Experts prescribe nuggets for successful entrepreneurs at UPSA FAF Professional Day
Students at the Accounting and Finance Department of the University of Professional Studies (UPSA) had the opportunity to interact with two successful entrepreneurs as part of activities marking the university’s week celebration.
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The two, the Executive Director of the Springboard Road Show Foundation, Mrs Comfort Ocran and the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mikaddo Holdings, Dr Michael Agyekum Addo, prescribed some useful nuggets that the students needed to imbibe to become successful entrepreneurs.
Mrs Ocran, speaking on the topic, "Repositioning for career success" at the Faculty of Accounting and Finance (FAF) Professional Day on March 21, said it was important for students to reposition their way of thinking to be successful because expectations after school was not equal to the opportunities out there.
"Expectation is not equal to opportunity. It depends on who you are and how you cease the opportunities out there. You, therefore, have to realign yourself and your thinking to be able to take advantage of the opportunities out there," she said.
Developing your career
Mrs Ocran shared seven action steps that young graduates needed to adopt develop their career and ultimately their entreprenuerial skills.
She explained that it was important to have a personal brand development plan.
"A strong personal brand is what describes your ability to deliver. What do people get when they interact with you and what make makes you unique in the market place," she said.
Another action step the young graduates must take was to develop a world class CV and a unique selling proposition which will tell the world at a glance, who they were dealing with.
She also mentioned the need for them to develop good interviewing and communication skills, develop their talent to have multiple streams of income, build competence and confidence in all they do, learn some critical skills and have an unending obsession for value creation.
The entrepreneurial revolution
Dr Addo said the entrepreneurial revolution had started and it, therefore, behoves graduates to be part of that revolution.
He said there were a many business opportunities available to young graduates which they must, therefore, make conscious efforts to pursue to develop themselves and create employment.
"There are so many business opportunities out there and you have to be able to use all your five senses to be able to identify them," he said.
Dr Addo also urged the students to remember that attitude was an important factor for any successful entrepreneur, after which comes skill and knowledge.
The six factors of business that every aspiring entrepreneur needed to have were manpower, money, machines, material, marketing and minutes or time.
FAF Professional Day
Dr Addo said the right side of the brain was what enabled people to identify opportunities, be imaginative, creative and innovative, hence the need for young graduates to take part in activities that would lead to the development of the right brain.
"In the 21st Century, it is the right brain that identifies talent. Use your right brain to look for opportunities and seize them. The world is changing now and you have to get along," he said.
Some activities, which he said had the potential to help one develop the right side of the brain include going on excursion, enjoying music and solving puzzles.
"In order to be entrepreneurial, you have to develop the right brain. Free your mind by going on excursions, solving puzzles, listening to music. You do all these things to open your mind," he added.
FAF Professional Day
On the theme, "building the entrepreneurial skills of the Accounting and Finance Professional in the 21st Century."
The Dean of the Faculty, Dr Raymond Dziwornu said the idea behind the celebration of the day was to bring professionals to interact with the students to inspire them to develop entrepreneurial skills to create jobs for themselves after school.
He said the challenge of the rising spate of unemployment ignites the need for young graduates to rethink and apply their skills in a way that would create jobs for themselves and for others.
UPSA, he explained, would provide free tuition to students who would want to take professional certification programmes while pursuing their courses at the university and urged the students to take advantage of the opportunity to graduate with both an academic and professional certificate at the end of their study period.