As the world slowly heals from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to accelerate toward the fourth industrial revolution, entrepreneurship remains a proven, tested, and trusted strategy for social and economic development. Entrepreneurship through new business creation and cross-border expansion are necessities for both emerging and developed economies.
New businesses in local and global markets essentially drive innovation, create new jobs, improve incomes, enhance productivity and address societal challenges highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) account for about 99 percent of firms and 70 percent of all jobs, and they contribute more than 50 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in high-income countries worldwide.
Entrepreneurship not only impacts the global economy but also the entrepreneur who decides to identify problems and develop innovative solutions to solve such problems within their local communities or cross-border markets. Such benefits may include improved incomes, personal freedom, flexibility, ability to pursue a passion, while also making a difference in the world.
Challenges Faced By Entrepreneurs
As attractive and impactful local and cross-border entrepreneurship appears, it is not without risks and challenges. According to available data, the failure rate for businesses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Nigeria within the first 5 years is 50%, 60%, 30%, and 80% respectively.
The factors that lead to the failure of these businesses and startups include limited knowledge and market insights, poor access to capital, poor corporate governance structures, slow adoption of digital technologies, poor access to the market, and poor leadership skills amongst others.
Bestie Atti, a lawyer, business expert, and co-founder of Corporate Bestie and Innovation Growth Hub is helping to mitigate these challenges. “Our mission is to ensure that anyone, anywhere who identifies as an entrepreneur and changing the world with their potential billion-dollar ideas have access to the tools and resources to start, manage and scale their business”. She says.
Bestie Atti who came from humble beginnings and grew up in the city of Warri, Delta State in southern Nigeria, was always destined to do great things. She studied law at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and was later called to the Nigerian Bar as a Lawyer in 2014. Bestie Atti has also had her share of business failures, starting her first business at the age of 20. “When I started my first company back in the University, my goal was simply to have enough to cater to my needs and supplement what I was receiving from my parents as well as the scholarship board. Unfortunately, I lacked the knowledge, skills, and tools to run the business and soon had to shut it down”.
Supporting Local Entrepreneurship
Like most entrepreneurs, who just wouldn’t take no for an answer, Bestie continued to learn and invest in herself including volunteering to organize her first Techstars Global Startup Weekend event in 2015. This event inspired her to utilize her legal, business, and digital technology skills to set up CorporateBestie in 2017 to support other entrepreneurs on their startup journey.
Corporate Bestie is a technology company that provides an all-in-one tool for entrepreneurs and enterprises to incorporate, manage compliance and build cross-border businesses without stress or complex paperwork.
Serving customers across three markets – Nigeria, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Corporate Bestie makes it possible for entrepreneurs to easily obtain and access their business incorporation documents, tax identification number, business bank account, permits, and a ‘founder toolbox’ containing selected tools to help businesses succeed as they start and grow their businesses. CorporateBestie facilitates high rates of incorporation, business compliance, and cross-border expansion among entrepreneurs and enterprises thereby leading to higher rates of business formalization, continuity, access to capital, access to market, more consistent revenue flow, more job creation, and contribution to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Through her second company, Innovation Growth Hub (IGHub), a creative, business, and technology incubation hub, Bestie Atti and her team are helping to train and provide startup entrepreneurs and MSMEs with technology skills and tools to accelerate them for the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR). IGHub has completed entrepreneurship and digital transformation programs for companies such as Google, Meta, Ford Foundation, Foundation for Partnership Initiative for the Niger Delta (PIND), and First Bank of Nigeria, among others which impacted over 30,000 individuals and MSMEs.
Ms. Atti is an alumnus of Founder Institute, a silicon-valley-based pre-seed accelerator and the most proven network to turn ideas into fundable companies. Since 2009, Founder Institute has launched over 6,000 companies that have raised over $1.75BN in funding and are building meaningful businesses across 200+ cities and 95+ countries. She is also a startup mentor on the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme, the largest African philanthropic initiative committed to empowering African entrepreneurs.
Cross-Border Business Expansion
Bestie Atti says “Cross-border expansion is not a nice-to-have strategy, but a necessity for companies to survive unfavorable government regulations, reach new customers, improve revenue and unlock new partnerships and opportunities. Thanks to business innovation and technology, founders no longer have to physically travel to a new country or require a visa to set up their companies, or a business bank account to accept international payments. We, along with our partners, have set up structures and systems that make it easy and convenient for founders to easily set up and manage their companies in developed and developing economies.”. The company is also targeting to support more companies to expand to other markets across Africa, North America, and Europe.
Corporate Bestie is set to launch its #100kFounders project this November to provide entrepreneurship education, business formalization, financial inclusion, and digital transformation for one hundred thousand entrepreneurs in disadvantaged and underserved communities across Nigeria and America. The project will target solutions that can address the world’s most pressing challenges via entrepreneurship and innovation.
Company: Corporate Bestie
Email: hello@corporatebesite.com
Phone number: +1 (757) 364 8517
Website: www.corporatebestie.com