Westminster Business School recently partnered with the charity Grow Movement to match volunteer consultants in the UK with entrepreneurs in Africa with the aim of economically empowering people in some of the least developed countries in the region.
I signed up to be a volunteer consultant and had my first session last week with a serial micro-entrepreneur named Agnes who is based in a small town in Malawi. I spent an hour on the phone with her discussing the current challenges she has with her business and how I might be able to help her overcome them.
It became instantly apparent that I would have to overcome some challenges myself! Agnes doesn’t have a computer so Skype wasn’t an option for our weekly calls and the phone line was quite bad – cutting off several times leaving me talking to myself for a good 30 seconds or so which is always quite funny when you are enthusiastically trying to get a point across and realise you have no audience!
I lived in Egypt for 17 years and have worked with micro-entrepreneurs who would be in very similar settings to Agnes. These are individuals who work incredibly hard to get their businesses up and running and then struggle immensely to grow them. Many lack basic business skills which we take for granted.
Agnes’ problem it turns out is her complete lack of focus. She starts off with one product and once it starts selling well and her customer base begins to grow, she instantly diversifies and loses focus. Her income starts to drop.
She is also struggling to manage her finances so I am helping her by developing a simple tool to enable her to identify products with higher margins and traction and where there are opportunities to cross and upsell. Given she doesn’t own or know how to use a computer, I will send the Excel-based tool to Grow Movement’s country manager who will take Agnes through it in person. Hopefully it could be used by other businesses in the country.
Becoming a volunteer consultant isn’t just about giving back. It is a two way learning process and an amazing opportunity to add real value to someone’s life. It is an eye opening experience that can expose you to different cultures and expand your horizons.
If you are someone who is up for a challenge, feel you want to genuinely help change someone’s life, then sign up as a volunteer consultant with Grow Movement. Or just have a chat with either myself or Ola Sholarin if you have any questions.
Nihal Salah | Market Development Manager, Westminster Business School, n.salah1@westminster.ac.uk
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