“Agnes what has made you successful?” to which she immediately replied with a huge smile “Business for Life!”
As an important way of contributing to the community, Sentinel Mara Camp partners with Business for Life to empower people in the local communities to start and effectively run their own businesses. Many of the people reached by this program are poor and unemployed. While there are varied and complex reasons for poverty, we believe the quickest and most direct way for people to truly come out of poverty is to make their own money.
The vision of Business For Life is to see entrepreneurially inclined people especially among the poor and unemployed, successfully start and manage their own small businesses that also provide jobs for others. This is achieved by outcomes based foundational business training, particularly for those from an economically disadvantaged background so that they are able to establish or improve sustainable businesses. The training methodology is essentially practical, focusing on the impartation of business skills rather than simply business theory.
Sentinel Mara Camp has sponsored 5 Business For Life trainings in 4 Masai communities. Should you wish to contribute to this empowerment effort please go to https://www.empoweringlives.org/business-for-life.
Empowering Lives International is a registered 501(c)(3) in the USA and all donations are tax deductible.
Agnes and her Business Journey
Agnes participated in the Business For Life (BFL) Training in Mara Rianta, a small village just outside of the Masai Mara National Reserve. Following the training she built her business into a thriving enterprise! As you can see from the photo, her shop is well stocked and she has a smile on her face.
Agnes moved to Mara Rianta in 2006 hoping for a better life. She started a small restaurant, but the business soon failed. She then got a job but earned less than she needed. When she heard about the BFL training she was excited to learn all she could about starting and managing a business. She particularly valued learning how to calculate her breakeven point to determine when her business started making a profit.
Her dream came true when she started her own business selling clothes and shoes. She was careful to choose a good location with pedestrian traffic and sourced her clothes and shoes in the capital city of Nairobi to ensure quality. She built a structure out of corrugated iron sheets for the shop and in two months she was making a profit of $230 per month. Seeing additional opportunities in the market she started stocking plastic utensils and refrigerated drinks in her shop. These were novelties in the village due to the recent introduction of electricity. Agnes saved $3000 and is looking for additional business opportunities. She recently became the only person in the village providing photocopies. Agnes works hard from 7am to 9pm running her shop, but is now looking to employ a manager, so she can focus on expanding her business. She plans to open the first bookshop and the first cyber café in Mara Rianta as well! Impressed with her progress I asked her “Agnes what has made you successful?” to which she immediately replied with a huge smile “Business for Life!”
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