Truthfully, we’ve been in business for more than six years, and I’ve been finding the last six months TOUGH! To summarize, we thought we had made a breakthrough last year, but… we have just fallen back to the way things were before.Our business has a lot of repeat and long-term customers, who come back regularly. BUT as their kids get older, other options begin to seem more relevant to their children. Parents’ ideas change too. So when the kids grow up, their circumstances change. This summer saw a particularly volatile period of older customers leaving and new ones arriving. From May to September, we lost nearly 20 customers, which is a large batch of our customer base. We picked up some to replace the exiting customers. Some of that couldn’t be avoided, though. I guess we should have seen it coming. Actually, we did, but it came sooner than we expected in many cases.

It is frustrating to manage a business, only to discover that the biggest problem you face is in fact your own shortcomings. Our business really needs to find a way to market ourselves effectively in the local community, to make our personalities more prominent, and to become more persuasive perhaps. A tall order in my book, as I am not a leader type personality. But I think I may have to become such.

So we set to and produced our own little newsletter. We first ran a demo in November with about 20-40 copies given away. We found a column writer who is able to write the column on the back of the newsletter, we created some appropriate content for the front page, and we wrote the content for the inner pages. The first issue came out in December, and the second in February.  Each time we have given away over 200 copies.

In fact, I think it has helped to bring in some customers. I found that people pick them up from the distribution point, and sometimes come straight in to ask about our products and services, newsletter in hand!

I’m now looking at other low-level, in your face flyers and similar for our business. Stay tuned!

Have you ever heard of microlending? I was a proud member of the group of lenders who, thanks to Kiva.org, lent a larger sum of money to this hardworking businessman called Leonard Joseph. Mr. Joseph operates a fruit and vegetable stall in Tanzania. His industry has been amazing. Through Kiva.org, he borrowed about $950 for working capital to invest in his business, and to be repaid over 6-12 months. In fact, it was repaid in full, ahead of schedule. I’m now looking for another lender to help out in a similar way.

Location: Dar es Salaam , Tanzania Activity: Produce Sales Loan Amount: $950.00 Loan Use: WORKING CAPITAL Repayment Term: 6 – 12 months Start Date: Aug 1, 2006 Status: Paid Back

Kiva is a wonderful organisation that makes possible lending to people in developing countries who wouldn’t be able otherwise to borrow any money for their small businesses. Commercial banks wouldn’t loan to them, because they lack the traditional assets that commercial banks would look for. Other lending companies might extract usurious rates of interest because of the unsecured nature of the lending. The result would be a disaster, if the merchant goofed in one of the payments. And governments, especially in developing countries, do not make good lenders.

So, if you think microcredit can make a difference in someone’s life, don’t wait for the U.N. or some other agency to take up the program. Do it yourself and lend today.

How It Works

Kiva works in a peer-2-peer type of method. It collects payments (as low as $25), aggregates the payments into larger amounts through a self-selection process. Then matches them with individual clients recommended by partner organizations who manage the repayments. For lenders, you simply create an account at Kiva, then use Paypal to add the money to the pool. Once the money is received, you can select your lending programs as you wish. The money is aggregated and loaned. Once repayments are made, you will see them in the lender’s page. When repayment is complete, your money becomes available to withdraw or relend. Of course, no interest is charged as the project is designed to help people in the developing world help themselves and their families. However, the money is also handled by Paypal free of charge.