August 31, 2023 – Our Business Bootcamp program is an incubator that we have designed to support the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with the aim of fostering economic development for our beneficiaries, their families and their communities at large. Providing skills is one of the most essential dimensions of the program; possessing the right skills for launching and managing a project can make a huge difference when it comes to developing a business of one’s own or even to increase one’s employability. In this light, our goal is also to bring into our target communities values of leadership, economic independence and self-confidence that are necessary for maintaining sustainable and resilient livelihoods.
This is to say that promoting entrepreneurship in fragile and underprivileged areas is not a punctual, one-off undertaking. It takes time to learn how to develop a project that will respond to actual market needs, hence our vocational training courses in Business and Entrepreneurship. It takes resources to finance the launch of a business, hence the Business Plan Competitions that we organize to select and finance promising projects. And it takes patience to monitor the early development of a business and ensure that it can build the strong foundations it needs to generate revenues in the long run. Assisting our beneficiaries in each of these critical steps – learning skills, launching a business, and developing it smartly – is at the very core of our Business Bootcamp, bearing in mind that in developing countries, most SMEs go under within their first two years of existence precisely because entrepreneurs lack access to skills, start-up capital and monitoring services.
In June, we held one of our Business Plan Competitions in the Acholi Sub-Region, Uganda. Every year, we choose 6 business projects for support at our Community Learning Center, each with real potential as viable, sustainable and profitable business ideas that will not only boost income generation, but also create employment in communities often lacking in developed economic infrastructure, transforming the lives of local youths and turning them away from negative forces and attitudes.
This year’s competition included 7 group projects, with the top 3 winning access to seed grants and extra support and monitoring. The groups presented their business ideas before the independent Review Committee for vetting and selection. The committee also guides the groups thanks to their technical expertise, and encourages the entrepreneurs who did not get a grant to remain positive, and gives them advice on how to refine their business plan, rework their strategy and improve their understanding of market nuances.
Being presented with such an opportunity can be transformative for participants, many of whom come from extremely marginalized communities with little access to such training programs. “The Business Plan Competition was a wonderful experience. I used to be nervous communicating in front of people. The training has really given me a big leap in self confidence. We hope the result comes out well. We remain positive even if we don’t win, because the interaction with the review committee helped us understand the potential of our proposal. We received good guidance on areas of improvement in our proposal. I want to thank WPDI for this platform, we realized the other groups also have unique business ideas.. I want to see all teams excel and I want to thank WPDI for empowering the youths,” said Irene Akello, whose project, All Season Blooms, eventually came 5th.
The three winning business projects were:
- Delight welding and Fabrication Group, a metal fabrication project;
- Shea Glow Skin Care Products Groups, that produces organic skin care products using shea butter as a core material;
- TailorWood Designers Groups, a business specializing in garments and fabrics.
The next Business Plan competition is being planned in the region for December 2023. We are already supporting 84 businesses in the Acholi Sub-Region, and we are excited to see what new and innovative business project ideas our next cohort of participants will develop!
This program is made possible thanks to the financial support of a foundation that wishes to remain anonymous.