Soap Making Workshop

In August I had the privilege to put on a one day workshop on liquid soap making and small business management with a womens group in Fada. Liquid soap is a very popular product in Burkina because of its ease of use, affordable price and effectiveness in washing dishes and hands. I held the workshop at my association's office, where fourteen women learned how to make their own liquid soap and sell it as a way to create much needed income without too much additional effort and hours in their very busy days. Very basic accounting was taught in order to show them how to calculate profit and the importance of good shop keeping so as to keep their small business profitable. The women loved the activity and the process of making their own soap and choosing their own colors and scents.

Entrepreneur Workshop in Fada

January 2010

Myself and a good friend and colleague Chris Naffziger, MBA (the aspiring Senator from Indiana) applied for and received modest funding to put on a three-day workshop on entrepreneurship and business plans here in my town of Fada. We had worked together at a much larger workshop in the capital in August (see relevant post below for pics and description) and wanted to do a smaller scale version with several improvements. We worked in conjunction with the Ministry of Employment to locate seven motivated and aspiring local entrepreneurs and then invited other Peace Corps volunteers to join us in order to create one on one working partnerships to best maximize impact. It was the first time for many of the participants to conceptualize detailed record keeping and financial projections, let alone amortizing equipment or calculating break even points! Needless to say, a lot was learned by all, including us volunteers given the amount of technical language involved. Some the projects included a mechanic garage and retail sales, a restaurant, a small general store, and of course a couple of farming concepts such as cattle rearing and chicken egg production.

Day one, above, I cover basic business concepts and strategies for business planning, new product/service brainstorming, and marketing.

After the third day of developing ideas into workable business plans, a judge panel, including the director of Peace Corps Burkina's Small Enterprise Development program and a technical expert from the Ministry of Youth and Employment awarded the business plan of a local mechanic to expand his shop and include retail space and a washing service area. Special thanks to business development expert David Swenton for his partnership and contributions to this winning plan.

Thanks to all of the volunteers who made the trek out east to provide invaluable help and expertise to all of us in Fada.