How to Answer YouWIN 3 Questions Part1

YouWIN! 3 questions is very technical unlike previous editions. It is technical because:  you are required to describe your business with just 20 words –there is word limit for all the questions. Secondly you are required to prepare cash flow analysis and breakeven analysis to arrive at some answers especially on profitability section. These kinds of questions always come in the 2^nd around of the competition, but I was stunned to see it in the 1^st round.

They reduced the number of words from 250 to 50. The reason for this limit is that it is very difficult to review the increasing the number of expected applicants.

The first cycle of the initiative received less than 24,000 applications while about 65,000 applications were received in the second edition. In youwin 3, what do you think would be the number of applications?

The first round of YouWIN 3 competition is brief introduction of your idea (summary).The process is becoming more difficult to mark as many applicants will apply and no time to go through all the jargons that so many of the applicants will present. So to make the work very easy for them (markers), the number of words is limited.

To answer YouWIN question correctly, I want you to take note of these important things YouWIN want to see in your business plan. These 4 things were highlighted during the presidential launch of YouWIN! 3 which I was fortunate to grace the occasion. The four things are:

1)      Innovativeness

2)      Uniqueness

3)      Practicability

4)      Viability.

Another thing that Minister of Information, Okonjo Iweala said is very important and they are looking for is understanding of the local market and the environment.

Therefore, it is imperative you make your idea very unique, innovative and viable.

Please before I delve into answering current youwin questions, let’s us take a critical look at those things I mentioned above that youwin markers/reviewers want to see in your business plan.

1)      INNOVATIVENESS

Innovativeness here means to introduce new things, ideas, or ways of doing something.

Actually there is nothing like new idea, you can only innovate on existing business. As an entrepreneur, you need to constantly adapt and innovate to ensure you stay afloat in growing market.

You have to look at what people are doing, existing ideas and look at how you can come up with new ways of doing the same thing that will make life easy or the use of such product or idea more easy. Typical examples are:

1)      From Landline to GSM

2)      Introduction of Sachet milk instead of tin,

3)      Introduction of sachet water called pure water and

4)      Introduction of 2-minute passport.

Recently a client that wanted me to write a business plan on laundry business was in my office. When I interviewed him and I asked him what is unique and innovative about your business. He told me that we will provide home delivery service to our customers. I smile and told him point blank that that is not innovativeness or uniqueness at all. Every laundry business provides such service. I told him do you know that it takes at least 1hour to 3days to dry clean a cloth? Do you think is possible to use 10 minutes or less in dry clean? Let’s liken this to 2-minute passport or wait and get passport/pictures. So I told him lets come up with a concept I will call 10 minutes Wait ‘n’ Get dry cleaning.

The next thing I did was to research to know if there is a way to achieve that and I was so happy that is actually possible with some machines from China. So instead of dropping your clothes for 3days and come back for it, you just part your car and while inside your car, we will dry clean for you and you leave within 10 minutes.

2)      UNIQUENESS

Uniqueness here means coming up with an idea or ways of doing things that is the only one of its kind or very special. It can be a special taste etc. Uniqueness is something that will increase business potential energy of your business.

3)      PRACTICABILITY

Practicability means that your idea that you submit must be an idea that can be practice. I was talking about 10 minutes wait and get dry cleaning services, but I needed to ask myself first, is this practicable? Is it possible? So I decided to research more in the end I discovered that it was actually possible.

So you don’t come up with an idea you know is not possible just because you want to access fund and because they say your idea must be unique so you now come up with a proposal that you want to build a car that run with water. Is it practicable with N10m even though I know is possible to actually build a car that can run with water?

4)      VIABILITY

In a business you need to conducts a viability study to determine the potential profit that may exist in a new business idea. Viability shows profitability of the business idea to be converted into a business enterprise.

5)      UNDERSTANDING OF THE LOCAL MARKET

Understanding of the local market and the business environment is very important. According to Minister of Information, Mrs Okonjo Iweala, said those that demonstrate good knowledge and understanding of the local market will win zonal merit award.

It is imperative that you do your market analysis very well and demonstrate how to penetrate.

Though in the first round, demonstrating this might be very difficult because no provision for that. You are limited to the number of words you are to write on.

I enjoin you to take these vital points into consideration when writing your business plan.

At this point I will like us to take a lot at all the questions before attempting to answer them…

In order not to make the post too long, I have decided to divide it into parts. This first part is introduction, while  next part is all the YouWIN questions and answers.

Click to continue to part two- all YouWIN questions and question 1 answers

If you are finding it difficult to answer all the questions, I have a SUCCESS GUIDE that I have answered all the questions and also share winning tips

You can download the free copy of my success guide here

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