Entrepreneur Experience
How to build your Good Business with us
There are currently several ways for you and your business to experience our work.
We design and implement several initiatives in partnership with strategic partners to identify, guide, back and connect entrepreneurs to grow Good Businesses. Our services here are usually group-based and partly or wholly subsidised by our strategic partners.
What Entrepreneurs Get
Strategic Planning
We collaborate with you to design a 1 to 3-year Growth Plan, including a financial plan outlining how you plan to grow your business. This includes: Understanding your market, Strengthening your business model, and Planning for growth. Our goal is to help you strengthen your business model and gain clarity on the best strategy to grow and become competitive as a Good Business.
Effective Decision Making
During the implementation of your strategic plan, we support you and your team in analysing your performance, including financial performance and your performance against your plan, to aid strategic decision-making for your business.
Financial Management
We also help you set up the right financial management systems and processes to better track the financial performance of your business.
Investment Readiness
We support you in becoming ready to raise capital. This ranges from identifying how much investment you need and what type to positioning yourself and your business to raise investment and putting together the right documentation to successfully raise investment.
Capital
We provide capital through SHONA Capital or through our investor matchmaking services to our network of investor friends.
Strategic Planning
We collaborate with you to design a 1 to 3-year Growth Plan, including a financial plan outlining how you plan to grow your business. This includes: Understanding your market, Strengthening your business model, and Planning for growth. Our goal is to help you strengthen your business model and gain clarity on the best strategy to grow and become competitive as a Good Business.
Effective Decision Making
During the implementation of your strategic plan, we support you and your team in analysing your performance, including financial performance and your performance against your plan, to aid strategic decision-making for your business.
Financial Management
We also help you set up the right financial management systems and processes to better track the financial performance of your business.
Investment Readiness
We support you in becoming ready to raise capital. This ranges from identifying how much investment you need and what type to positioning yourself and your business to raise investment and putting together the right documentation to successfully raise investment.
Capital
We provide capital through SHONA Capital or through our investor matchmaking services to our network of investor friends.
Types of Support
Business Training
Our training sessions are practical and tailored to your needs. They are led by business and technical experts and designed to help you acquire knowledge, build new understanding and develop the skills you need to improve different aspects of how you run your business.
Why
SHONA?
Combining Capacity building, Capital and Connections
Our approach involves identifying, guiding, backing and connecting the right entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
Practical Expertise
Our team comes from diverse backgrounds, consisting of business development specialists, entrepreneurs, finance professionals, and facilitators. They’re experts in entrepreneur learning, leveraging the skills, experience, and knowledge of our extensive network, and brokering business relationships and investments with local and international partners, backed by a growing network of more than 200 SHONA Experts with industry knowledge and subject matter expertise.
Experience
Since 2013, we have worked with over 500 businesses and 2,000 entrepreneurs across East Africa through multiple programs and services on their strategy, operations, finance, organisation development, and sales & marketing in multiple industries, including agriculture, health care, education, financial services, manufacturing, water & sanitation, and energy.
Network
The success of our model is premised on our ability to connect our entrepreneurs with our growing, dynamic network of entrepreneurs, SHONA Experts, investors, and many other local partners, whose skills and experience we leverage to provide our entrepreneurs with the support they need.
Local
SHONA was established by Ugandan entrepreneurs to serve East African entrepreneurs. We understand the local context and what it takes to support local entrepreneurs and businesses.
Our Initiatives
The Neycha Accelerator & Fund Cohort 4
Neycha’s 4th cohort, supported by Partnerships for Forests and funded by the UK International Development, is specifically dedicated to supporting the growth of 10 tree-based and forest-friendly AEEs operating in the coffee, cocoa, macadamia nuts, apiary, shea, avocado, and bamboo value chains in Kenya and Uganda.
WeWork — Green and Decent Jobs for Youth
Transforming Uganda’s green and circular economy by supporting SMEs to gain capacity, acquire business loans and hire the right employees they need to grow their business, thereby creating employment and boosting economic growth.
The Neycha Accelerator & Fund
Providing growth-oriented Agroecological Enterprises in Uganda and Kenya with the Capacity, Capital and Connections they need to grow their businesses and impact.
Herizon
Providing economic opportunities for women-driven enterprises and increasing access to products and services that increase the quality of life of women in Kenya and Uganda.
AfriFOODlinks Circular Agribusiness Program
Providing circular agribusinesses or agribusinesses with the potential to become circular in Mbale City with the training, business coaching, capital and networks they need to improve their circularity and grow.
Rootical Business Builder
Building commercially viable and purpose-driven enterprises to accelerate the transition to a fair, inclusive and regenerative food system.
Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Cohort Seven
Cohort Seven expanded AWE’s impact, empowering women with training, resources, and networks for scalable businesses.
Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Cohort Five
Cohort Five empowered Ugandan women, addressing regional challenges through tailored training, innovation, and collaboration.
Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Cohort Three
Empowered Ugandan women entrepreneurs with skills, mentorship, and networks to build and grow successful businesses.
Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Uganda
Equipping women with the practical skills needed to create sustainable businesses and enterprises.
Generation Food Uganda
Empowering youth-led agribusinesses in Mbale and Gulu cities to build businesses and increase access to safe and affordable food for all city dwellers.
Get Investment Capital
SHONA Circle
Accompaniment
Through the loneliness of building a Good Business, you have a group of peers to walk this journey alongside you.
Hire us as a Consultant
The Services we offer
Annual Planning and Reviews
- Goal setting, review
- Annual KPIs
- Scorecards
Strategic Planning (Growth)
- Vision, Mission, Purpose, Values
- Customer and Value Proposition
- Market research
- Competitor & SWOT analysis
- Long term KPIs
- The right people in the right seats
Business Modelling
- Business model design
- Business model validation
Financial Modelling
- Unit Economics
- Scenario & Sensitivity Analysis
Budgeting and Forecasting
- Developing budgets and financial forecasts
External CFO Support
- Develop and Deploy Cash Management Tools
- Periodic Cash flow Health Checks and Advisory
- Financial Analytics and Reporting
Investment Advisory
- Due Diligence, Structuring and Negotiation
- Documentation (Pitch Deck, Investor Memos, Term Sheets and setting up the data room)
Finance Training and Coaching
- Training and Coaching for non-finance entrepreneurs
- Customised Finance Workshops