Entrepreneurs cautioned on handling success

BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Prof. Samuel Sejjaaka, the board chair of the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) has cautioned Ugandan entrepreneurs against getting overly excited by business success.

Speaking on Wednesday at an enterprise conference organized by Stanbic Bank Uganda in Kampala, Sejjaaka said one of the challenges facing Ugandan enterprises is the failure to manage success in infancy.

 "Once you become successful, especially in the African setting, you want to have a bigger house, car. You want a second wife, third wife and all the children that come along. For us the men, this is the vicious problem…all these drain your income," he said.

"Once your business is expanding, this is actually when you need to be more careful. You are moving from being a business proprietor to being a corporation."

Although studies indicate that Uganda is one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world, many enterprises struggle to get past their third anniversary.

One time, a study conducted by Makerere University Business School (MUBS) put the business failure rate at a mind boggling 50 percent.

 "It is not that the business ideas we have are necessarily poor, but once we begin to have a bit of success, we begin to have tastes for the finer things in life. That is where the trouble starts," said Sejjaaka, who is also country team leader at Abacus Business School.