Enterprise sprit

Many accountants are happy to do the ‘corporate thing’ - plotting a career path that involves a succession of promotions and pay rises before a well-earned retirement. To many, it sounds relatively risk free.

Driving the driven

Others have ambitions of running their own business instead. Ganseh Sama, a 22-year-old ACCA student in Cameroon, is idealistic: ‘The motivating factor for me is personal achievement and financial reward,’ he explains. ‘My ideas won’t be easy to try out if I’m working for someone else. I admire successful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, who is a source of great inspiration.’

Karl George FCCA heads up a successful consultancy in the UK, running leadership and personal development programmes. His break into entrepreneurship was driven by necessity: ‘The thing that did it for me was being made redundant - and trying to get a job as a finance director at the age of 23. I couldn’t get work at that level, so I thought: now is my chance.’

For some entrepreneurs, working long-term for someone else was never an option. Samantha Griffiths FCCA runs Sagenius, a UK consultancy that advises companies on enhancing investor appeal: ‘I always knew I wanted to run my own business,’ she says. ‘An important trigger was my frustration, as a paid employee, at not being able to do things the way I wanted.’

Practical obstacles

For those who are starting out, it’s not as simple as just having a bright idea, as Sama is discovering: ‘So far, I’ve tried to do research work, especially in the agricultural field, including projects on fishing and maize cultivation,’ he explains. ‘But my research largely depends on information I get from the media. Entrepreneurs themselves rarely sacrifice time to help orientate young people like me, although they’ll find time to talk about their own achievements.’ Getting financial backers is an obvious difficulty: ‘When I submit a proposal, the first thing they ask is how much I’ve got to invest myself - and when I say nothing, the project goes to sleep. They are afraid to try out ideas that come from an inexperienced young man.’

Charles Tushabomwe-Kazooba, a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda, observes a number of common obstacles: ‘One of the challenges for an entrepreneur is to think outside the box - they often try to copy what others are already doing, rather than being innovative or trying to be different.’

And even the most sophisticated achievers can be hampered by naivety, as George found out: ‘I had my first office in my mum’s house,’ he recounts. ‘It was only when clients from London came to see me, and I saw their body language, that I realised that wasn’t the right way to do business. Within a month, I was renting a space in a serviced office in the city centre.’

But George also faced more conventional hurdles. As a twenty-something, he found it difficult to convince partners in the accounting firms with which he wanted to merge: ‘I prepared detailed business plans to show how I would acquire various practices. The challenge was persuading them; they regarded me as too young. I was finding that my peers were 20 years older than me - I had fantastic ideas but couldn’t find people to believe in me.’

Psychological barriers

George is convinced that mental issues can pose the biggest problems for would-be entrepreneurs: ‘People are too scared of failing,’ he says. ‘Yet one of the best ways to find out about business is to fail – that’s when you start to learn.’

Griffiths agrees: ‘The only person stopping you is you. Barriers are just things your mind creates when you’re tired. Yes, there will be many low points - such as poor cash flow, long hours, and self doubt - but these are compensated for by the buzz when things go right. It can feel like a long time coming - but when it does, it’s great.’

Griffiths says young accountants can often be conditioned to reject enterprise. ‘Lack of security is a common fear - but many also lack the drive to operate outside their comfort zone,’ she says. ‘People who have been professionally trained in a particular way can over-analyse situations and become paralysed. They’re unable to break the bonds of working in more conventional ways.’

Learning from mistakes

Some entrepreneurs succeed only after conquering adversity. And sometimes, it’s not a lack of business know-how that can pull the plug on hopeful ideas. Atia Silas, an ACCA student who’s also from Cameroon, started his first business with two friends - but hit a barrier when he realised they had different priorities: ‘The venture only lasted a year but I learned a great deal from the experience, and it has moulded me into a more informed entrepreneur,’ he says.

Silas and his friends started up a consultancy, but it wasn’t long before one of the friends introduced unfair practices: ‘He overcharged clients,’ says Silas. ‘We also advertised more services than we could offer and accepted jobs that didn’t fall within our scope or capacity. More marketing attracted more clients, and other friends wanted to be part of our team - we needed even more advice than our clients. We drew up a new plan of action to address these issues, identifying the training we needed to implement a new business plan. In the meantime, we went dormant while we reorganised.’

But one of his new colleagues continued to solicit clients: ‘At that point, I decided to quit,’ says Silas. ‘My friend just wanted to get the money - despite the fact that we could not deliver what we advertised.’

Griffiths has a philosophical approach to business blunders that harks back to her childhood: ‘I always remember a sign on a school classroom door when I was 10,’ she recalls. ‘It said “A mistake isn’t serious unless it’s repeated” - and I guess that’s the trick. You have to learn from your mistakes to move forwards.’

Enterprise culture?

But does today’s business world foster a spirit of enterprise? Are young people exposed to the right role models? Many successful entrepreneurs think not.

‘The school curriculum in Uganda doesn’t promote an entrepreneurial spirit. Young people tend not to want to take risks,’ says Tushabomwe-Kazooba. ‘They just want to get good grades and go on to be employed by established businesses.’

He believes other youngsters are simply over ambitious, and don’t realise the effort they have to put in: ‘They want to start big because they’re making comparisons with established businesses,’ he says. ‘That’s a wrong assumption.’

Why is this the case? Perhaps it’s the media profile given to people such as Donald Trump and Richard Branson that has propelled entrepreneurs into the limelight. Television shows on every continent feature ‘wannabe’ entrepreneurs - but do they mask the effort needed to reach the top?

‘Today’s society doesn’t necessarily have the right culture for promoting enterprise,’ says Chris Barlow FCCA, a partner with Birmingham-based accounting practice Bloomer Heaven, in the UK. ‘Programmes like The Apprentice serve a certain purpose by highlighting what can be achieved - but they often miss out the hard work that must go on. Young people don’t always understand that a crucial part of anybody’s learning process is making mistakes and learning from them.’

Karl George says the change in business culture needs to be more dramatic: ‘I still hear youngsters saying they want to become famous footballers or pop stars. So we have to somehow make business trendy - and to make company directorship a fashionable occupation to aspire to. Young people don’t realise that company directors are among the most highly paid professionals, and they’re surprised when they find out. Enterprising businesses should engage more with the education system to encourage students and lead by example.’

Practical advice

So what should aspiring entrepreneurs do, in order to give themselves the best chances of success?

Sama is using the Internet: ‘I’ve subscribed to a number of online management and entrepreneur sites, and frequently visit business news sites. I regularly read magazines like the Economist and the New African.’

Take small steps to start with, says Griffiths: ‘You don’t have to give up the day job,’ she advises. ‘Try selling something without a big name behind you to open doors. Do it in a small way - go to a car boot sale, use eBay, or trade with friends and family. See what it takes to earn just a little bit of cash. Once you’ve done that, it gets easier.’

And why pay for your own training? ‘If you want to do something you don’t have much experience of, it’s better to learn on someone else’s payroll,’ she continues. ‘If you want to run a bar or open a florist shop or gallery, get a Saturday job in one, to see how things work from the inside. It might make you think again - but at least it will open your eyes.’

But qualify!

Let’s not forget your top priority for now - ‘seeing your ACCA studies through to completion is crucial,’ says Silas. ‘I advise people who want to become entrepreneurs to embrace the challenge - but to always remember to uphold the integrity expected by ACCA,’ he urges. ‘An accountant should run a business in a responsible way. It’s not just about making money but having a vision and deciding the kind of legacy you want to create.’

Even if you have a world-beating business idea, George advises sticking the course: ‘ACCA students should unequivocally get through their qualification,’ he says. ‘It gives you credibility and shows you can complete things - which is invaluable when trying to win over backers. You’ll also gain theoretical knowledge about the different facets of business you’ll be faced with, such as law, IT, HR, and regulation.’

And qualifying as an accountant will also give your business a backbone: ‘You need to be the financial cornerstone of your business,’ says George. ‘When I was setting up my businesses and growing my workforce, the job of finance director was one of the last roles I delegated before I became managing director.’

Learn as you train

Although there will always be a clutch of aspiring accountants wanting to become business moguls, most students - even those with plans for world domination - are for the moment focused on passing their exams. However, according to Barlow, those with an eye to future empire-building - under their own steam or within a practice - should nevertheless strive to learn from what’s going on around them: ‘As you train, progress, and grow as a professional, you are exposed to a range of different situations, and experience the different ways that people do business or run companies,’ he explains. ‘It’s therefore important to try to take the best bits from this exposure, and use this to create the approach that’s right for you.’

George believes enterprising students should look at every business from a commercial mindset: ‘If you’re in practice, continually observe what your clients are doing, right and wrong,’ he says. ‘And if you’re in an accounts department, it makes you a better accountant if you think like an entrepreneur. The figures will make much more sense.’

The future

Still want to go it alone? Sama hasn’t given up: ‘I have a long-term plan for five to 10 years, during which I’ll continue in research work, gain experience, and bring potential investors into the show,’ he says.

‘It’s good to start up a business of your own,’ says Silas. ‘If you succeed, you learn - and if you fail, you also learn. It just makes you a better entrepreneur. Careful planning should increase your chances of success, so a business plan is indispensable.’

‘It’s a challenging world out there,’ concludes George. ‘But if you have the will, the chances are you’ll find you also have the way.’

Calum Robson is a freelance writer