By Martin Zwilling

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, the most common question I get is, “I want to be an entrepreneur — how do I start?” The obvious answer is that you need an idea first, but I’ve come to realize that the process is really much more complex than that. Many people with great ideas never make it as entrepreneurs, and true entrepreneurs can make a business out of anything.

The first myth you have to get past is that having the right idea will make you an entrepreneur. In fact, even implementing the idea into a solution doesn’t make you an entrepreneur. According to my definition and Wikipedia, an entrepreneur is someone who builds a new business. Based on my experience, creating the solution is usually the easy part of starting a successful business.

So before you quit your day job, task all your friends and investors for money, or max out your credit cards to design and build a product, I recommend that you seriously contemplate the following more basic questions:

Are you prepared to adopt the entrepreneur lifestyle? Starting a new business is not a job, but an adventure into the unknown, similar to Columbus setting out to find the New World. It’s a big step into a new lifestyle, like getting married after being single for many years. Yet startup founders are often lonely, since no one else can make their decisions.

How strong is your passion for people and business? You have to enjoy working with people — partners, customers, investors and more — as well as products to start a business. You have to embrace making decisions and the responsibility of setting milestones, measuring progress and celebrating the victories and defeats.

Are you confident and disciplined in facing tough challenges? Starting a business at home or on the Internet is hard work — not a get-rich-quick scheme. You will be operating outside of any proven realm, no mentor can give you the answer, and it won’t help to blame anyone else for missteps and environmental changes you can’t predict.

How familiar are you with the contemplated business domain? Remember that the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. It may make more sense to work for a similar startup before charging ahead on your own. The ultimate best teacher is failure, but a less painful one is getting related work experience and training.

Which business model best suits your mentality? Some people love to deliver services, where personal acumen is tested every day. Others love technology and products, to be replicated and sold while you sleep. If something totally new is not your forte, you can always buy a franchise, acquire an existing business or be a consultant.

Have you mapped out a realistic plan? Few entrepreneurs can assimilate and hone a complete plan in their head. That’s why I believe the process of writing down your plan is more valuable than the result. Also, a written plan multiplies your ability to communicate to constituents, and facilitates parallel feedback. Money is not a substitute.

What is your funding situation and alternatives? Fundraising is stressful and difficult, which is why 90 percent of successful entrepreneurs choose bootstrapping (self-funding). Too much money too early kills many startups, according to investors. There are always non-cash alternatives, such as recruiting partners with equity and bartering services.

After asking yourself these questions, and finding yourself still determined to be an entrepreneur, you will have already started. From there, it’s a simple matter of forging a trail to success, and conquering all the problems and challenges that are sure to surface. Starting a business is a marathon, so you have to make an overt decision to enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

The Writer is a veteran startup mentor, executive, blogger, author, tech professional, professor, and investor. Published on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, Huffington Post, etc.

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By Paul Kimumwe

On the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) 2019, the Collaboration of International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is calling upon governments and communication services providers in East Africa to take decisive steps to enable meaningful usage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for persons with disabilities.

In a new policy brief, CIPESA highlights Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda’s obligations on enabling digital accessibility for persons with disabilities and challenges the three countries to live up to their commitments, as contained in national laws and policies, as well as international instruments they are party to.

Although recent advances have made an ever-greater number of people use ICT for a growing range of tasks, persons with disabilities (PWDs) in East Africa still find it hard to access and use digital technologies and thus continue to miss out on the benefits that the technologies bring.

While Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have enacted various laws and policies to advance the rights of persons with disabilities, including those on access to and use of ICT, these have largely remained on paper with key provisions not being implemented. As a result, a large section of persons with disabilities continue to face digital exclusion.

The situation is exacerbated by the high cost of assistive technologies, low literacy levels among persons with disabilities, and lack of investments in supportive infrastructure by public and private entities.

According to national census data, the percentage of persons with disabilities in Tanzania is 8% of the total population, 3.5% in Kenya, and 14% in Uganda. However, the lack of comprehensive disaggregated data, including the specific challenges that persons with different types of disabilities face in accessing information and using ICT, also undermines the design and implementation of interventions that would improve their access.

The provision of accessible information to persons with disabilities is essential to enable them to exercise their fundamental freedoms and human rights. In this regard, one of the pillars of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is the pledge to leave no one behind, including in the use of ICT.

Besides endorsing the SDGs, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the first international human rights treaty requiring that ICT tools and systems should be accessible as a necessary condition for persons with disabilities to fully enjoy their fundamental rights without discrimination.

Yet, while these governments are increasingly offering e-services, and in some instances have developed guidelines for managing government websites that set out requirements for accessibility for audio, visual and speech-impaired users, as well as compatibility with assistive technologies and devices, these guidelines remain unimplemented and unenforced. Moreover, in the three countries, majority of people that need assistive technologies lack them, because of prohibitive cost and low awareness of such technologies and their functionalities.

The CIPESA brief notes that the countries have sufficient laws and policies, but the weakest link is the lack of their implementation and enforcement. For example, Tanzania’s National ICT Policy 2003 calls for provision of special attention to providing new learning and ICT access opportunities for disadvantaged groups, including persons with disabilities, in order to address social inequities. Kenya’s National ICT Policy of 2016 outlines, under article 13, strategies for “an accessible ICT environment in the country in order to enable persons with disabilities to take full advantage of ICTs.”

In Uganda, Section 21 of the Persons with Disability Act mandates the government to develop and use sign language, tactile, and sign language interpreters in all public institutions and at public functions; and to braille public information such as government documents and government newspapers. It also obligates television stations to provide sign language inset or subtitles.

Many of the challenges faced by persons with disabilities in accessing information can be mitigated through equitable access to ICT, meaningful implementation of the laws, and innovative investments in technologies that support inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Accordingly, CIPESA is calling upon governments to take decisive steps in this direction, for instance:

• Promote access to affordable assistive devices and technologies beyond tax exemptions and relying on donations.
• Ensure that all e-government, e-services and emergency services comply with international web accessibility standards and are accessible for persons with disabilities.
• Ensure that communication service providers have accessible handsets and other mobile devices embedded with accessibility features for persons with different kinds of disabilities within their sales outlets.
• Ensure that licensed television service providers deliver accessible services such as audio description, audio subtitles, closed captions and signage language interpretation in their programmes to ensure access for persons with disabilities.

The Writer is Senior Program Officer, The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)

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By Desmond Lachman

It is no secret that President Donald Trump is displeased with the dollar’s strength. Whether there is much he will or can do about this is another matter. Indeed, regardless of what course of action he chooses, there is every reason to expect further appreciation in the year ahead.

Rather than as a result of the intrinsic strength of the US economic, the dollar’s anticipated appreciation is more likely to be caused by the relative weakness in the rest of the global economy. Moreover, the currency will continue to appeal to investors as a safe haven in times of unsettled international financial markets. Put another way, the dollar will remain the tallest dwarf in the room.

One of the president’s principal campaign promises was to eliminate the US trade deficit and level the international trade playing field. It is against this background that he persistently bemoans the dollar’s strength and accuses the European Central Bank and Chinese authorities of manipulating their currencies.

Yet despite these exhortations, the dollar has shown little sign of weakening. Since Trump assumed office, the dollar has appreciated by almost 10%. That has taken its overall appreciation since the beginning of 2014 to around 30%.

The currency’s continued strength should have come as no surprise to the president. By engaging in a large deficit-busting tax cut in 2017 at a time when the US economy was at close to full employment, Trump contributed to the divergence in monetary policy between the Federal Reserve and the world’s other major central banks. At the same time, by engaging in a trade war on multiple fronts, he abetted a greater slowdown in the rest of the world’s relatively open economy than has been the case in the relatively closed US economy. This led to a situation where foreign interest rates were forced lower relative to US ones.

The rest of the world’s economy will probably continue to weaken relative to the US. That in turn will keep US interest rates at more attractive levels than those abroad, which will further buoy the dollar.

The global economic outlook gives cause for concern. Europe is on the cusp of recession, and Germany remains reluctant to use fiscal policy to stimulate its weakening economy. China is registering its lowest growth rate in more than a decade. Latin America is beset by economic policy uncertainty in Brazil and Mexico and by political uncertainty in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Venezuela.

If the global economy were to succumb to recession, the dollar could be propelled significantly higher. With the world drowning in debt and with credit risk grossly underpriced, there is the risk that a recession could cause serious dislocation in the world’s financial markets as credit markets reprice risk. Were that to occur, money would seek the safe haven of US Treasury bonds and provide strong support to the dollar.

A weakening global economy and strong dollar will hamper mightily Trump’s chances of reducing the US trade deficit. In fact, since Trump entered the White House, the deficit has widened by around 40%. Further widening may clarify for the president the futility of his trade wars, and perhaps focus his mind on the need to reign in the ballooning US budget deficit.

Desmond Lachman is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He was formerly a deputy director in the International Monetary Fund’s Policy Development and Review Department and the chief emerging market economic strategist at Salomon Smith Barney.

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