Mike Chilewe Junior, 26 years old, is a chartered accountant by professional and owns Star Radio Station, Innovertising Company an advertising firm, and LALA Limited a manufacturing company.
Mike grew up in an entrepreneurship environment where he was surrounded by successful entrepreneurs that included his father and uncle. From Childhood Mike was never inspired to work for someone. His very first business was when he was in school where he used to sell blank CDs. He remembers that he acquired his very first capital by selling some of his meal coupons at school for a subsided price. He bought 40, 000 shares in TNM Networks, one of the leading mobile networks operators using the profits he made from the CD sales. He used to work in his fathers company during the school holidays in 2008. Within four years, Mike climbed the corporate ladder and become the Finance Director in his fathers company. In 2012, he left his fathers company and formed LALA limited, a company that manufactures tissue paper. Mike narrates that he left his fathers company because he didn’t like routine. “I was doing the same thing everyday and I was tired of routine and wanted to do something that would challenge me each new day”.
“I consider setting up and running my own businesses as one of my key achievements. Secondly, marrying a loving and supportive wife who encourages me to chart into new and unexploited areas is my second biggest achievement. I consider meeting in person Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson in South Africa as one of my Kairos moments”. Richard Branson is an English businessman and investor and founder of Virgin Group.
One of the biggest challenge I faced as a new entrepreneur was to get people to believe in my ideas and in me. “For instance I just acquired Star Radio in January 2015 but the negotiations started two years ago. Back then they wouldn’t believe in me because I was young and they could not believe that I was serious. They even sent a letter to my father asking him if was serious about acquiring the radio.”
Secondly, coming from a family where my father is a big entrepreneur, people could not give orders for small businesses because they thought I was just joking with them. “I remember they used to say that you are coming from a rich family so why do you want this small order”.
“I believe in giving back because God say we should give, as such I participate in Global Business Round where I give entrepreneurship motivational talks to a group of Christian youths. I also founded a platform called Young and Successful where I mentor more than 20 young people to establish successful businesses”. Mike believes that he cannot manage to provide capital to most young and aspiring entrepreneurs but the best he can do is share his knowledge and skills on how to establish a growing and successful business.
“My advice to young entrepreneurs is that they should invest in their mental capacity. This is the same advice that my father gave me when I told him I was going to start my own things. They should attend entrepreneurship seminars, read entrepreneurship and motivational books”, said mike.
“I am not a believer of sharing one’s time between working and running a business. If you input 50% of your time resources, you should also expect the same output. There I advise those that would like to venture into business to go flat out and invest 100% of their energy and time”.
Mike sees fear as a major stumbling block for most young entrepreneurs. Mike therefore encourages young and aspiring entrepreneurs to remove fear.
“My last advice to young entrepreneurs is that business or entrepreneurship is not a get-rich-quick scheme. If you want to become an entrepreneur you have to be patient because you cannot sow a seed to day and reap today,” says Mike.
This story was contributed by Mr. Lombola Gama, an Africa.co Fellow