By Jason Benedict
RCE Strategist
March 31
The day has been full: in addition to teaching and facilitating the training, we have a center to run here – we are working on marketing, arrangements for our upcoming graduation, taxes were due today (whew – got them in in the nick of time), etc. Our team here includes Donatien, Chrystel, Anatole and Henry – they are a pleasure to work with.
The training itself is progressing. The entrepreneurs are developing their skills in operations and finance this week. It is almost the weekend and about half of them are where I would like them to be, another quarter of the class is almost there, and the remaining group will need a little more attention. I dispensed with the exercise I had planned for the second half of the session last night and instead Gary (our visiting executive) and I worked with individual entrepreneurs and groups, coaching them through the process of calculating their startup capital needs.
An especially bright part of the evening was when one of my students called me over to look at his projected cash flow. His business is supplying sand for construction, and he started it around the time our program began. Things are going well, and he was excited to show me that by learning new skills this week, he discovered the main constraint on increasing his profitability. He now knows the problem and is developing a solution. Furthermore, I was delighted to discover that he has teamed up with one of our graduates from the first cohort and they are doing the business together. Their heart is to develop this business to be a blessing to Rwanda.
RCE Strategist
March 31
The day has been full: in addition to teaching and facilitating the training, we have a center to run here – we are working on marketing, arrangements for our upcoming graduation, taxes were due today (whew – got them in in the nick of time), etc. Our team here includes Donatien, Chrystel, Anatole and Henry – they are a pleasure to work with.
The training itself is progressing. The entrepreneurs are developing their skills in operations and finance this week. It is almost the weekend and about half of them are where I would like them to be, another quarter of the class is almost there, and the remaining group will need a little more attention. I dispensed with the exercise I had planned for the second half of the session last night and instead Gary (our visiting executive) and I worked with individual entrepreneurs and groups, coaching them through the process of calculating their startup capital needs.
An especially bright part of the evening was when one of my students called me over to look at his projected cash flow. His business is supplying sand for construction, and he started it around the time our program began. Things are going well, and he was excited to show me that by learning new skills this week, he discovered the main constraint on increasing his profitability. He now knows the problem and is developing a solution. Furthermore, I was delighted to discover that he has teamed up with one of our graduates from the first cohort and they are doing the business together. Their heart is to develop this business to be a blessing to Rwanda.
No comments:
Post a Comment