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The Growth Academy is aiming to close the gap in entrepreneurship education in South Africa via access to podcasts and workshops.

Launched in July, The Growth Academy saw over 1,000 entrepreneurs sign up for its platform last week to access its podcast and workshop series that offers entrepreneurs guidance on how move from idea to business in 90 days.   

The company aims to fill the gap in entrepreneurship education in South Africa, and rapidly increase the number of entrepreneurs, which has declined by three per cent since 2015, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

Founder Lauren Davies said the virtual business incubator will be running a series of workshops throughout October, called “Start your business right”, starting in Cape Town on October 3.  

These workshops and supporting online programmes will provide step-by-step content for entrepreneurs, focused on business strategy, getting started online, finding and acquiring customers, and managing and scaling a profitable business.

“There’s a lot of chat and countless incubator programs, but I’m not seeing anything out there that truly supports the little guy – the first-time entrepreneur who just needs a hand to get started,” Davies said.

“As a first-time entrepreneur, it can be near impossible to know where to find information, and how best to invest your limited time and money 0 and this is where I want to help.”

The workshop series comes off the back of The Growth Academy’s “The First 90 Days” podcast, a collaboration with US-based venture builder WotWot Ventures. The podcast follows the 90 day journey of building startup ‘Upski’, a website performance monitoring tool.

“We are overwhelmed by the response to the podcast so far – it makes it clear there is a need for this type of content and education in the market. We were initially hoping to reach 3,000 entrepreneurs in three months, but have now upped our target to 10,000,” said Davies.

She said the workshop series will build on the concepts discussed in the podcast, allowing entrepreneurs to start their own journey “from idea to business in 90 days”.  

The plan after this initial workshop series is to roll out its scalable virtual incubator model, providing online content, access to expert mentors, and a private community of ’90 day’ entrepreneurs.

The Cape Town workshop is scheduled for October 3 at Rise in Woodstock, with tickets available here. Other locations will be announced in the coming weeks through The Growth Academy Facebook page.

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