When the Going Gets Tough

When the going gets tough...

Almost three years ago I quit blogging.  I was starting a new part of my life and I felt my volunteering chapter was over.  The new me was an entrepreneur, someone with an idea and a vision for how to help more people by starting a business rather than an NGO.  I also couldn't join another organization and help them do it because I didn't see anyone doing what I felt was needed.  This was a tough decision.  I spoke to my colleague Chiko for countless hours about the idea.  He brought a lot of ideas and we decided to start it together, although there was no way he could risk leaving his secure full time employment.  The first year went smoothly with some amazing friends and family stepped forward with loans so that Chiko and I could get started.

Then things got serious and we spoke about expanding.  We had 90 clients at the time and wanted 900.  Chiko joined the company full time as we brought on new investors.  Six months later, in January 2012, the company started to crash.  Our systems were weak, our management was under capacity, and our ability to secure payments from our clients had too many loopholes.  These issues would haunt us for almost a year.  In June our CFO left.  Then in August things really started to slide when we discovered one of our Managers was stealing money from the company.  Over $10,000 had gone missing across 90 different clients.  Our data was a mess, we had upset clients, and to make it worse, a new grant that was due to come in was cancelled.  Our bank account was dry, my personal credit cards were maxed out.  Something had to give.

In September we had a new CFO join the company.  He came in with a wealth of experience and immediately made a huge difference.  A volunteer from EWB also came in and saved the day on sorting through our data mess.  Later in the month I experienced the highest high only to be immediately followed by the lowest low.  The high came from learning about a new investor, the AECF.  This would bring in $700k over three years.  It was exactly what we needed to do what we wanted.  However, just a few days later, our co-founder Chiko resigned.   My world was crushed, the vision was blurred, it was always to have Chiko take over when we were established and now he wanted to resign.  Like me, he had been struggling to make ends meet.  The excitement of being in a startup was amazing and we saw exactly how things had to be to make them work, but unlike me he has a family and when we hit rock bottom he made other plans to secure his future. 

Chiko is the heart and soul of the company’s operations and we have now made an arrangement for him to rejoin the company with a more suitable salary and to cover the cost of his kids going to school.  In Zambia the public schools are embarrassingly inept at providing high quality education, and for the private schools there are only a handful that do this well, and they cost $1200 per year for each student.  Chiko’s family includes 4 children and 1 baby.  The cost of private school takes up a huge portion of his salary.  Thus I have offered to pay for this part of his expenses directly.  And I am asking my friends and family to support this effort by donating to this page – Florence.

Although it has been a tough year we are now well positioned to grow with a solid foundation into 2013.  And although it has been tough, I am extremely proud to announce that we have worked with over 600 entrepreneurs since we started, and through these entrepreneurs we have created over 1,000 new jobs and created over $1,200,000 in sustainable revenue in communities where the average income is less than $2 per day. 

If anyone would like to help me out, the best way to help is to post comments below and to help sponsor Chiko’s kids.  Wishing everyone a happy holiday and New Year from Zambia.

Florence Chikolwizu