A big thanks to Memory Box Productions for filming, producing, and co-sponsoring this wonderful film. Thanks also to our other film sponsors:
Spot One Global Solutions
TheAccidentalSalesman.com
Viola Vaughn and the 10,000 Girls Project from Memory Box Productions on Vimeo.
The Dragons had a productive meeting with Samba Guissee the Citizenship Manager of
Microsoft West & Central Africa, who has agreed to provide free software and digital literacy training to the girls in Kaolack. This is a hugely important promise, because the girls have already had computers donated but our concern was that without the right software and appropriate training, the generous gift of the hardware could be wasted.
This offer ensures a complete package can be offered to the girls which
will help enormously with our plans to mentor them via the internet from the UK. We are still working on getting help set-up of the
computers, and for ongoing support and maintenance.
The air conditioned offices at the Regus offices was a far cry from our time in Kaolack but we found ourselves missing it already. In the evening we experienced an African pub which was remarkably similar to back home. There were many people sat around having a drink and watching football on the big screen. Marieme Jamme was surprised to see her cousin and we had a lovely drink and chat with him before dinner.
Today we had a wrap up session with Viola Vaughn to summarise our findings and to outline our next steps. After saying our goodbyes we spent the rest of the day by the hotel pool taking advantage of the free wifi.
In the evening took the 4 hour drive back to Dakar. After a week of beaten up old taxis it was nice to travel in comfort in an air conditioned Mercedes with leather seats!
Today was Tabaski – a religious festival and family day. During the past week there were sheep for sale everywhere and it was all for Tabaski. Everything is very quiet which is a complete contrast to the normal day-to-day life here. We were honoured to be invited into the girls homes. Each of us was paired up with a 10,000 Girls entrepreneur and spent the day with them. It was a good opportunity to get a glimpse of family life which is an important part of the culture here.
Today we ventured out to Kayemor which is close to be border with Gambia. The taxi company would only provide a beaten up old car for the journey and we soon found out why! We had to travel over copper coloured dirt tracks. When a car passed in the other direction we had to quickly close the window to avoid getting a car full of sand. We even had to drive through a river. It was quite amusing seeing the taxi driver baleing out the water that had come through the holes in the floor! The car was seriously old and we had to give it a push to get it started and out of the hotel car park!
Our focus for the day was the 10,000 Girls bissap tea business.They make and sell an organic tea made from the flowers of the bissap plant. They have 5 different flavours of the tea which are selling well in the USA and demand is outstripping supply. They currently give away a large part of their profits by outsourcing the filling of the teabags. They were allocated a grant for a machine to do the filling but are being asked for a business plan. The aim was to help them think through the planning and then document it for them. This would then serve as an example for other 10,000 girls projects.
Anna Lowe helped them break down their processes for making the tea all the way from planting and harvesting the bissap to sending it off for bagging. Marieme Jamme was translating everything into wolof. Anna teased out the current problems and at the same time was identifying the costs of production. She got them to cost out each stage for last year, this year, and project to next year. One problem that surfaced was that due to schooling they pay other people to do some of the labour intensive parts of the process. This meant that they were not left with much money despite all their efforts. They were thirsty for tools and ideas to make the whole operation more profitable for them.
We were able to get them thinking about different ways of organising each stage of the process to improve efficiency. For example, weeding the field took a long time because the ground is hard and the girls do it with their bare hands. By wearing gloves they will not only do it faster but not have lose time waiting for cuts to heal. Because of finances they had not considered gloves. They could now a small investment would result in saving much more money by not having to pay others to do the work whilst they are in school.
Richard White then spent some time on marketing. The machine would significantly increase their capacity for tea bag production and the girls wanted to find customers in Senegal and not just rely on export. They wanted to focus on tourists as the final product is housed in a lovely cloth bag. They identified hotels and resellers as two important areas to focus on in order to reach the tourists. Richard challenged them to think through the processes for persuading hotels to allow them to sell their products or act as resellers for them.
After a late lunch we went to see a field of Bissap as it is close to harvest time. We then returned to the hotel back along the dusty (and occasionally very wet!) road. Bissap can also be used to make a delicious juice and we ended the day seeing what it tasted like with added gin. For product development purposes, of course! 
We started the day mapping out how we were going to turnaround the sewing business. We had some ideas but it was important that we got the girls to come up with their own solutions. Anna Lowe started off by recapping yesterday’s learning with the girls. She went on to show the impact on profitability of varying a product volume and price.
Richard White then did a marketing workshop where he got the girls to identify potential markets and consider a problem centric approach to developing new products.
The girls identified tourists as an important target audience and then were challenged to think of products related to the problem of heat. They came up with some brand new products that would be easy to produce and deliver a good margin. These included a water bottle carrier and a case for sun glasses. They also had some of their existing products like the beach mats.
We then started to look at sales channels and finding resellers who would earn a good margin on the products should be an important approach for them. Suddenly the girls began to see a way forward and we could see how excited they were,
Marieme Jamme then did an excellent session on using social media to increase visibility of the 10,000 Girls project. She also told them the importance of being credible and punctual with existing and potential customers. We were quite surprised to discover several of the girls were already on Facebook but did not quite understand it. We showed them how to use Facebook to find resellers and customers both in the UK and Senegal.
We finished the day at a traditional Sabar African drumming event in honour of Viola Vaughn and the Dakar Dragons. It was a fun event and all the Dragons were required to join in and do a vigorous solo dance in front of 100 people!
In Senegal, Welcoming your guests with a folkloric Instrument called the Drum is consider as a sign of respect. We had great fun, and burned lots of energy while dancing.
Today we were in Kaolack Village with the bakery and restaurant businesses. We started the day with Anna Lowe giving an excellent lesson in business planning which was translated into Wolof by Marieme Jamme. The girls followed with interest and it built on their existing knowledge of basic accounting.
We then briefed Viola Vaughn of our thoughts from yesterday and began discussing the organic tea business we are due to cover on Friday. After the conversation we all sat down together for a delicious meal together..
After lunch we broke into 2 groups; Anna Lowe and Jonathan Roe worked with the bakery business and Marieme Jamme and Richard White worked with the sewing business. The process was similar to yesterday – working with them to understand the investment requirement and the numbers to back it up.
The bakery business was once working very successfully in Kaolack town until their landlord ended their tenancy. They moved to Kaolack village and although they are still trading by doing lunches for local NGOs. It was established that they really need help on deciding the shape and direction of their business before investing any money. Anna and Jonathan will be helping them think through their options tomorrow,
The sewing business had an ambitious request for 12 extra sewing machines. This would have trebled the capacity and so their existing customers came under a lot of close scrutiny. The quality of existing customers was not as good as they thought and they had no concrete plans on where the extra orders were going to come from.
Marieme and Richard loved the products and could see that there was a potentially big business here but adding extra capacity at this stage would saddle them with costs they could not afford at present. We quickly changed mode from Dragons to trouble shooters and looking at helping them develop a sales and marketing strategy. Once the quality orders start to come in then there will be no problem getting funding for the sewing machines.
A major element of our work is in providing these girls with much needed business education and so tomorrow we will be focusing on sales and marketing. These girls have fantastic products but just like the owners of small businesses everywhere, they need help in better selling and marketing themselves and their products. To be continued tomorrow!
Today we ventured out to Ecole Premiere Saint Antoine de Padoue in Kongheul, Kaolack. The school is run by Italian nuns and all the younger kids looked so cute in their blue school uniforms.
It was a 3 hour journey for us in what can only be described as heavan for 4 wheel drive fanatics! The school is a participator in the 10,000 Girls project and we were there to meet the older girls in the enterprise programme. Their task is to run profitable enterprises that raise money for themselves but also fund places for educating young girls.This was the first Dragons Den style meeting of the trip and there were 12 girls working on 2 projects.
One project was to weave and sell special Senegalese fabrics that are highly sought after by Senegalese living in other parts of the world and who currently have to travel to Senegal to buy them. This project was deemed very interesting by the Dragons but there was not enough depth of understanding in its current form. The girls were sent away with a positive message and a request to do more detailed research. We expect that they will be ready in 6 months to a year with a much specific plan. They were very grateful with the learning derived through going through the process.
The other project the Dragons loved. The restaurant group currently have a restaurant business in the town which is making good money but is hindered by lack of basic equipment. Their premises are rented on a 1 month notice period and they are reluctant to invest in that location.
The girls really wanted better premises and had a shopping list of the equipment they would need down to a good level of detail. They also had a good grasp of the local market and they were ideally located as a pitstop for passing trade. A profitable area where the Dragons saw a lot of potential was supplying the local NGOs with lunches. They are already doing 25 lunches per month with scare facilities and this could be expanded significantly.
All the girls said they enjoyed the process of having to present their ideas and give detailed justifications. With the help of their English teacher Jean-Pierre, we agreed to draw up a simple business plan for the restaurant business that he could translate into Wolof to serve as an example for future Dakar Dragons project ideas.
After a tiring day the Dragons are now back in their hotel and getting ready for a meal together to review the day and plan for tomorrow.
Today we have traveled to Kaolack. It was quite a journey but it passed in no time. Lots of interesting sites and experiences along the way.
We got there at around 1.30pm and was greeted Viola Vaughn who made us feel very welcome and introduced us to Kate and Jessica who support Viola.
We had a wonderful lunch outside and then had an introduction session with some of the older girls from the centre who were talking about some of the products they make and sell. These included:
A handmade doll – each of which is apparently a collectors item in the USA.
A range of organic teas made from Hibiscus flowers which they can sell as much as they can make.
A wide range of fabric products such as duvet covers, to table placements, to bags for computer laptops. They have plans to sell these from their website
Each business area were started by the girls and are run by the girls themselves. They have very high levels of creativity and ambitious plans. More about that another time.
We then went to the local school where girls who are enrolling in the current years educational programme were presented with a goody bag for their lessons. The head teacher showed all the children the contents of the goody bag as they all gathered around. The chatter of excitement was deafening. As the head teacher raised each item in the air it was accompanied by a round of applause. Then there was an audible gasp as he help up 5 coloured biro pens. We later discover that children who are not in the programme have to share 1 pen amongst 3 other children.
We have checked into a hotel in Kaolack which is wonderful. Tomorrow we have an early start and will be traveling to Koungheul to look at some of their projects and help them to learn how to put together a simple business plan.
We have arrived safely in Dakar – our luggage, however, is in Tripoli! So day 1 has been an interesting experience.
We have all been measured up for African hand made shirts and trousers and we have been shopping in Dakar market which seems to be the whole city! Our haggling skills have been sharpened which was great fun.
We have lots of lovely African dishes made for us and even a veggie one for Richard White.
Early start tomorrow to Kaolack with limited access but we will be updating as soon as possible.
