchanges of experiences between participants, there was the jovial atmosphere that crowned the end of this training dedicated to process of creating a company and major challenges for entrepreneurs.

The main speaker of this training, the General Manager of Target SARL, Mr. Serge MUMBU opened his exposé by a simple question for the attendance: “What is the best quality of an entrepreneur?”, seriousness, perseverance, creativity, self – knowing are some of qualities mentioned by young entrepreneurs attending this training. By considering all qualities mentioned by the attendance, the speaker underlined 4 essential qualities for an entrepreneur: perseverance, abnegation, being open – minded and rational.

“What should I do if I don’t fulfil these qualities? Should we quit with entrepreneurship?” was the question of a participant. Serge Mumbu responded by saying: “You will have to surround yourself by people possessing these qualities” before putting a stress on the fact that “an entrepreneur is not a closed – minded person. You have to be aware of your weaknesses and surround yourself with good people for the best improvement”.

When speaking on the aspect relating to creation of companies, the speaker underlined that an idea of creating a company before its materialization, must go through some tests of feasibility studies. This stage of feasibility study will help collecting maximum of required information on the sector selected for investment.

To demonstrate the importance of this stage in the process of company creation, the speaker quoted the example of a lady whose company collapsed after a short time due to the fact she neglected this stage of collecting required information.

Besides feasibility study, innovation is also needed for establishing a company. Innovation is the element that establishes the difference between what is done by others and what you will be actually doing. The innovative characteristic of a company is actually minimizing the risk of its failure. 

Creating a company is based on motivations. Mr. Mumbu mentioned two of them over which one should never be based to create a company: the fact that is fashionable and aiming at direct financial income. If you want to become a good entrepreneur, you will have to be passionate about a challenge to be met, to be animated by the will to revolutionize a sector using the new information and communication technologies or rather have the thirst to realize a dream of childhood.

Concerning difficulties that young entrepreneurs are facing, the General Manager of Target mentioned 4 of them:  

• Lack of references and experiences;
• Lack of financial means;
• Lack of premises to be used as office;
• And lack of address book.

The attendance also underlined two other difficulties: lack of any trust in Congolese youth and discouragement from neighborhood.

To overcome these difficulties, the speaker exhorted young entrepreneurs to create their own references, by providing for instance, potential clients with services free of charge during a period of time. Surely they will be taking advantage of the fact that the client will now consider their real capability.

The secret for moving forward in entrepreneurship also consists in the wisdom used to select your partners. For this purpose, Serge Mumbu advised young entrepreneurs attending this training to avoid getting in partnership with close people specifically within Congolese context; they should rather explore possibility of getting in partnership with legal entities or financial partners.

Partnership is based on exchange of services and it is a real key of success in entrepreneurship, according to him. A good entrepreneur, added Mr. Mumbu, must have a legal consultant, an accountant and tax consultant, a human resources consultant, a consultant in communication and marketing as well as financial partners.

The training ended by a testimony of Miss Arlene Ahavah Agneroh, a young entrepreneur in social sector that shared with her fellow trainees on the importance of networking. Which leaded participants to exchange contact details, since as underlined by Target General Manager, contacts of today may not be immediately profitable, yet can be fruitful tomorrow.