Careers Portal had the pleasure of catching up with founder of DigsConnect, Alexandria Procter. She shared her top 5 tips for entrepreneurs who need a little push to get started.
DigsConnect is an online platform that helps students find accommodation while helping landlords find suitable tenants.
The idea came to Alexandria in 2017, during her undergrad year at UCT when she was elected to be part of the Student Representative Council (SRC). While serving on the SRC, Alexandria became aware of a need to connect landlords to student tenants after receiving many calls from landlords hoping to advertise accommodation to students.
Now, DigsConnect is going strong, with student accommodation listings in 6 locations in South Africa. It’s a win win situation, serving the needs of students and landlords alike.
This is what Alexandria had to say when we asked for her top 5 tips for entrepreneurs:
- Just Start — stop making excuses, just do it.
- Focus on one value offering — do one thing and one thing only.
- Build something you know about — If you are the typical user of the product/service, you can build the best possible product that you know will add value to your users.
- Be obsessed — Running a company is difficult but you have to love it and be passionate about it in order to get through it.
- Don’t spend money unnecessarily before you have to — Use your energy, ingenuity and creativity to get your business off the ground.
The main takeaway Alexandria has for budding entrepreneurs, is to start small.
Start with 5 customers...If you can get 5 people to love your product, you can get 50, 100 and 1000 people to love your product but it takes time. Just start now with something small and focus.
If you’re a budding entrepreneur, give these tips a go and start the next big thing. Feel free to watch the full interview with Alexandria as she talks more about DigsConnect and entrepreneurship.
