Following an entrepreneurship coaching programme

Following an entrepreneurship coaching programme

Ahoua Eve Bakayoko, founder of MissBak since 2019

Why seek help?

It was an obvious choice because, of course, I couldn’t know everything, so even though I had a corporate background, I knew that in order to move forward, I needed people around me. So, it was obvious to do that to get the right information and not to waste too much time.

First impressions

Not being alone in the entrepreneurial world was comforting, it reassured me. And then being surrounded by people who give you advice, to have training… It allows you to settle down and be fairly more reassured.

Evolution of the project

At the beginning, I wanted to do a lot of things, I had a lot of ideas! And at the same time I didn’t know much, like social networks, for example. So I wanted to do a lot of things. But I was challenged, I questioned myself a lot because I had a way of seeing things: It had to go like that. As the weeks and months went by, I was getting slapped in the face and I was rethinking a bit how I was going to carry out my project. So definitely, being challenged helped me a lot. In the end, it allowed me to get started.

What was the most useful thing?

Looking back, I realise that I met many people through nyuko, directly or indirectly. So I think networking and collaborations is what my participation in the programme has given me the most.

Key lessons

I would say, everything! The fact that I can exchange with my customers… At the start of the programme, we did a lot of interviews to try to develop and write down our projects clearly. We’ve done a lot of interviews with prospects. The fact that I did those interviews taught me that you have to be very close to your potential customers and prospects. Because in the end, you sell and offer the products to them, not to yourself. It allowed me to get constructive feedback. It also allowed me to refine my value proposition. Professionally speaking, the fact of constantly seeking potential collaborations, potential partnerships, always to be on the lookout for anything that can happen… Because I ended up having a lot of opportunities like that so that’s something that still works for me. I also received a lot of training: financial training, fundraising training, business plan preparation, etc.

If you didn’t get any support?

I don’t know. If I didn’t get nyuko’s support, I would have been supported by a clone! But support was the key!

Would you recommend it?

I recommend it one hundred percent. Because as an entrepreneur, you are always in your own bubble, you are in your own world, you want to do things, you want to change the world, etc. But it’s very important to get support, obviously from good people, people with constructive ideas that can help you move forward. You definitely need support. Simply because you can’t know everything. It also helps you to question your projects.

Entrepreneurship is…

The human aspect is really decisive because I don’t do business for business. I do business with human, social and solidarity values. Being an entrepreneur means having this human side first.