InvesteQ Capital Entrepreneurship Competition

InvesteQ Capital is a 7 year old company whose focus is to provide financing solutions to SMEs in Africa. The InvesteQ Capital Entrepreneurship Competition is a business plan competition preparing Kenyan SMEs for finance.

Eligibility

• Kenyan businesses registered in Kenya
• Financing requirement is between US$ 10,000 and US$ 1,000,000
• You aim to be profitable in the next three years.
• Your business is a growth business with a yearly growth rate in sales and/or employees of 30% annually.

For more information, visit http://www.yipekenya.org/InvesteQ Capital Entrepreneurship Competition.htm

Thomson Reuters Course on Financial and Economic Reporting

Thomson Reuters is offering a five-day course designed to help journalists in East Africa to strengthen their reporting on financial and economic topics by developing their understanding and skills. The course will include practical exercises and live reporting.

The course will take place in Kampala, Uganda, at the end of September. Thomson Reuters Foundation offers bursaries for journalists from developing countries in political transition. The deadline to apply is August 15^th 2011.

For more information and to apply, visit http://www.trust.org/trustmedia/journalism-training/courses-detail.dot?id=d6ce2a00-e052-47c1-842b-0d96af62b130

For more course announcements, visit http://www.yipekenya.org/News.htm

How to write a budget for your business

A budget is probably the most crucial document required for your business. 

To start on your budget you first have to define what expenses you anticipate will occur. These can be categorised into operating expenses and overheads. Operating or working expenses include items such as stationery, fuel and communications which are variable in terms of how they are used. Overheads cover the fixed costs of a business, including items such as rent and machinery.

Read more on how to write a budget for your business

New interactive Business Finance Tool launched for Kenyan small business owners

Financing is the lifeblood of a business. Whether one is starting an enterprise or if they are seeking to expand their business – the lack of money can be detrimental.

After having polled its users, the Youth Interactive Portal for Enterprise - YIPE (www.yipekenya.org) found that the reason for the low uptake of formal business financing opportunities among Kenyan small business owners was not due to perceived barriers such as tedious application processes as previously thought. The main reason amongst the sampled business owners was simply that they did not know of the availability of business financial products on offer.

This finding spurred YIPE to develop and launch its Business Finance Interactive Search Tool (www.yipekenya.org/Business finance.htm) which enables business entrepreneurs in four easy steps to access information of business financial products that suit their stage of business. 

This product easily reduces the time and expense required in searching for appropriate financial products. As a value add-on, users can also access information from a database of over 1,000 entries (and rising) of financial sources in the county their business operates in.

Having the available financial product information in one place makes it possible for users to find banks and micro-finance institutions near them as well as compare the various financial products from multiple providers.

Users are given the options to select their business stage, the type of financing required and the county they reside in. YIPE’s business finance tool then presents them with a list of financial institutions (commercial banks, micro-finance institutions etc) whose products match their criteria, along with the providers’ contact information.

The Business Finance Interactive Search Tool is available on www.yipekenya.org/Business finance.htm and is free for all users.

For the time being, YIPEs Business Finance Interactive Search is available for Kenyan based businesses only.

About the Youth Interactive Portal for Enterprise – YIPE

Since its founding in 2008, the Youth Interactive Portal for Enterprise has emerged as a highly valued source of quality content for both aspiring and operating entrepreneurs. The Portal was one of the winning case studies for the Society for New Communications Research 2009 Excellence in New Communications Awards in the Online Publishing – Technology Innovation category. In 2010, YIPE was named the Kenyan partner for the Global Cleantech Ideas competition which is the search for the world’s best social enterprises that proactively address environmental degradation.

For more information, visit www.yipekenya.org and follow @yipeorg on Twitter.