Business is for risk takers; Dusaidi

Dianne Dusaidi is the managing director and cofounder of Legacy 45 Entertainment, accompany that specialises in Television and radio broad cast documentation. She participated in REAL Fina Bank Entrepreneurship Award, hosted by Educat during Global Entrepreneurship Week, and emerged third. Peterson Tumwebaze caught up with her and asked her what lessons she learned from the entrepreneurship week plus more.Why would a graduate with masters in international businesses quit a job of senior investments officer at Rwanda Development Board to venture into business?Spending a year in Toronto, Canada, looking for job without success meant that I had to think out side the box. I had to return home to work with Rwanda Development Board and worked in the investments promotions department for four years.This way, I had chance to identify the best investment opportunity. Most entrepreneurs registering businesses at that time were not tapping into the media sector and events management. Given opportunities the country provides, my projections for this business showed that only the sky was going to be the limit for me.What did you do to turn your idea into reality in a situation where most people fail due to limited resources? Being able to start with faith, and not money, is very important. This is because you are able to indentify what you can work with before anything else. Your mindset must not be driven by money but rather by your passion. You will be able to understand that even with nothing you will be able to create something.Why chose media of all businesses?Venturing into media is what I really wanted. I believed that following my passion—that is producing television, and radio commercials while documenting some of the great things that this country offers, was bigger than being employed by anyone. I was also inspired by my sister, Chantal Dusaidi, and my best friend Laretta Mbabazi.So what does doing business mean to you as a young person? To be able to do things your own way, but also to be able to understand that your business exists to provide solutions to challenges in society. There are many business opportunities that are embedded in our current challenges, therefore one must be innovative to be able to tap into these opportunities.But also, business means providing both quality and more efficient service to society to be able to earn that trust [that one needs to succeed]. How should young entrepreneurs deal with bottlenecks in business? Entrepreneurs should also be part of the solution as governments fight hard to address these challenges. The realty is that there are bottlenecks in every thing we do or desire to do. Therefore, being able to understand that bottlenecks are there to help you become innovative, network properly, sale your ideas and above all be able to come up with unique solutions that will provide solutions not only to your business but also to society, is what makes a difference.You participated in Global Entrepreneurship Week. What lessons did you learn? First of all I participated because Rwf4million prize would make a great impact on my business. However, I learnt a lot especially on business networking, bookkeeping, how to respond to market information, business communication business and value addition. These are very important things that you can’t learn at school.Any advice for young entrepreneurs? Be inspired by those that have made it—admire and seek advice from them always. Have a vision for your business, a work plan and put deadlines for each and every activity you set out to do, because as an entrepreneur you must stay on top of events. Also believing that you can create something form nothing is very vital.