The document provides guidance on developing an entrepreneurial mindset and testing business ideas. It discusses defining critical assumptions about market demand, available resources, and personal passion for an idea. It then recommends running tests to validate or invalidate those assumptions by speaking to customers and partners, learning from others' experiences, creating prototypes, and selling a minimum viable product to collect feedback. The goal is to avoid business failures by gaining real-world feedback early to determine if assumptions prove incorrect.

1. THE WIT
Entrepreneurial Mindset

2. Entrepreneur: current business
Topic to be covered
 Entrepreneurship
 The entrepreneurial mind set & thinking
 Creating a product
 Testing business ideas
 Creating and sustaining impact

3. The entrepreneurial mind-set
 Introduction and background of entrepreneurship.
 Uganda is one of the most entrepreneurial Countries in the world.
www.virgin.com/entrepreneur

4. The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Video by Saras Sarasvathy
Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity of opportunity beyond the resources you currently control.
Qns
What is entrepreneurship? What are the Key skills and Characteristics that entrepreneurs possess? What is
the entrepreneurial mindset?
Think about this before you start a business? (groups)
• Who could be your potential customers for this product?
• Who could be your potential competitors for this product?
• What information would you seek about potential customers and competitors? List the question you
would want answered?
• How will you find out this information? What kind of market research would you do?
• What do you think are the growth possibilities for this Company?

6. Casual Vs. Effectual reasoning
Effectual(working in conditions of
uncertainty, prediction is hard)
Causal(Working in conditions of certainty,
prediction is possible)
Where to start:
Start with your resources, Who do I know? What
do I know? What do I have?
Where to start:
Conduct a thorough analysis of markets, trends
and opportunities.
Risk:
Set Affordable Loss, Don’t invest more than you
can afford to lose.
Risk:
Invest big. Risk can be avoided through proper
research and planning.
Attitude towards Outside Firms:
Form Partnerships. Strategy is created jointly to
create new opportunities.
Attitude towards Outside Firms:
Outside firms are bad, be competitive and
weary, don’t share ideas.
Surprises:
Surprises are great. They will happen. Build on
them and adapt.
Surprises:
Surprises are terrible. They show that your
predictions are wrong.
Approach:
The future is shaped by you. Concentrate on
what you can create instead of building
elaborate forecasts.
The future can be predicted through research.
Make an excellent plan and stick to it

7. The Marshmallow Challenge
What were the key lessons learnt, and how do they relate to entrepreneurship?
Summary
Most of your work here involves operating in conditions of uncertainty. It is difficult to predict the future so be
effectual.
Think big, Start Small, Start now-don’t worry about the perfect solution, get out of the building and start trying
things out.
There will inevitably be set-backs. When you try new things, sometimes they don’t work out as planned. If you’re
not failing then you’re not trying! But we want to fail fast, fail early and learn to avoid the big failures that cost lots
of money.

8. Learn and Creating A Product
The Lean Start Up Cycle
Start by building something. Challenge your Assumptions because they are often
wrong! “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their own home. Ken
Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp.1977”
Build
Learn
Measure
Create a product(MVP)
Market testing
Feed back
& value
addition

9. summary
Build something to help you test whether your hypotheses are correct. Measure the results using real data. Reflect and feed lessons
learnt back into the next build.
 Businesses fail because their assumptions prove to be incorrect. They have untested plan that proves to be ill-conceived.
 To avoid this, test your idea early to see if customers want it.
 Test by building Minimum Viable Products(MVPs). This is the quickest, cheapest version of your product. This enables you to get
great feedback very fast.
 Often your first idea will be wrong.-Groupon Changed from collective activism to group buying. That is fine.
 Overall, Learning is the key unit of progress. If you are learning What about adds real value, then you might be working hard, but
you’re wasting your time!

10. Know your Business
Learn about your business or business idea using;
• Business Model Canvas(BMC)
• Strength Weakness Opportunities Threats [SWOT]
• Market Analysis
• Financial Analysis
Customer Segments: The groups of people or Organizations who buy your products or services.
Unique value preposition The reason that each customer segment decides to buy your product or service as opposed to alternative offers
Get, Keep & Grow How do you get, Keep and Grow your customers?
Delivery Channels How do your customers access your product or service?
Key Partners The key people or organizations that you work with in the course of your business.
Key Resources The key assets that you use in the course of your business.
Key Activities The key things that you do in the course of your business.
Costs The things that cost you money.
Revenue model The money that your business generates and how you collect this from your customers. Total revenue minus
total costs equals profit.
THE BMC
It helps you understand and describe both WHAT a business and HOW it does it.

11. THE BMC
01 Market
Segment
02 Unique
Value
Proposition
03 Get
Keep
Grow
04 Delivery
Channels
05 Key
Partners
07 Key
Activities
06 Key
Resources
08 Costs 09 Revenue models

12. SWOT
Strength Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
It is a holistic tool used to understand the big picture, internal and then external business environment.
S W
O T
• What do you better than
anyone else.
• Why customers come to you
• Potential for growth.
• Your key contacts
• Unique resources &
products/services
• What your competitors are
better than you.
• Future Financial plan
• What stops you from
performing to your best
• What prevents your growth
• Lack of business skills or
knowledge
• New demand
• Changing trends
• Economic upswing
• Social/lifestyle changes
• New technology
• Changes in government
policy
• New market entrants
• Changes in customer
tastes/needs
• New laws/regulations
• Threats from competitors
• Threats from subsititute
products
• Competitive price pressure
The SWOT analysis should help you understand the current business or business idea and guide future strategy. Capitalize on your
strength and Opportunities and mitigate weaknesses and threats.

13. MARKET ANALYSIS
For any business or start up , it is critical to understand the market that you are operating in. We want to know
who you are competing against and what these existing alternatives offer that customers value.
Existing
alternative
Description Main Customers Price What do they do
badly?
What do they do
well?
Hello Bakery Bakery in Jinja
producing freshly
baked bread
Supermarkets, hotels
and restaurants in
Jinja
2000UGX per small
loaf
3000UGX per large
loaf
Low shelf life-stale
after 2 days
Packaging is not
attractive
Small product range
Regular and reliable
delivery
Affordable price
Good local
reputation
NOTE: Value is subjective so do not base on your conclusions personal feelings. Get out of the
building and talk with customer segments to build an understanding of what people really think!

14. Financial Analysis
Many entrepreneurs who operate unregistered businesses do not keep any kind of financial
records. Therefore, introducing how to manage cash efficiently and calculate profit margins will
add huge value to the businesses.
What financial records show?
What is coming in(e.g sales)
What is going out (e.g. expenses)
What is in the business (e.g. Cash)
From this, you can assess:
How your business has performed(past)
How your business currently stands(present)
Which direction your business is likely to head(Future)

15. 7 steps of financial Analysis
1. Record all costs. Cash in/out
2. Split these into fixed and Variable costs. Cost that remain constant not matter the volume
units of sales, and those that vary if you sell more units.
3. Work out the cost of goods sold (cost per Unit) taking variable cost how much does it take to
produce one unit?
4. Workout the revenue per Unit: how much will the entrepreneur charge per Unit?
5. Workout the gross profit per unit. This revenue per unit minus the cost of goods sold.
6. Work out the total fixed costs for running the business per month.
7. Deduct the monthly fixed costs from the total monthly gross profit. This gives you your
monthly profit / loss.
....BALOONAction at homeFINANCIAL TOOLS.xlsx

16. Business Growth:
BUSINESS GROWTH
GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES GROWTH INHIBITORS
NAIL YOUR
PRODUCT
 Current product,
Current customer
 Current product,
new customer
 New product,
current, current
customer
 New product, new,
new customer
NAIL YOUR SALES
AND MARKETING
 Direct sales
 Perfecting the pitch
 Building a brand
 Going digital
 Promotions
 Delivery channels
 Flyers and business
Cards
 Building a brand
 Loyalty schemes
 Customer Referrals
 Events
 Design& Layout
NAIL YOUR
OPERATIONS
 Record Keeping
 Growth Margin
Model
 Operating model
 Efficiencies/Quality
of work
 Inventory
management
NAIL YOUR RISK
MANAGEMENT
 Changing
government
regulation
 Customers not
paying credit.
 Suppliers failing
to deliver orders.
 Sudden changes
in commodity
prices

17. Testing business Ideas
How to test?
Businesses fail because their assumptions prove to be incorrect. To avoid this
o Define the idea
o Define the assumption(s)
o Plan the tests(s)
o Record the results
THE STEPS
Define the critical Assumptions
Ru tests to validate/invalidate these assumptions
Entrepreneurial Mind set = Customer Mind set

18. STEP 1: DEFINE THE CRITICAL ASSUMPTIONS
For every idea, you need to ask your self 3 Questions;
• Should I do this? (Market demand)
Basic assumption is that customers want to buy your products/ service. Unfortunately, a lot of time,
customers don’t want to buy what you are selling.
There fore you should only pursue an idea IF enough customers want to buy from you to make this
financially sustainable idea.
• Can I do this?( Resources)
Many businesses fail because the entrepreneur doesn’t have the knowledge, skills, time or money to
successfully run the business
• Will I do this? (Passion)
This question comes down to how much the entrepreneur believes in the idea and wants to pursue it. It’s
about interest, the want to do it, and be totally committed to doing it well.

19. STEP 2: RUN TESTS
So do we know whether the answer to each of these questions is “Yes” or “No”?
Test1: Speak with Customers. Conversations with always be one of your tools to uncover
information. Ask qns such as;
• What is the hardest part about(problem context)
• Can you tell me about the last time that happened?
• Why was that hard?
• What is good and what is bad about..?
• The following should be done to avoid mistakes in the conversation;
 Converse for a solution, carefully define the groups of people you want to talk with
 Focus on the problem. Don’t prove that your assumptions are correct. Don’t try to sell.
 Past and present questions are fantastic. Don’t speculate. Focus on current behavior.
 Take the conversation as whole, don’t filter it.
 Prepare key questions you want to ask and practice in advance.
 Carry out simultaneous conversations to establish the truth.
 Make use of what you learn

20. This one way of testing whether entrepreneurs can access everything they need to deliver in line with their
plans.
Most common partnerships include;
• Suppliers: access to materials, skills, products and services
• Advisors: Access to information and guidance
• Landlords: access to space
• Regulatory bodies: access to licenses and certificates
TEST3: LEARN FROM WHAT EXITS
In micro business sector, most of the ideas have been done before. Most assumptions have been tested and
proved by someone else before.
Find out, how much it costed them to get business started, who the suppliers were, most popular products/
services, customer segments that spend most etc.
TEST 4:PROTYPE (MAKEIT,SHOW,TRY IT)
Test the suitability. Make different prototypes & present them to your customers for their feedback.
NB prototyping is about getting ideas out of your head and into the real world where they can be tested,
explored & improved.
TEST2: SPEAK WITH PARTNERS

21. Selling is the best way to test demand. This is because people often say one thing but do
another, Its only when people actually part with their hard earned cash that you know
they’re willing customer.
Don’t wait for perfection and invest too much. Instead, create the version of a product
or service which allows you to collect the max amount of learning about your key
assumptions with the least amount of time, effort and money.
Then try and sell that version to customers. If they don’t want to buy it, you can ask
why to uncover new exciting insights
TEST5: Minimum viable product (Sell it)

22. • Prepared by Kakuru Sam
• MD-THE WIT LIMITED
• UCU SCHOOL OF BUSINESS