How to build a business in PNG without finance

Kevin McQuillan reports on two experts who say that budding entrepreneurs should not be preoccupied with obtaining finance. Start off slow and build up, they advise.

While finance, or access to capital, is an issue for young entrepreneurs, it is possible to build a business with little to no capital, says Roberta Morlin, founder and co-owner of KLM Consulting, which provides marketing research and technology consulting.

A finalist in the 2015 Kumul GameChangers program, Morlin is a leader in PNG’s growing community of young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs. With guidance, she moved from creating apps to running a consulting agency specialising in market research and technology.

“I pretty much do a lot of work around artificial intelligence,” she says. “When I first started in 2015, I had 30 ideas and I had to validate (reduce) those ideas down to 15. I had to further validate over the next 15 months down to four, which I am currently working on.” The Kumul GameChangers program recently took in 40 participants who were selected from 300 applicants from Papua New Guinea and neighbouring Pacific islands.

Kumul GameChangers is an entrepreneurship program that includes two weeks of intense training and mentoring in a boot camp.

The budding entrepreneurs also journeyed to several settlements, including Hanuabada, to understand the challenges and opportunities in local settlement communities.

Of the 40 participants, 35 are Papua New Guineans.

See facebook/kumulgamechangers.

Morlin studied at Draper University in Silicon Valley and is now also a mentor with the 2017 Kumul GameChangers program.

She believes the PNG health and education sectors provide opportunities for young IT entrepreneurs. Her mentoring network now has more than 70 members.

“We sit down and we talk with these youth and we understand their passion so that we can match them to globally-funded opportunities.

“Fifty per cent of our population are youths, so we need to prepare them for the jobs of the future – and not only what they are currently studying,” she says.

“Funding is an issue,” she says, “but you can build a business with little to no capital, which is what we’re teaching.”

Morlin advises budding entrepreneurs to think about how they can start small and very lean.