JCI Ikeja Tutors Entrepreneurs on Business Innovation, Creativity

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

A forum aimed to educate entrepreneurs on how to scale up innovation and creativity in the various sectors of the economy has been held by the Junior Chamber International (JCI), Ikeja.

The annual event focused on how Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) can be successful and sustain businesses by investing heavily in information.

The President of JCI Ikeja, Ms Tricia Inalu, also said when an entrepreneur develops a positive mindset, it would become possible to tackle the challenges in a particular industry, thereby innovating economical problems solutions within the ecosystem of the entrepreneur.

“A knowledgeable and empowered mindset would result in the empowerment of the workforce of any organisation.

“So, it is important that business owners invest not only in improving their technical know-how and capacity but also in the employees in order to attain maximum performance and results within the enterprise.

“As part of efforts to develop our minds, as a country, it is crucial for the educational sector to be rehabilitated in order to enhance innovations and creativity of our children, youth and adults who are aspiring to join the labour market or become entrepreneurs.

“We have gathered that the education sector remains a crucial factor for the progress of citizens and how businesses are established and operated,” she said.

Speaking further at the forum themed Innovative Enterprise Seminar (IES), Ms Inalu said business owners who do not have employees can consider outsourcing, thereby creating more time for them to think creatively and innovate ideas for sustainability and growth of the business.

“It is necessary for entrepreneurs to outsource in order to attain maximum results for the business as this generates more innovation and creative ideas for the business,” she said.

“In addition, as prioritisation is essential, leveraging on the resources and skills available to the workforce is crucial towards the success of such a business,” she added.

Also speaking at the event, the founder of Accounting Experts for SMEs, Ogochuckwu Lawson, said a major factor that hinders innovations and creativity of businesses is the lack of structure, due process and absence of bookkeeping.

“Majority of entrepreneurs are still struggling towards understanding the vital role keeping records play towards the sustainability and development of a business.

“Also, it is important to set up the business’s bookkeeping with efficient software that would keep the records of the business throughout the existence of the business.

“In addition, an entrepreneur should be able to forecast monthly or yearly the number of sales and revenue that is to be generated by the organisation, whilst also projecting what it would cost to attain the projected results,” Lawson stated.