If you have already signed up for the free online entrepreneurship course, congratulations! You have taken the first step towards determining your own success, potentially building a business empire and being your own boss. If you have not yet joined the course to learn invaluable life skills, simply click here to register on ClickUP.

As you go through the course and learn the necessary skills to be a successful entrepreneur, you will be able to refine and develop any great business ideas you may have. In order to help you achieve your business goals, the University of Pretoria (UP) has made various tools and an expert skills pool available.

Once you have had your idea assessed by expert business analysts, your business is almost ready to start running. It is always a challenge finding the support needed to start a new business. This means that new businesses might not have capital to start up, or might not have premises to operate out of. However, for UP students who have completed the entrepreneurship Professional Online Development (POD), UP provides an incubation service to help get students on their feet. The UP Business Incubator (UPBI) was established to provide free support services to all our potential and new entrepreneurs on campus.

The UPBI is a service that allows entrepreneurs to plan, start and eventually grow their ideas into high-impact business ventures (making a lot of money and hopefully creating thousands of jobs). It does so by exposing the business to a relevant investor market or network and to sources of capital. At the University of Pretoria, we have a wide range of highly successful alumni in a variety of fields and industries. This network comes together to assist current students to fulfil their entrepreneurial dreams. The assistance is provided in the form of angel investing, buying into the new business, providing another network of interested contacts, business-to-business trade, or providing advice and skills learnt from years of experience.

The UPBI provides a space where you can meet your mentor, entrepreneurial peers and potential clients, have the professional appearance of an established business and gain access to a network of success. This process helps to cushion your business so that you do not have to invest significant capital at the beginning, and assists with finding clients through word-of-mouth exposure to relevant business influencers.

The incubator phase of your entrepreneurial journey is that in which your dream turns into a tangible business. The success of this business could have a lasting impact on you, your family and South Africa for generations. Make today matter, sign up for the free POD course right now and make your dreams a reality.

Click on the video link below to find out more about how UP's Business Incubator can make it happen for you.