₦airaland Forum

Competition for grants has never been more intense.
When I won the Tony Elumelu Grant in 2017, over 150,000 people applied!
Now, imagine I’m a tired, grumpy and hungry reviewer. I’ve got 100 grant applications to get through. How can you as an applicant, make it as easy as possible for me to pick you?
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1. Right Solutions
All money is not created equal. Different grant giving organizations have different mandates and a different focus. While there are some that cover multiple industries like the Tony Elumelu Foundation, they are the exception. Ensure that your business is proffering a solution to the kind of problem the organization seeks to solve. Applying for a solar grant with a bio-gas business is going to end in tears.
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2. Radical Pitches
Grants are extremely competitive. To win a grant, you better be building a brand and not a commodity. A brand is any product or service that is easy to identify and hard to substitute. Think iPhones, Indomie Noodles, Dangote Cement or Paystack. A commodity is any product or service that is hard to identify and easy to substitute. Think razor blade, sachet water or Nokia phones. You have to narrow your focus, solve a specific problem and find a differentiating factor. For instance, a friend of mine is making recommended eye wear frames from bamboo and She is giving out one pair for every pair sold. That is a strong selling point.
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How can you cook a radical elevator pitch? Use FAQS
Facts: Something known to be true based on evidence. For instance, Nigeria’s population is 200M.
Analogies: Comparison between one thing & another. For instance, Brazil with a near identical population as Nigeria has an installed energy capacity of 137Giga Watts. Meanwhile, Nigeria has an installed capacity of only 12,000Megawatts and struggles to generate 4,000 Megawatts. This is a brilliant way to prove Nigeria is suffering from chronic energy poverty.
Quotes: A short sentence drawn from long experience. If you were pitching a solution that had to do with eradicating poverty, you could end with the words of Kofi Annan “poverty anywhere is a threat to security everywhere”
Stories: A narrative of a true or imagined event. Stories are powerful because they convey emotions. They help the listener/investor/judges connect to your solution. And lastly, stories move us because transportation leads to persuasion.
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3. Resourceful entrepreneurs
If you can’t do anything without money, you won’t do something with money.
Even if you are pitching an idea, you must have done something. Maybe a prototype or a website or land. Your current milestone cannot be “we are waiting for this grant”.
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4. Real scalability
“In the end though, the best reason to need capital is speed… Not to fix a sales or technology problem”
Scalable businesses have a large addressable market. They usually leverage technology too. To scale, you also need to know your numbers. What is the total amount of cash invested to date? What are your current monthly cash expenses ? How much revenue has your startup generated since inception?
No funder will give you money if you cant clearly articulate why you need it. Don’t say
“I will start my own cosmetic line the way Tara did. Go to china and produce my brand of lipsticks and body cream. Also start a standard beauty school with accredited certification”
Break it down. For instance, this will increase your production from what to what? And profit will increase from what to what?
Let’s rephrase
With $10,000 we will launch a beauty school that will train about 2,000 aspiring skin care specialists over the next 3 years, equipping them with skills that will make them skilled beauticians and employers of labour.
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I shared these tips at Hope Business Forum (HBF) in Abeokuta over the weekend. I also shared tips on how to win the Tony Elumelu Grant (www./tefguide). Thanks to the organizer’s for honoring me with an award in business excellence.
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If you’re interested in winning grants, I have written an ebook aptly titled “How to win Grants”. It costs just N1,000 ($3) and It comes with 1 month of free coaching. WhatsApp me on +2348037285780 for more info.
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I hope you found this useful!

BetBuilder365:
Can I sell online education programs like the way udemy does

You can try

southniyikaye:
I think where I missed it was being a sole proprietor of the company and truly I don't have a business partner. And while I was answering questions seems the scheme takes special interest in partnership businesses

Not at all.
Your score is about your assessment test performance.

BetBuilder365:
how do you sell on the platform

TEF connect is a very exciting platform.
There is a market place.
Register and explore.

southniyikaye:
I ended up in the, greenhorn Jarre, never knew the system has changed.
For someone to pass those tests, he needs a professional tutor.
I just want to update my profile and start selling on the platform, I cannot comman go and kill myself

Awww...do not be discouraged.
if you have a business partner, encourage the person to apply.
Encourage your family & friends to apply to.
And like you have rightly said, it pays to seek tutoring from past winners or those who have passed.

Have you seen the new TEF application for selecting fellows? It looks like GMATHS.
The free guide I released late last year won’t help you much. The new application system has both Psychometric & personality tests in addition to business and financial knowledge assessment.
To make this new guide easily accessible, I have chosen to blog it.
This 100% free guide has information on psychometric, personality & financial knowledge assessment.

Why am I qualified to write this?
1. I have a Bsc in Psychology
2. I am a 2017 Tony Elumelu fellow
3. I guided 20 people to become fellows in 2019
You can simply Google ‘Olugbenga Ogunbowale’ or visit here to learn more about me.

Unlike previous cohorts, this year’s format has totally changed.
Now, let’s begin:

Timeline:
• Applications (Jan 1 – Mar 1)
• Onboarding (Mar)
• Training & Mentoring (April – May)
• Pitching (June)
• Selection Announcement & Forum (July)
• Submit ID, Business Reg & Bank Details (Aug – Sep)
• World Check & Seed Capital Disbursement (Aug – Dec)

Assessment:
The assessment gives the Foundation an indication of your personality type. It gives them a better indication of how best they can make an impact in your start-up journey. The assessment will take approximately 1hour to complete. You can stop and save your personal details information online and continue later but you cannot save and continue your assessment later.

There are 2 sets of assessments i.e.
1. Psychometric / Personality tests
2. Business and Financial knowledge assessment
After taking the assessment, the system scores you and highlights your segment/path for training. All entrepreneurs that apply will go through a set of training. Training is delivered based on entrepreneur segment. During this training, you will take tests/quizzes at the end of each module. Your assigned training path will determine whether you will have a chance to get seed capital or not.


Assigned training path
Based on your answers to the assessment questions, the system profiles you and places you in the appropriate training path as follows:

Greenhorn –
This means you are a starter according to the business start-up profiling. You will go through the general training on TEFConnect. You will, however, not be eligible for mentorship or seed capital.

Innovator –
This means that you have been profiled to be an intermediate entrepreneur. You have a good potential to be a successful entrepreneur. You will go through the Intermediate training modules and you will be assigned a mentor during the programme. Based on your performance through the training programme, you will stand a chance to pitch your business in person to the set of judges for final selection to receive seed capital.

Disruptor –
This means that you are or identified to be natural or a seasoned entrepreneur. You will go through the Advanced training modules and you will be assigned a mentor during the programme. Based on your performance through the training programme, you will stand a chance to pitch your business in person to the set of judges for final selection to receive seed capital.

Pls Note
• Innovators and Disruptors stand a chance to receive the same value of seed capital.
• Assessment can only be taken once. Do not take it if you are not ready.
• If you are unable to complete the assessment before the time is up, assessment will be made based on the answered questions.

Configured scoring module (100) will be as below:
• Test Questions (weight: 40)
• Interaction on TEFConnect (weight: 50)
This includes attendance to webinars, response to surveys, activity on TEFConnect
• Mentor Engagement (weight: 10)
Top performing entrepreneurs will be shortlisted to physically pitch their ideas to a panel of judges
Entrepreneurs may be allowed to send in video pitches in approved geo-locations.

Pitching
• Pitching will happen in all 54 African countries (may be refined based on management’s decision)
• Pitching can be done in English, French, Portuguese or Arabic

Selection
• Selection will be based on aggregated scores from Application, Training & Pitching phases.
• Top performers will be selected for the seed capital.




Getting to Know you: Business Details
This section captures your business idea and experience. Most of the questions here are yes/no.
The most important questions here is: Tell us about your start-up idea (minimum 50 words. Maximum 500 words).
I suggest you combine your elevator pitch with differentiation. Here is what this looks like:

ELEVATOR PITCH
Here, you are expected to talk about the problem, talk about the solution and make a proposition.
Let me use Epower.ng as an example:
For businesses who wish to gain visibility & attract more customers online, epower.ng is a digital agency that connects SME’s to customers through websites, & apps.
Unlike traditional advertising that is hard to target & difficult to measure,
Epower.ng harnesses the power of design & digital storytelling to help businesses make the shift from overlooked to overbooked.

Analysis: First, talk about your target audience. Are you targeting pregnant women or teenagers? Next, talk about what you do. Then throw shade at your competitor and mention why they are ineffective. Then, talk about how you do what you do. And finally, always end with a slogan or something catchy. You want to leave a massive impression in the mind of the reviewer. Your pitch should be so clear that the reviewer can pitch on your behalf.

DIFFERENTIATION
Do you know the difference between a brand and a commodity? Commodities are easy to substitute and hard to differentiate but brands are hard to substitute and easy to differentiate.
Think about Indomie or IPhone. Can you easily replace them? But can you easily differentiate them?
Now compare the above with other products like tissue paper, razor blade, pencil. When was the last time you checked the maker of your Poly bag?
You can’t just do fish farming, there are too many fish farmers. You must add a twist. Imagine if you were connecting fish farmers directly to sellers.
If I was pitching an employability training business, I could say
1) Our students get access to internship opportunities from inside and outside our client base
2) 90% of our students secure jobs afterwards.
3) Our training is very affordable ($15 - $50) unlike other actors who charge a minimum of $170

By the time you are done with both, you should have clocked 250 words.
Section 2: Personality Assessment
Here, you have questions like:
“I can easily guess what others are thinking”
“I prefer working on realistic ideas”
“I prefer being with people who hold similar values”

Here are 4 tips to help you pass the personality test

1) Be yourself
A personality test is a two-way assessment. The purpose of this particular test is to assess whether your personality is suitable for entrepreneurship. If you don’t have entrepreneurial DNA, you probably should not be applying in the first place.

2) Avoid extreme answers
Selecting highly agree or highly disagree in every response may bracket you as inflexible and robotic.

3) Answer questions with an ethical and professional mind set
Try to avoid selecting answers which could portray you as an unethical or unprofessional person. There are incorrect answers in personality tests and choosing an answer that is unethical or unprofessional is likely to be incorrect.

4) Mind the time
Keep one eye on your stopwatch as you take the test. The only thing worse than not taking the test is ending half way.


To further help you pass the test, here are 5 personality traits identified to be compatible with a prosperous entrepreneurial career:
1) Achievement Striving
This is an individual’s intrinsic motivation and efficiency of work completion. Entrepreneurs will usually be responsible for their own work hours and set their own deadlines meaning it would be easy to underachieve if they lack initiative, as there is no one to answer to when tasks are not completed.

2) Industriousness
This is considered to be an indicator of levels of persistence and hardiness, the ability to overcome difficulties and to remain functional in stressful situations. It can also convey willingness to work hard and to offer additional efforts when required. Due to number of challenges and disappointments associated with building a successful business from the ground, it is important that the individual is able to persevere with various efforts or attempts in order to achieve success.

3) Passion
This refers to one’s enthusiasm, personal commitment to achieving goals and extent to which they will go in order to get ahead. More often than not, those who possess an emotional affinity with their career of choice are more likely to succeed.

4) Taking Control
This is linked to how far the individual believes themselves to have control over a situation and its outcomes, thus affecting their perception of positive and negative events. This idea originated from the psychological theory known as “Locus of control” which describes the way in which someone might credit certain events to themselves or to other external factors. For example, those who believe to have high levels of control are likely to attribute successes to their own abilities as opposed to luck.

5) Creativity
This is indicative of how effectively one might generate new ideas, which is vital to an entrepreneur wishing to establish themselves within a niche market. The ability to continually revolutionise and build upon pre-existing concepts may help to produce a vast number of successful business models.



Section 3: Cognitive Assessment
This section contains some basic business questions. It aims to test your financial knowledge.
There are straight forward questions, calculation based questions, pattern recognition questions & scenario based questions.
Asides from the straight forward questions, the best way to prepare for the other type of questions is to take free online GMATH tests.
In addition, you will need the formula for profit & loss, profit markup.
MSRP means Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.

Epilogue
I wish you all the very best in your application. Pls reach out to me if you have questions not covered in this guide. And pls reach out to me when you eventually win the grant. I would love to share your story.
Email me (yesboss2080@gmail.com) or WhatsApp me (+2348037285780)
And whether you win $5k or not, the free training you get from TEF can help accelerate your business. God bless The Tony Elumelu Foundation for empowering African Entrepreneurs.
It’s your turn. Go succeed!