After a successful application, I was accepted for the Somo Africa Buruka Entrepreneurship Bootcamp January Cohort 2023. Somo Africa supports micro and small business owners with everything they need to grow, be sustainable, and create more jobs in their communities. Somo envisions a world where local entrepreneurs are provided the resources - knowledge, financing and markets - needed to create real change.
The 12-week training program supported over 60 women entrepreneurs from Western and Coastal Kenya to acquire skills for growing their businesses. The classes took place online via zoom - 1hr every weekday, with in-person classes twice a month. Key areas covered included: communication, growth mindset, stress management, customer focus, and persistence. At the 12th week, entrepreneurs submitted their Business Plan and presented their Pitch Decks for acceleration program and funding.
Marshall Thurber once said, “God does not give a lick of an ice cream cone without wanting you to have the whole cone.” Committing to the 12-week training, respectfully putting every learning into practice, developing and refining my business -Dignify Her - Caryle Enterprises Business Plan, and writing a Pitch Deck that I finally presented to a panel of Judges in the presence of my fellow entrepreneurs at the Somo Kisumu Hub on 1st April 2023, was the licking of an ice cream from a cone. In June 2023 when I received the pleasant news that I’ve graduated to the Somo's two-year acceleration program, it was like eating the cone too!
~The 2-year acceleration program means that~
√ I am now a member of the Somo Community, a networking group of over 300 African entrepreneurs who interact daily through a WhatsApp platform. They say “It takes a village to raise a child,” but it also takes a village to grow a business. The Somo entrepreneurship network is a village that is going to help me forge ahead into entrepreneurship. Even Napoleon Hill agrees in his book “Think and Grow Rich“ - that no two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind. Therefore, insights and contributions from the Somo Community is that intangible force that I’m going to rely on, to build and grow my business.
√ I am going to receive financial support through a loan from Standard Chartered Foundation, facilitated by Somo. The funding is going to help us kickstart "Dignify Her" by employing young people to work in the collection and processing of textile waste, manufacturing of reusable sanitary pads using recycled textile waste, and distribution of the reusable sanitary pads to adolescent girls from poor and vulnerable communities through the support of our customers who are alumni of the schools where these girls go to, as well as corporates, organsations, and Kenyan government agencies/ departments & institutions that support sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) programs.
√ I am privileged to access business coaches and accountability partners from Somo. In Celestine and Faith, I have official mentors, business coaches, and marketing consultants rolled into one. Celestine, Faith and I mesh very well. We built a great deal of rapport and trust back in the days when I was attending the bootcamp training program, working in the accelerator program will only strengthen our mentorship relationship that we are very keen to build together.
√ “Dignify Her” will be published in the Somo Invest website (https://www.somoafrica.org) for enhanced brand visibility. Branding, as Susan Baroncini-Moe aptly puts it, requires a certain je ne sais quoi that most entrepreneurs don’t have. Personally, I get insecure when I start thinking about branding because I’m never sure if I’m doing it right. Somo coming to my aid on this one task that I consider difficult and a murky territory to wade in, is such a relief.
√ As a capacity building consultant on Women Economic Empowerment, through my company www.techinvakenya.org, I will be able to curate the training content by sharing with other women entrepreneurs who are keen to build and grow their businesses. Furthermore, I got more clarity and a deeper understanding from Somo facilitators on topics such as calculating market size – the TAM, SAM & SOM (Jacob); calculating financial feasibility (Steven); and the art of storytelling & pitching (Jason & Collins). I am now able to competently articulate these topics when facilitating an entrepreneurship training.
If a small win is a concrete, complete, implemented outcome of moderate importance. Then a big win looks like all the things I am going to gain from the 2-year acceleration program. I know it is by grace, because out of the 60 participants in our cohort, less than 10 entrepreneurs qualified for the acceleration program. This could only mean that the Somo team and the pitching judges who evaluated my business saw a promising, scalable, impactful business that was worth supporting, or rather saw a dedicated innovator in me who gave it her all during the 12-week bootcamp for the ultimate goal - mentorship, coaching, networking and funding - the Somo Africa 2-year Acceleration Program. Isn’t that what every entrepreneur dream of? Yes! Because trying and striving doesn’t get you brownie points, only achieving does, and that is how to qualify for an entrepreneurship acceleration program!
I want to thank Somo Africa for walking with me through this journey of addressing period poverty, while preserving girls dignity during their menstrual cycle, at the same time, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by recycling textile waste towards climate change adaptation and mitigation.
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