Small Business Management — Module 1: Starting a Productive Business

Botswana buys too much of what it could make. This module starts you on the other side of that shelf.

Starting a Productive Business is the first of five modules in Small Business Management: Production, Value Addition and Export, one of Stadira’s two flagship career courses. It is built for people who want to make, grow or process something here: food, furniture, leather, cosmetics, building materials, or the services that producers need.

In seven lessons with Prof. Kitso you learn to think like a producer, add value to local resources, find ideas on the import shelf, test an idea before you spend, study your customers and your imported competition, and put the whole business on one page that a funder can read. You follow Mpho from Molepolole as she turns unsold eggs into a new product, and you choose your own track: Make, Grow or Serve.

Every money skill is worked through in Pula, then you try it with your own figures. Every lesson has practice boxes you can tap, check-in questions with Prof. Kitso’s answers, Setswana key terms, and one page of your Producer’s Business Plan. Three field tasks take you out of the lesson: a market walk, three customer interviews and a visit to a working producer.

The module ends with a quiz with full explanations and your Opportunity & Value-Addition File, marked by your teacher. Pass both to earn your Module 1 certificate.

Built, developed and assessed by qualified teachers. Aligned with HRDC priority skills. Stadira Training Institute, BQA-registered Consultancy, Reg. No. CON501, Gaborone, Botswana.