
But she wasn’t sure she could actually succeed in fish farming.
With no capital, little to no business experience, the odds were against her. ‘
That was when she came across the OLEJU program. She found our business material on how rural women could start their own venture and succeed at it.
She read all the materials and attended some of our events as well. She would later attest that this empowering process was the start of her transformation journey.
At the OLEJU training, she learned about financial planning, how to start a business with little or no capital, financial records and business intelligence, scaling, and sustainability, among other important lessons.
Little by little, the pieces were coming together in her mind about how she could launch her fish farming idea. She also learned: instead of waiting for some big capital, she could actually start by saving just any amount.
At the time, all she could afford was ₦100 daily, and, in less than three weeks, after applying the information on how to raise funds for a business idea, she had saved up to ₦1,500 – just enough funds to purchase some fingerlings for a start.
When it comes to starting a business, the conditions will never be perfect enough and things would not always add up. Comfort knew this well, so she went ahead with the little capital she could gather.
She also applied the lesson on being creative—i.e., finding new and simple solutions to existing problems.
In place of a pond or tank, she used a big drum at home. That wasn’t all, she went further to reduce cost—another of the lessons she learned from the OLEJU Rural Women Entrepreneurship Hub training.
She learned to produce her homemade chicken feeds, instead of buying at the market.
This reduced her production costs and increased her revenue significantly. No doubt, Comfort was on her way to building a business she could scale in the future, in a sustainable way.
Utilizing the lessons on business management and financial recordkeeping, Comfort painstakingly documented every penny that went in and out of the business using our business Development worksheet template.
At the season’s end, Comfort’s harvest sales yielded ₦26,500. Thanks to our record format, it was easy for her to pinpoint her entire expenses and revenue generated, plus all costs in-between.
It didn’t end here. Comfort also received training on how to pitch for funding. So, using the information from her financial record, Comfort pitched convincingly at one of our funding programs, among other women, where she won her first grant of ₦50,000 to boost her micro business.
Scaling was another important lesson Comfort had acquired, which she used so well in becoming a medium-sized business that could train other people in the trade.
Comfort went on to grow her business using the same financial accountability method and eventually got a loan of ₦200,000 from a local microfinance bank using her business records as proof alongside our support and reference.
This is our intent in putting together the Business Development Toolkit. It is our aim that more women can access this information and get empowered to launch, grow and scale their ventures.
We simplify core business lessons for rural women entrepreneurs to enable them to start and thrive in business.
Comfort is but one among the many stories we have recorded as an organization and we believe that with this material your story can be just like Comfort
This is what drives our decision to ensure this resource gets to the hands of every woman out there who needs help starting a small business idea in a rural environment and building it into a sustainable business.