The Richard Branson of the #Rwanda tourism industry #internationalyouthday #iyd2014

The United Nations’ (UN) International Youth Day is celebrated on August 12 each year to recognize efforts of the world’s youth in enhancing global society. Grow Movement would like to celebrate all of our young entrepreneurs and commend them for their drive and vision to set up their own companies. Along with our global team of consultants we are proud to support such young talent.

Meet Martial Batangana, aged 24 living in Kigali Rwanda.  Having set up his first company in 2012, developing a web and mobile application to connect farmers with local and international buyers, he now also runs a travel company, http://www.susatours.com/. Grow Movement worked with Martial to improve his negotiation skills and confidence in his own business skills. 

"...I like to follow people in leadership. When I read books it is about leadership in business and entrepreneurship. My long term vision is to become an investor. I don't care how I look like, or how much I have been rejected, I keep on pushing, I keep flowing, I know what I want, I know where I am going, I always find another way. I believe in Growing I couldn't be where I am today without a mentor. Grow Movement gave me a mindset to create other businesses. I have a strong reputation in my community for knowing how to do business. I know how to negotiate and I am good negotiator now I can tell you...'' 

Grow Movement works across Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi to develop the business skills talent of all entrepreneurs. If you would like to work with a talented young person just like Martial please get in touch. 

Results are out! Read about Grow Impact on Business Performance in East Africa

Grow Movement is  focused on costs and delivering impact. Each quarter Grow stops to review how much has been spent and what impact its has had on private sector development. At the end of Q1 2014 Grow had spent £146K on improving business performance in East Africa. £146K has enabled 297 clients to complete 12 sessions of business advice from a consultant by Skype, phone or email, with another 168 entrepreneurs in progress today. This has had a positive impact on over 27,000 employees and families of entrepreneurs.

With this time investment, 590 new full or part time jobs have been created. In this last quarter our clients have employed new cleaners, sales advisors, carpenters, tailors, guards, drivers and machine operators.

By connecting the skills of our business experts with our passionate and driven clients, Grow is able to improve their business performance, creating employment and increasing profitability. All it takes is the internet, a phone, commitment and open minds on both sides.

A big thank you to all of our consultants, clients and the Grow team based in country for investing their time and energy in the future of the private sector in Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi.

Team Uganda and Rwanda

Micro Finance client in Uganda

'Grow is like a map, it gives you direction'

Dinner with a group of Grow clients is always insightful and full of energy; dinner with our female clients and this is really where you learn! Eric, Violet and I hosted a dinner with our women entrepreneurs in Kigali last week. 

'Passion, conviction and ...Grow Movement' is what you need in Business to be successful was the summation of our debate on what it takes to be a great entrepreneur. You need passion to cope with the bad days, conviction to stay true to what you believe is right and a Grow consultant to ensure that you make money and stay in business! The point on passion was an interesting one. Was it passion for your product/ service or passion for your life which gives you the drive to do something or anything in business? 

I met Joceyne for the first time last week. She runs a clothes business with her husband designing for the young professionals and expats of Kigali. Joceyne is a force of nature, driven and smart with a huge passion for her business. When I asked her what Grow was like for her she said  'She Grow is like a map, it gives you direction. It stops you from going the wrong way. It tells you left or right and places to avoid.'

I loved this description. I often hear from our clients about doing their businesses but not knowing why they are doing things, or describing just being busy but not getting anywhere. Grow Movement gives the solution to this.

The Hero Fruit Queen of Rwanda

 Rwandan women are incredible ladies! I had the pleasure of meeting Chantal at our quarterly client meeting last Friday. What a dynamo! Listening to her speak about her determination to finish school against all of the odds, to her journey of getting married, to her passion for fruit.

She simply loves fruit and spent evenings googling 'delicious foods made from fruit'. She came across fruit juices but did not want to take on the local Rwandan juice company and then came across 'smoothies' needing to ask her husband what they were. Within months she had her first shop naming it after her son who is called 'Hero' and also her  approach to life in general.

Chantal came to Grow for assistance with her marketing, expansion and new product strategies. She was matched with Ludmilla, a Brazilian lady living in the USA. What struck me about Chantal was her immense drive and determination; now all clients have this but she has this in buckets. I am so proud to be supporting someone like her and cannot wait to see her company Grow.

Quarterly Client Meeting in Rwanda

This weekend Eric and I returned from Uganda to host the quarterly client meeting in Kigali. Rwanda. Being far away from the action for most of the year in London I adore spending time with clients. I find the energy and passion that our clients have for their business just infectious. So a whole room full I find incredibly inspiring. Since we started our first client meeting in November 2013 our Rwanda family of past and existing clients has grown to over 100. this is down to the hard work and dedication of our Rwanda Manager, Eric, well done!

 Our clients were in for a special treat this time with a Master class on Marketing from Professor Naufel from London Business School. He spoke on the power of Word of Mouth marketing. For Grow this is an essential part of our recruitment strategy. Virtual consultancy is still a new concept in Kigali so we rely heavily on our existing clients to share their experience with friends. Hearing testimonials from our clients is great! They have incredible ways of telling stories that are so personal and engaging. The appreciation they have  for their consultants is always so immense explaining how they become an integral part of not just                                                               building    their business but also their confidence in their own ability.

I am often asked by our clients when our consultants are going to come and visit so we can have a full team meeting. Now that I cannot wait for!

Meeting Wills and Kate in Uganda

Ben from Hive Labs

Ok, so I did not quite meet Wills and Kate but I did come across a great poster of them whilst meeting Eric Olana from UK Trade and Investment at the High Commission in Kampala, Uganda. I met Eric to discuss Grow Movement activities and to seek assistance in connecting with different British companies who work in Uganda. I couldn't resist a quick photo with some of our favourite Royals!

Debbie from ICON

Part of my visit to Uganda was about meeting with different organisations who have clients who may benefit from Grow services. As  I met Ben from Hive lab a new tech co working space in Kampala, Debbie from ICON, Barbara from AWAN, and Susanne from AGOA. Looking forwards to working with new and different types of entrepreneurs and driving business performance across 2014.

At AGOA

Joshua at AGOA

Meeting Barbara from AWAN

'You read a book but you don't need to meet the author, knowledge is knowledge!'

I am often asked by investors, clients and our consultants if virtual mentoring can be truly effective? Meeting Grace yesterday in Kampala, Uganda gave me a really simple answer, 'You read a book but you don't need to meet the author, knowledge is knowledge'. Thank you Grace.

Grace, a married mum of 3 quit her job in 2009 and attended an Enterprise Uganda training course on how to be come an entrepreneur and develop her business idea. She had some land so moved into construction and rental properties. Using her existing assets of a car she chose to do private hire to make sure she had enough money to build her business. She has 4 beautiful properties completed and 4 more in progress.

Working with her consultant Anushka Bide in the UK, she focused on her finances; ensuring that she kept track of everything that she spent, and splitting business and personal expenditure. She increased the rental on her properties by adding additional services such as car washing to her tenants and has been able to progress the build of her new properties at a quicker rate than previous with the additional capital she had saved by focusing on her spending. We chatted about the challenges of being a female in the construction world and how she manages to control all of this by having a tight control on every aspect of delivery and build.

Grace is an eloquent talented lady. On our drive back to the office she said to me... 'Whoever came up with the name 'Grow' was a genius! When you grow there is life, you are moving'