Micro business training was held in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The training was an endeavour to equip and empower local entrepreneurs with skills and strategies to develop sustainable small businesses.
Let's catch up with these participants when they are attending a follow up course and interviewed to determine whether the principles and skills gleaned from the course are continuing to promote success in business.
Here are a few interesting highlights and comments from those short interviews:
Binta had made several unsuccessful attempts to run a cloth dying business prior to the course. Today, however, she has successfully re-launched and runs a cloth-dying business with 4 employees since the Dynamic Business Start-Up Program (DBSP) in 2011. Binta's business has run profitably for 12 months. She is so proud to be able to provide good clothes and shoes for her children. Cashflow management was the most valuable topic in Binta's eyes! She has also learned a lot about doing market research and improving her publicity. "Now I am more careful in making decisions. I've learned to plan things better and be less impulsive in how I spend my money. Now I take time to reflect before I do something."
Selly has run a successful business selling beauty products throughout the 12 months following the training. It is a small, part-time business as she studies full time. Selly has been training her mother and one of her sisters to help run the business, even though she is the sole employee. How did the training help Selly? "I learnt how to keep a cash book. The practical money-making exercise amazed me. I couldn't believe how one could make money starting with so little! Perhaps most importantly, the training gave me the courage to look ahead and hope for my future, not to simply live day to day."
Mohamed is growing a successful small enterprise business managing building construction sites. Amadou has opened a private school where he teaches French and Lemrabatt is managing a profitable hairdressing /barber shop. All three men proudly displayed their successful business initiatives 12 months after the micro enterprise course.
Five examples of participants actively employed in their own private enterprises using the skills and strategies gleaned from the training to build sustainable businesses!
