Entrepreneurs and Ideas
Who is an Entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is a guy who, instead of working as an employee, runs a small business and assumes all the risks and rewards of a certain business, idea, good, or service that is offered for sale. An entrepreneur is a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes.
Entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy. These are the people who have the necessary skills and initiative to improve any economy. The reward for taking the risk is the potential economic gains that the entrepreneur could earn.
Yes, I know it’s hard. It is a lot of work. And that, folks, is what makes entrepreneurship so fucking hard. And so fucking necessary. What can I say, that’s life. Also, look on the bright side: you can do whatever you want and do it your way. There is only one trap. You have to start somewhere. Ideas and opportunities do not come out of nowhere.
The only way I know of to start is by learning a marketable skill and putting it to work. In my experience, that’s where ideas, opportunities, partners and finances always seem to come from. Sure, it also requires an enormous amount of hard work, but that only comes with the territory.
If you want to undertake well, let me share the story of an African lady that you have probably never heard of, her name is Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu.
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, 34, grew up in Zenabwork, a poor village in the suburbs of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
He came up with his business idea after noticing that most of the artisans in his community, who made beautiful footwear, were still jobless and poor.
Today his company, SoleRebels, is one of the most popular and fastest growing African footwear brands in the world! He sells his ‘green’ brand of footwear in more than 50 countries, including the US, Canada, Japan and Switzerland.
SoleRebels footwear is unique in that it is made 100 percent by hand with locally sourced and recycled materials, such as old car tires and hand-woven organic fabrics.
A few years ago, SoleRebels became the first footwear company in the world to be certified by the World Fair Trade Organization.
Through the use of local artisans, Bethlehem has built a global brand and a hugely successful business that has created jobs and improved livelihoods in its local community.
He started SoleRebels in 2004 with less than $10,000 in capital that he raised from family members. Today, the company has more than 100 employees and nearly 200 local suppliers of raw materials, and has opened several independent sales outlets in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Despite very humble beginnings, SoleRebels now generates up to $1 million in sales each year and based on their projections and expansion plans, the company could be generating up to $10 million in sales by the end of this year (2016).
Buoyed by her success with SoleRebels, she recently launched Republic of Leather, a new business that deals in luxury leather goods such as handbags, belts and other non-shoe leather accessories.
Bethlehem was selected as the 2011 Young Global Leader of the Year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and was a winner at the African Entrepreneurship Awards in the same year. Bethlehem and her inspiring SoleRebels success story have been featured on Forbes, the BBC and CNN.
As an entrepreneur, the sky is your limit. You can achieve whatever you want! We can all be Belén, start thinking and creating…
See you at the top!