Event Recap: Conducting Entrepreneurship Abroad

On 18 January 2022, ITC’s Ye! Community, in collaboration with the Business and Technology Incubator in Gaza and Ipark Land hosted a webinar to support youth entrepreneurs in Palestine with information on doing entrepreneurship abroad. Key discussion points included business development, working with large development organizations, fundraising and challenges to enterprising. The session featured three youth speakers from the Ye! Community, all with various experiences and backgrounds.

• Ozaal Zesha: Founder of ClassNotes and Ye! Advisor to ITC for Pakistan

• Salam Al-Nukta: Serial Social Entrepreneur and Founder of Warsha

• Matiullah Rahmaty: Founder of BrightPoint Consulting

The session featured presentations by each speaker outlining their thoughts on entrepreneurship abroad and was followed by Q&A with the young entrepreneurs in attendance. Each speaker gave honest and candid responses about the challenges and successes they have faced along their journey.

Below are 10 key takeaways from the Entrepreneurship Abroad Webinar. Check them out and incorporate them into your work today!

1. Seek out opportunities: In the multilateral arena and in entrepreneurship more broadly, youth cannot wait for opportunities to find them. A key part of being a successful entrepreneur is always hunting for opportunities to build your business, your reputation and seek out exposure. Be proactive! Sign up for newsletters from UN agencies and grant giving orgs. Put yourself out there! Send emails and connect on LinkedIn. 

2. Use the guilt factor: Many organizations in the West are dedicated to serving low income countries. It is important to know this and use it to your advantage. If you are solving a local problem, in a low income country, using you local knowledge, large NGOs and development agencies want and need to work with you.

3. Never be too proud to seek out help and support: The entrepreneurship journey is full of setbacks, but also people who want to help! Don’t be afraid to ask for help from others. If you never ask, then you will never know what could have been. Put your pride aside and ask for help in learning new skills and growing your business.

4. Tackle social issues like only you can! Youth entrepreneurs from the global south have an advantage when it comes to understanding the unique cultural and social context of their environment. Taking on issues from your unique lived experience and bringing your unique viewpoint to the table will ensure your venture has a distinct edge. Large multilaterals and NGOs want and need this local presence in their work.

5. Never stop learning and re-learning: No matter how far along your entrepreneurship journey you are, there is always room for improvement. Read everything you can to grow your knowledge and never stop being curious. This will make you a better leader and support you in building a better business.

6. Ideas and solutions can start small: Sometimes entrepreneurs get swept up in the idea that everything must be BIG! A solution must serve lots of people. However, when it comes to working with large donors in the NGO and multilateral sphere, targeting a small audience with a market-ready solution is often more valuable. Large organizations are looking for sustainability and to ensure that once the grant funding ends, the project can continue. So don’t be afraid to start small with a core audience and build out, sustainability of the solution is the key factor here.

7. Have skin in the game: To be successful you must jump in and become a player. If you don’t have any skin in the game, partners and larger organizations will have limited faith in partnering with you. You must prove that you’re in it for real!

8. Build trust! Following on from the point above, when building your business, it is key to create trust and build deep relationships with suppliers, buyers, partners, and donors. Without trust, your business will continuously stall because you won’t have strong relationships to help you progress the business forward and overcome challenges that you cannot face alone.

9. Tailor your message to your audience: Knowing who your target audience is and what their pain points are is critical to ensuring that your business is meeting the needs of customers and clients. Leverage surveys, interviews, and focus group sessions to gain a deep understanding of the challenges your customers are facing, how they are currently addressing the challenges, and what new solutions they might be open to. This data will ensure your messaging is tailored and that your business solution is customer-centric.

10. Get ready to face rejection (and lots of it!): All the speakers stressed that rejection is part of the entrepreneurship journey. Every entrepreneur has faced rejection - from Steve Jobs to Elon Musk, when you are a groundbreaking innovator, you can be certain that you will hear lots of “NOs” as people won't immediately see the value of your innovation. Don’t let rejection deter you. Instead, as Salam mentioned, really dive into the rejection and get to the bottom of it. Seek to learn why you failed so you can address the core issue(s). And finally, don’t take it personally. It’s not about you, it's about what you are bringing to the table. And your business solution, marketing approach, or business model is something that you can continue to adapt and improve.

The speakers also addressed questions from the audience on team building, grant writing, Intellectual Property (IP) protection and passion for addressing social issues in entrepreneurship.

The session closed with each of the speakers offering to provide one month of one-on-one mentorship and support to the entrepreneurs in attendance on topics such as proposal and grant writing, pitch deck creation and international expansion. All they have to do is reach out!

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This pilot webinar sought to set the groundwork for launching a Ye! Chapter in Palestine through assessing the needs and engagement of the youth entrepreneurs in the region. Lookout for more activities in the region coming in 2022 and the upcoming launch of the Ye! Chapter in Palestine.

Want to watch the Entrepreneurship Abroad Webinar from start to finish? Check it out here.

Not yet a member of the Ye! Community? There is no time like the present to grow your network and your skills! Join Ye! Community today by clicking the link here.