This post was originally posted on africa.co. The site features success stories of African entrepreneurs from across the continent.
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Mike Chilewe Junior, 26 years old, is a chartered accountant who owns Star Radio Station, advertising firm Innovertising Company, and manufacturing company LALA Limited.
Chilewe grew up in an entrepreneurship environment where he was surrounded by successful entrepreneurs that included his father and uncle. From childhood, he was never inspired to work for someone else. 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. Starting in 2008, he worked for his father’s company during the school holidays. Within four years, Chilewe climbed the corporate ladder and become the finance director in his father’s company. In 2012, he left and formed LALA limited, a company that manufactures tissue paper. He narrates that he left his father’s company because he didn’t like routine. “I was doing the same thing every day 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.”
One of the biggest challenge he faced as a new entrepreneur was to get people to believe in his ideas.
“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.”
Coming from a family where his father was a known successful 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, 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.”
He 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 Chilewe.
“I am not a believer of sharing one’s time between working and running a business. If you input 50 percent of your time resources, you should also expect the same output. I advise those that would like to venture into business to go flat out and invest 100 percent of their energy and time”. Chilewe sees fear as a major stumbling block for most young entrepreneurs.
He encourages young and aspiring entrepreneurs to overcome their 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.”
This story was contributed by Lombola Gama, an Africa.co Fellow