Behind every business is an industry. It is the market the business serves, the competitors it trades against, and the suppliers and customers it deals with every day. Knowing how to run your business is one thing. Knowing the industry around it helps you price properly, spot the gaps, and grow on purpose.

That is what our Industry Insights are for. Each one takes a single industry and lays it open. Inside is the work the industry covers, how its businesses earn, the forms a business can take, and what it takes to start, formalise, and grow.

Each insight is written for the aspiring entrepreneur weighing up a first venture, the person earning informally and ready to formalise, and the business owner planning the next stage of growth.

The industries were curated with care. We studied key markets across the Global South, and we unpacked the government policies that shape Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) support within them, such as South Africa's Incubation and Business Development Services (IBDS) Policy Framework

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We're adding industries regularly, if yours isn't here yet, it's coming.