SIYB Success Stories
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SIYBSIYB SuccessSuccess StorieStoriess SIYB case studies from different regions of Tanzania This document compiles some success stories of the entrepreneurs who were recruited and trained in the ILO- Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) Program and who have successfully established or improved their businesses as a result of what they learned in the program between 2012- 2013 Youth Entrepreneurship Facility Tanzania 2013 Table of Contents Introduction. 4 1. Mwanza: “Learning from others and doing it better” 6 2. Musoma “It is never too late to make a Change”. 9 “Using old experience to make a new Future” 11 “Achieving the Unexpected” 13 3. Mtwara (Tandahimba) “Thinking beyond and discovering new Opportunities” 16 “Dynamic Mind, Open Eyes” 18 4. Zanzibar “From drug Addiction to Productive Again” 20 5. Arusha “Unstoppable Determination” 23 “Learning to get what you want” 25 6. Dar es Salaam “Arriving at a life-time dream” 27 7. Pwani (Kibaha) 3 “Golden Opportunity in the Mothers’ Hands” 30 Mr. Jealous Chirove Chief Technical Advisor - Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda Youth Entrepreneurship Facility (YEF) Introduction The Youth Entrepreneurship Facility has pursued its programme implementation through five inter-related and complementary project components: (i) Promoting a culture of Entrepreneurship; (ii) Entrepreneurship Education; (iii) Promoting Evidence-based Advocacy; (iv) Access to Finance for Young Entrepreneurs; (iv) Youth-to-Youth Fund; and (v) Access to finance and business development services. Youth are recognised from the ages of 18 to 35 years. The Facility anticipates the following five immediate outcomes: (i) Improved attitudes towards entrepreneurship among young women and men; (ii) The education system produces more entrepreneurial graduates; (iii) Youth start and improve their business; (iv) Youth organizations deliver innovative youth entrepreneurship solutions; and (v) Youth employment policy makers and promoters make evidence based decisions for better resource allocation and program design. Since 2010, in Tanzania, YEF has reached out directly to more than 100,000 young people with entrepreneurship promotion messages, more than 11,000 through business development services, and it has facilitated 4 access to finance to some of them. Many of the young people have started or expanded their businesses as a result of the interventions. In in order to show some of the stories YEF documents in this publication some of the project successes for wider dissemination to other young people and organizations supporting youth entrepreneurship. The case studies documented in here have been physically visited, and the entrepreneurs were interrogated to openly express their experiences. The sampled regions where young entrepreneurs were interviewed are Mtwara, Mwanza, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Coastal, Zanzibar, and Mara regions. Generally this publication has shown interesting motivations demonstrated by the young entrepreneurs as a result of attending the ILO SIYB training. To some of them the training was an eye opening experience to a new business world that they had not thought of before and to others it showed the proper ways of managing their businesses. Aspects that their stories include the general information about the young entrepreneur and the situation before the program, information about the business interventions, the business idea generation, the influence of the SIYB program on the business (how the program interventions have benefited them and the impact now), social values in creating a living for themselves (any change in social and economic aspects) as well as new jobs; what were the challenges, constraints, future plans and dreams of the entrepreneurs. 5 1. Mwanza “Learning from others and doing it better” Jane Makale Within Tanzania’s second most populous city, business is peaking with the available market of about 3 million people. Mwanza has a good infrastructure and a lot of business opportunities. It is within this city where a young lady, Jane Makale, who after receiving SIYB training finds her way to increase her earnings. Jane, 32, a wife and mother of two kids Willie and Mary, is working as a secretary at Okwama Enterprises and Agent Company which is contracted to collect the Mwanza City’s revenue from several sources. Jane has been employed for more than five years, but she felt she needed another source of income in addition to her salary in order to make ends meet. The City of Mwanza, the wide building on the right is Jane’s office building. Prior to the SIYB training, Jane was intrigued by an idea that was practised by a young lady that used to sell women’s latest fashion accessories at her office. This lady brought in handbags, purses, watches, necklaces, and perfumes, displaying an array of good taste and quality. Not only were her products attractive, but they also had a reasonable price tag compared to the shops in town. Furthermore, she let her customers purchase her items on a credit basis allowing them to pay her at the end of the month 6 when they got their salaries. On attending the SIYB training conducted in Mwanza by the SIYB trainer Musa Mashishanga, Mrs Makale learned how to successfully emulate a business. “When I read about how people get their business ideas, I knew you could also pick it from someone else who is doing a similar business and improve where he or she is doing wrong; I saw an opportunity to take advantage of the idea from the woman who used to sell her products to us” She says. That is what she did. She picked up the idea of supplying those products to her colleagues. Why not me, she thought? She was closer to her work mates and knew her prospective customers well. In the same building where she worked there were also a lot of other offices for her initial market base. She got all the information she needed about her business from the same woman who used to do it before. What did the SIYB training teach her? Above all Jane has learned how to do her marketing, and that she now understands that marketing is the life blood of a successful business. “Without a good customer base, which is influenced by marketing, your business would have been doomed from the start”, she says. Jane now focuses on marketing her business inside and outside her office. She is now looking for a permanent address for her business to give it more popularity. However, she says she will still continue with the previous approach of taking the commodities to her customers. “You know you might think that you are making a profit but the truth is you are just bringing back the money that you had earlier given out” Jane Makale also pointed out that Jane in her Office, in the same building she knowing how to calculate the actual distributes products to her customers who costs of a business was a great revolution. are mostly her fellow workmates. How has her new business influenced her social life? 7 Jane can now afford to provide for her family much better than she could before. She says she is happy when her kids ask for something for school, and she is able to provide it for them without having to tell them to wait for their daddy to come up with the money. She lives in a more comfortable house, for now she can add new furniture from time to time, and most importantly, she has peace of mind. What are the challenges that she face in her business? Although selling on credit gives her reliable customers, it is, however, difficult to be sure when and whether her customers are going to pay her back. This makes it difficult for her to plan for future purchases and maintain other necessary aspects of a growing business. “Sometimes customers could be very stubborn when it comes to paying or others don’t pay at all, especially when they shift from the office building forcing her to declare bad debts. What are her future dreams? “I’m not sure yet but I think I’m going to have to quit my job and concentrate on my business, I want to see myself at the pinnacle of the women’s fashion provider in the city.” 8 2. Mara (Musoma) Lying about 225 kms Northeast of Mwanza, with a population of about 200,000 people, Musoma town provides a reasonable location for business and entrepreneurship growth. Within this small town, two budding entrepreneurs and a group of artistic young minds are successfully running their businesses. “It is Never too late to make a Change” Castol Simon Castol Simon, aged 35 years old, is married with one child. He studied carpentry, and he is now determined to build his future around it. Before he joined the SIYB training, Castol used to do his carpentry work locally/ unprofessionally, whereby he made small wooden artifacts and sold them to a handful of customers. He did not actually see carpentry as a serious business but rather as a means to survive. After Castol attended the SIYB training in Musoma which was offered by the SIYB trainer Maghita Nyang’ore, he decided that he would now engage himself in professional and competitive carpentry. “I decided to embrace my passion and commit myself to make something out of it. “Although it seemed to me a bit too Castol at his Business premise late to venture into this, I knew I could still do something productive. The training paved the way for me” he says. What did he learn from the SIYB Training? “I learned how to set priorities. I had to decide what I needed to do first. I 9 also learned that I needed to be committed to my work in order for me to accumulate the capital I needed for my business.” What does he do differently? Castol has established a permanent business address where his customers could easily find him.