Karimu Entrepreneurship Program
Karimu’s mission to fight poverty in order to enhance the well-being of rural villages in the developing world requires addressing the greatest challenges facing the poor: poor health and sanitation, meager income and low education, and lack of access to financial services. Meager income forces a family into painful choices - having to choose which child will be allowed to go to school or being forced to take children out of school to help supplement the family’s income.
Improving the overall income of families in the areas we operate is a high priority for Karimu. Income challenges can be overcome by several means, however, it is critical that they are aligned with the community’s primary livelihood. In rural areas, the large majority of households live from subsistence farming and livestock. Karimu believes that we must address interrelated problems to drive income generation:
-
Increase income from farming and livestock management primarily through profitable crop/livestock selection for the area, education in crop cultivation or livestock management, and guaranteed access to markets. Karimu addresses these through our Income Program.
-
Provide education in entrepreneurship skills for small business owners e.g. business viability assessment, record keeping and cost structure, cash flow, market opportunity or saturation, customer retention … Karimu addresses this through this program, our Entrepreneurship Program.
-
Provide access to capital without the requirement of collateral. Karimu supports this through our Financial Services Program.
There is no lack of motivation among the people in the communities we support. There is a very entrepreneurial spirit. Most families survive on subsistence farming and livestock, but there are lively monthly markets for commerce. Unfortunately, many small businesses fail as entrepreneurs and farmers have little to no understanding of business skills. Karimu wants to bring these skills to our rural communities, not only for existing business people, but also for young adults who will not have the opportunity to pursue an advanced education.
Background
Our experience in working with community members is that they have the motivation and interest to start businesses, and even have tried to start businesses, but maintaining and growing them has been a challenge. Few have adequate record keeping. Most cannot tell you if they are making a profit. Virtually all say they lack capital.
Karimu has found a partner in Street Business School (SBS) who is also aligned with our mission of ending poverty. They specialize in entrepreneurship training for small businesses in rural areas. Originating with paper bead businesses in Uganda, they have now focused on entrepreneurship training and expanded their reach world-wide through a network of partners who deploy their curriculum. Their results are very impressive: 80% of graduates from their 6 month program have at least 1 business 1 year after graduation and graduates have more than doubled their income after 1 year. Karimu will utilize this training as the core of its entrepreneurship program. Note that only Certified Lead Coaches are allowed to deliver the SBS curriculum. Karimu sent two staff to Uganda in November 2021 to become Certified Lead Coaches.
Goals
The main objective of the Karimu Entrepreneurship Program is equip entrepreneurs with the skills to assess viability of business ventures, develop strategies to access capital to start and grow a business, learn about record keeping and bookkeeping, create business plans, acquire and retain customers, and manage cash flow. This objective will be fulfilled by achieving the following specific goals:
-
Train 25% of households in entrepreneurship skills (a multi-year project) so that skills can be learned through local mentorship.
-
Graduate at least 25% of participants who are young adults (under 35) providing local career opportunities
-
Increase the number of income generating activities in the region with 80% of entrepreneurship graduates owning 1 or more businesses 1 year after graduation
-
Double the income of households participating in the project 1 year after graduation
Overview of the Program
The program deploys the Street Business School curriculum. This is a 6 month training program consisting of 8 training modules, 3 coaching visits, and data collection from participants. The 8 modules are:
-
Getting out of your comfort zone
-
Business opportunity identification
-
Finding capital and starting small
-
Record keeping and bookkeeping
-
Market research
-
Business planning
-
Growing your customer base
-
Money management
Coaching visits are conducted at the beginning, middle, and end of the 6 month training. The baseline visit allows us to understand the participant’s financial situation: expenses, income generating activities, monthly income, challenges… The middle and end visits support the participants to engage the learning in their business development.
The data collected at the coaching visits and 1 year post graduation will allow us to assess whether we met our key goals of new businesses created and doubling the income of participants.
Each cohort trains 30-50 participants. Participants graduate based on:
-
Attending at least 80% of the training modules in person
-
Scoring 80% or better on the review questions for each training module
The Certified Lead Coaches accept and register program interest, select the participants for the cohorts, deliver the training, monitor the participants to keep everyone engaged, pair up those who may not be literate with those who are, pair those who miss a training with someone who attended to catch them up, and foster enthusiasm and mutual support among the participants.
Participants must be 17 or older. There is no cost to participants to join the training, but no funds are available from this program that provide capital for business creation or growth. Those costs are borne by each participant, but the Financial Services program can help people save and access capital through savings groups.
Roles and Responsibilities
Participants
-
Meet 1-1 with Certified Lead Coaches to discuss the program prior to registration
-
Commit to make every effort to complete the full 6 month training program, attend all trainings, and arrive on time to the trainings
-
Participate fully in all trainings and participate in each coaching session
-
Complete all homework towards business creation or expansion.
-
Make effort to start a new business and/or expand an existing business
-
Commit to share business and income data and program feedback for program evaluation
-
Support fellow participants to understand and succeed
-
May share experiences and learning with others, but may not represent themself as a trainer unless being certified by SBS, nor may they deliver training based on the SBS curriculum.
Local Leadership
-
Encourage community members to join the program
-
Call community meetings at the ward, village, or sub village level whenever requested by Karimu
-
Encourage ward, village and subvillage leadership within the ward to understand the value of the program
-
Refrain from interfering in day-to-day running of the program.
-
Refrain from attempting to make policy or methodology changes to the program
Karimu
-
Provide funding for the program including a Program Manager, funding for staff to become Certified Lead Coaches through Street Business School, funding for supplies or activities needed for outreach, training, and analysis.
-
Work with the stakeholders in monitoring and evaluating the implementation and progress of the program.
-
Engage Street Business School in refresher meetings, partner networking, and feedback and data analysis
-
Develop entrepreneurship mentors within the local community
-
Work with Street Business School to develop a plan for sustainability within the community that respects their intellectual property
Status
This program kicked off in Ayalagaya in May 2022 and will kick off in Arri in 2H2022. Progress of the training can be seen in the Entrepreneurship Training project.
Karimu Entrepreneurship Program
Karimu’s mission to fight poverty in order to enhance the well-being of rural villages in the developing world requires addressing the greatest challenges facing the poor: poor health and sanitation, meager income and low education, and lack of access to financial services. Meager income forces a family into painful choices - having to choose which child will be allowed to go to school or being forced to take children out of school to help supplement the family’s income.
Improving the overall income of families in the areas we operate is a high priority for Karimu. Income challenges can be overcome by several means, however, it is critical that they are aligned with the community’s primary livelihood. In rural areas, the large majority of households live from subsistence farming and livestock. Karimu believes that we must address interrelated problems to drive income generation:
-
Increase income from farming and livestock management primarily through profitable crop/livestock selection for the area, education in crop cultivation or livestock management, and guaranteed access to markets. Karimu addresses these through our Income Program.
-
Provide education in entrepreneurship skills for small business owners e.g. business viability assessment, record keeping and cost structure, cash flow, market opportunity or saturation, customer retention … Karimu addresses this through this program, our Entrepreneurship Program.
-
Provide access to capital without the requirement of collateral. Karimu supports this through our Financial Services Program.
There is no lack of motivation among the people in the communities we support. There is a very entrepreneurial spirit. Most families survive on subsistence farming and livestock, but there are lively monthly markets for commerce. Unfortunately, many small businesses fail as entrepreneurs and farmers have little to no understanding of business skills. Karimu wants to bring these skills to our rural communities, not only for existing business people, but also for young adults who will not have the opportunity to pursue an advanced education.
Background
Our experience in working with community members is that they have the motivation and interest to start businesses, and even have tried to start businesses, but maintaining and growing them has been a challenge. Few have adequate record keeping. Most cannot tell you if they are making a profit. Virtually all say they lack capital.
Karimu has found a partner in Street Business School (SBS) who is also aligned with our mission of ending poverty. They specialize in entrepreneurship training for small businesses in rural areas. Originating with paper bead businesses in Uganda, they have now focused on entrepreneurship training and expanded their reach world-wide through a network of partners who deploy their curriculum. Their results are very impressive: 80% of graduates from their 6 month program have at least 1 business 1 year after graduation and graduates have more than doubled their income after 1 year. Karimu will utilize this training as the core of its entrepreneurship program. Note that only Certified Lead Coaches are allowed to deliver the SBS curriculum. Karimu sent two staff to Uganda in November 2021 to become Certified Lead Coaches.
Goals
The main objective of the Karimu Entrepreneurship Program is equip entrepreneurs with the skills to assess viability of business ventures, develop strategies to access capital to start and grow a business, learn about record keeping and bookkeeping, create business plans, acquire and retain customers, and manage cash flow. This objective will be fulfilled by achieving the following specific goals:
-
Train 25% of households in entrepreneurship skills (a multi-year project) so that skills can be learned through local mentorship.
-
Graduate at least 25% of participants who are young adults (under 35) providing local career opportunities
-
Increase the number of income generating activities in the region with 80% of entrepreneurship graduates owning 1 or more businesses 1 year after graduation
-
Double the income of households participating in the project 1 year after graduation
Overview of the Program
The program deploys the Street Business School curriculum. This is a 6 month training program consisting of 8 training modules, 3 coaching visits, and data collection from participants. The 8 modules are:
-
Getting out of your comfort zone
-
Business opportunity identification
-
Finding capital and starting small
-
Record keeping and bookkeeping
-
Market research
-
Business planning
-
Growing your customer base
-
Money management
Coaching visits are conducted at the beginning, middle, and end of the 6 month training. The baseline visit allows us to understand the participant’s financial situation: expenses, income generating activities, monthly income, challenges… The middle and end visits support the participants to engage the learning in their business development.
The data collected at the coaching visits and 1 year post graduation will allow us to assess whether we met our key goals of new businesses created and doubling the income of participants.
Each cohort trains 30-50 participants. Participants graduate based on:
-
Attending at least 80% of the training modules in person
-
Scoring 80% or better on the review questions for each training module
The Certified Lead Coaches accept and register program interest, select the participants for the cohorts, deliver the training, monitor the participants to keep everyone engaged, pair up those who may not be literate with those who are, pair those who miss a training with someone who attended to catch them up, and foster enthusiasm and mutual support among the participants.
Participants must be 17 or older. There is no cost to participants to join the training, but no funds are available from this program that provide capital for business creation or growth. Those costs are borne by each participant, but the Financial Services program can help people save and access capital through savings groups.
Roles and Responsibilities
Participants
-
Meet 1-1 with Certified Lead Coaches to discuss the program prior to registration
-
Commit to make every effort to complete the full 6 month training program, attend all trainings, and arrive on time to the trainings
-
Participate fully in all trainings and participate in each coaching session
-
Complete all homework towards business creation or expansion.
-
Make effort to start a new business and/or expand an existing business
-
Commit to share business and income data and program feedback for program evaluation
-
Support fellow participants to understand and succeed
-
May share experiences and learning with others, but may not represent themself as a trainer unless being certified by SBS, nor may they deliver training based on the SBS curriculum.
Local Leadership
-
Encourage community members to join the program
-
Call community meetings at the ward, village, or sub village level whenever requested by Karimu
-
Encourage ward, village and subvillage leadership within the ward to understand the value of the program
-
Refrain from interfering in day-to-day running of the program.
-
Refrain from attempting to make policy or methodology changes to the program
Karimu
-
Provide funding for the program including a Program Manager, funding for staff to become Certified Lead Coaches through Street Business School, funding for supplies or activities needed for outreach, training, and analysis.
-
Work with the stakeholders in monitoring and evaluating the implementation and progress of the program.
-
Engage Street Business School in refresher meetings, partner networking, and feedback and data analysis
-
Develop entrepreneurship mentors within the local community
-
Work with Street Business School to develop a plan for sustainability within the community that respects their intellectual property
Status
This program kicked off in Ayalagaya in May 2022 and will kick off in Arri in 2H2022. Progress of the training can be seen in the Entrepreneurship Training project.