Well, we've managed to come up with our business plan and funding document . We have defined our goals and how we want to achieve them. So, it is with much happiness that we announce our goal that the women of the Goodness and Mercy Missions (www.gmmafrica.org) set up five Village Phone Salons (VPS). Two women will be working part-time manning each salon.
Besides selling phone services and pre-paid phone credits to individuals and small business owners, each VPS location will run a secondary business; selling palm oil, foodstuff, and beverages.
Installation
Because of scarcity of reception and electricity, each VPS has a booster antenna and a car battery (to charge the telephone).
Location
Here are the VPS women co-op members:
VPS1 Jinkfuin
Jinkfuin: location in Chfu-abar
Active
1. Nancy T.
2. Rossel B.
Passive
3. Glory A.
4. Judith F.
5. Martha Y.
VPS2 Belo
Belo: location in Belo (road corner site)
Active
1. Esther T.
2. Doris N.
Passive
3. Esther B.
4. Kisuh N.
5. Kimaal T.
VPS3 Ilemighong
Ilemighong: location near the Comprehensive College
Active
1. Stella K.
2. Magaret M.
Inactive
3. Charity B.
4. Mrs. Ngong J.
5. Mrs. Nsom J.
VPS4 Fundong
Fundong: location in Fundong (road corner site)
Active
1. Linda M.
2. Mrs. Fointzi D.
Inactive
3. Ndah H.
4. Mrs. Toh E.
5. Mrs. Chiambah S.
VPS5 Jichami
Jichami: location in Jichami
Active
1. Madame Patience N.
2. Confidence N.
Inactive
3. Elizabeth N.
4. Felicite K.
5. Honourine C.
Each VPS has both active and inactive members. This is so that we might raise the chances of success of our venture and lower the risk of not being able to pay back our loans.
If our calculations are correct, we need to take out a start up credit between 300-400 USD per VPS, which we will pay back in full in the first 6 months of business.
We are seeking business people willing to lend us start-up capital, in form of private micro-loans. If you are interested in helping us, please contact either Lia Hadley (cbsmkenya(at)gmail(dot)com) or me, Rev. Teh (revteh(AT)gmmafrica(DOT)org). We will send you our business plan and financial plan if needed.
Thank you.
Even though we have not written very much on this site in the last few weeks, this does not mean we haven't been busy. Contrarily, we have been working very hard doing our market research and making contact with the kind people at Grameen Foundation about our findings.
We now feel confident that our business plan and financial figures are properly put together. The figures are also on the side of caution, so even though they are modest, they show a payback of our start up loan completed after six months.
By Lia
I think that I finally understand what it is Ron is talking about.
I've been thinking of what your different expenitures are:
* mobile phone(s)
* car battery
* solar panel or wind generator (Ron can you send your estimates again)
* antenna booster
* 4-8 mobile phone car lighter chargers
* setting up a self-help group
* building material (to mount the antenna, making a lockable cabinet, some wiring cables)
* tables and benches to serve beverages and cakes
* monthly monthly phone fees contact (this presumes that mobile phone fees are less expensive given a monthly contract rather than pre-paid cards)
* monthly wages
The services you can accept fees for:
* fees for charging mobile phones batteries
* pre-paid cards
* minute local rates and international rates (rates are a little more than pre-paid card rates, which I presume are less than the minute contract rates, with minimal increase to take into consideration that the callers are saving transportation costs as well)
* fees for incoming messages and sms
* beverages and food charges
If you can think of any more items, please send them to me so I can change the information here.
By Ron
In simple words you need to be certain that the business will, when it is working, make a profit. (Clearly if the business is not going to make money for you there is no point in starting it!)
So you have to add up all the money that has to be spent on the business.
Only you know what those numbers will be. Some of the figures will be one off, like the purchase of the phone, and others will be daily, or weekly, like wages. I can only guess at what they will be but I would expect to see the capital costs of the phone, battery, solar panel or wind generator, mast, and antenna, at the very least.
The other costs are re-occurring like wages of the people manning the phone, and the repayment of your loan to the lender of the finance that gets you started. (I expect there to be more costs than just the small number I have mentioned here!) The total will be several hundreds’ of dollars, if not more.
Those figures added up, form one side of your equation. In other words EXPENDITURE.
Next you must calculate how much money you expect to come in, in other words your INCOME. You cannot be certain of this figure BUT your Market Research should have given you a good estimate. For example how many people do you expect to use the phone to make a call on an average day?
If you think that 20 people a day will use you facility to charge their phones and you intend to charge them 50p a time. (I will use pennies because I am not sure of your currency!) Then 20 x 50p = 1000p.
If you think that users of the phone will be 30 people per day and they each use the phone for 5 minutes, then that is (30 x 5 =150) 150 minutes a day. If you charge 10 units of currency then 150 minutes x 10p =1,500 pennies a day. If you intend to sell other items (which I recommend you do) you would add those to the income.
Thus 1000p + 1,500p =2500 a day is your estimated income for a day. Do the figures for a month and then for a year as well.
Now you must ensure that your expected Income is Greater than your expected Expenditure over a period of time. This calculation is usually done over a three year period by businesses but try doing the calculation for one year and see what the outcome is. Will you be able to pay the loan back in a year? If so then you have reached the ‘Break Even’ point and income after that time will be more profitable. (Because you have paid the loan back you will have extra money available each week/month.)
I hope this is of help to you? If you are still stuck let me have a look at your figures and I will try and help you further.
By Lia
I have gone through your documents about the marketing research and we've come up with the following assessment:
The concrete data that we can use is the following:
* 68% of population (20,405) consists of adults (13882).
* 64% of adult population, target VPS market, are women.
* 20,405 total potential users are live in the surrounding areas and the number indicates the possibility of setting up various VPS throughout the area.
* Jinkfuin with a population of 6000 is viable for setting up the first VPS.
* There are many small businesses, government and educational institutions throughout the area. For example, in Ngwah village alone, a potential village for a VPS, there are 8 primary schools, a college, a catholic health center, an agricultural post, and a civil status Registration centre.
This information you sent that has to be added to or put in context:
* Ibalaboh Quarter, 17 people own phones
* Ntuiyi Quarter, 31 people own phones
* Ndongtu quarter, has a total of 53 phone owners
* Twang-Jinkfuin has 68 phone owners, excluding those who come from the coast in December and leave back in February
Though this is interesting information we need to know what the numbers mean relative to the number of people asked. For example, Ibalaboh Quarter has 17 people who own phones, but we don't know the total of people who live there. If you were able to say 17 people of the 50 people living there, this would be information we could use to predict larger market numbers. Or, why does Ibalaboh Quarter have 17 phone owners and the Ndongtu quarter 53? Is it because there is three times as many people living in Ndongtu quarter? Or, does Ndongtu quarter have more access to electricity? What sort of geographical area does Ibalaboh Quarter, Ntuiyi Quarter, Ndongtu quarter, and Twang-Jinkfuin cover (e.g. 10 square miles, 100 square miles)? If this area is large, and does not presently offer many possibilities for telephoning, does this mean we could open up more VPS in this area?
The general information you have received that we can use when arguing business strategy is the following:
* The amount of phone owners is not high.
* The connectivity is sporadic at best.
* Phone owners have said they would be pleased to buy prepaid cards at the VPS since they have to travel far at the moment to purchase them.
* Marketing and advertising activities (e.g. opening ceremonies) are easy to achieve since everyone knows everyone and word-of-mouth is a commonly used practice.
* With availability of a village phone salon and network in the surrounding region, most people will just be motivated to buy phones. Parents will ask their children to buy phones and send to them so that communication between them should be facilitated. Sons-in-law will buy phones and send to their mothers-in-law in the villages, already a thing of pride.
* We have to offer competitive phone fees that people are willing to pay. For example, Jinkfuin has two public phone booths that have not functioned at all in the last season. People go down to Belo to make their credit transfers. They do this because at Jinkfuin, the phone booth operators charge a fee for every credit transfer. If you pay 300 FRS CFA at the phone booth operators, you will only have 250 FRS credit.
By Rev. Teh
Jinkfuin is densely populated with both small businesses and private households. In a polygamous community like the Kom tribe in Cameroon, the average number of persons living a household is seventeen. Most households are not single building, but a compound of various houses. In villages like Abuh, the average compound exceeds 20 persons.
In some villages, small antennas are put up and a public phone booths are set up. If there are too many public phone booths in an area, the sustainability of the VPS will be greatly dwindled. Therefore, possible communities for VPS are in Boyo Division of Cameroon, since they barely have any public phone booths.
Most of the potential areas identified for village phone salons do not have complete access to network. In Konene, people have to trek 5 hours before making a phone call, and the people of Ajung have to climb up to the Ijim Mountain forest to make a phone call at an area where MTN network is dotted here and there. They take two hours trek before reaching the spot. Providing these areas with a phone salon is a great blessing to the community.
A VPS in Konene in Bum area, is located on a hill overlooking several communities. People from Saff, Achain, Isaibi, Sowi, the three Ngvinabums, Bali, Kitima, Ngonavisi, and Kichowi will always find it easy to come to Konene and use the VPS services.
Possible further locations for VPS are:
* Jinkfuin and neighboring regions
* Elemighong (Elemighong can serve both Chuaku and parts of Anyajua)
* Mbessa
* Akeh
* Abuh
* Konene
* Muteff
* Ngwah
* Foinfuka
* Aduk
* Ilung
Now all we need to figure out is the business price tags. We need to know how much it is going to cost set up and run each VPS, how much we are going to charge, and how much we expect to come back in. Please go to this page. We have to somehow come to the point of knowing the answers to the question marks.
By Lia
In the next weeks, you have to look at defining and elaborating about the business relationships in your VPS group as defined by the VPS business planning site. Just briefly, your business relationships are presently:
* MTN is the Telecom Company
* Rev. Teh and Nancy T. (management) and Sarah S. (training) are the Catalyst Organisation
* Rev. Teh and 2-3 women (bookkeeping, marketing, and advertising), you and I (consulting) are the Village Phone Company
* MFI is a private businesswomen’s group set up by Sarah S.
* Village Phone Salon phone ladies are the Village Phone Operators
Lia, thank you for setting up a list of possible questions to ask small businesses and potential customers.
Over the last few days, the Goodness and Mercy Mission (my organization) volunteers and I have tried to come up with a few things in the area of market research. The results are very subjective, as I have only the rural communities of the North West Region of Cameroon in mind.
They are regions we’ve received queries about setting up VPS. I will include this information soon.
Hello. I have been out identifying the women who will be participating in our VPS businesses.
The first VPS co-op has been identified in Jinkfuin. The women are eager to see the project as a reality. This will go a long way to boost their standards of living and create a way for women to be financial independent.
A lot of women here too much depend on men for a living, and it is having a bad toll on them because most of the men are just negligent. The Village Phone Salon will also be of great benefit to the whole community of villagers; for they will find it easy to communicate with others elsewhere rather than travelling long distances, as they presently must do, to make calls.
We are also working on the possibilities of setting up VPS businesses in other communities so that these services will be extended to them in the near future.
Our Jinkfuin VPS has already been formed. It consists of six members. Their names are as follows:
1- Nancy T.
2- Glory A.
3- Judith F.
4- Rossel B.
5- Mary N.
6- Martha Y.
Nancy T. will be book-keeper, check all financial records and deal with everything financial. Rossel B. will be the village phone operator, while Glory A. and Judith F. do the advertisement. Mary N. and Martha Y. will also share in the decision making and running of the business.
Many communities in rural Boyo Division have been identified, and soon as the Jinkfuin VPS business progresses it will not be difficult to start up VPS in these communities. The women there are already waiting. We just told that all things being equal we are coming to them.
Hello, my name is Rev. Teh Francis Yai. I am the organiser of the Goodness and Mercy Missions in Cameroon, West Africa. Our mission is empowering women, men, youths, and he disadvantaged with the tools necessary to help them improve their quality of their lives. Forming a women's business co-op is a very exciting and practical way to help the women in our community.
We will be writing all about this journey in the months to come.
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