Off to Ghana again. Phase II of the project has been initiated. Thanks to a sizeable donation by one of the most wonderful couples in the world (as far as I am concerned) we have enough funds to initiate the second phase of our project. To review:
- The first phase was 'Proof of Concept"
- This is where we had to prove that we could indeed take these women from West Africa, living by their wits on the street and somehow train them to be acceptable virtual administrative assistants in the United States
- In the event, we took a target group of 4 young women and did just that. (Can I be candid here? I honestly don't think anyone who supported me in the beginning really believed we could do this. I think they decided to just take a leap of faith with me. It was so outlandish an idea. I have no idea why I believed it could be done. I suppose I can put it down to being in thrall to the higher power.)
- Now we need to prove that this wasn't just a fluke. We have to create replicable systems for everything we are doing. We have to create a model business that has the ability to expand and grow.
So you ask (actually you didn't ask but I need you to rhetorically ask so just be a nice reader and ask okay?), what specifically do you need to do to accomplish that?
Why thank you for asking. Here is what we are creating.
- A system for recruiting new participants
- A means of evaluating and selecting from those we recruit
- The training system whereby we will transform these 'people from the street' to the raw material we can create virtual assistants from
- An entire marketing system to bring in the volume of new business we require to scale up
- A client on-boarding process integrated with on-going project management
- On-going capability training for all our participants so they get better and better at what they do
- Quality control systems to ensure client satisfaction
- A new U.S. 'for-profit' corporation (Newco) so we can move our people into an environment where they can earn the benefits of their work (profit sharing and ownership)
- A new Ghana subsidiary of Newco so we have a legal way of paying everyone here and our other expenses
- A new accounting and bookkeeping system for Newco
- New banking and money transfer systems for Newco
I am going to be working on all of these during the next two weeks I am in Ghana. Plus we have a major donor visiting us to do due diligence to possibly find other big donors. Someone paying their own way and giving us their valuable time to check us out! How cool is that. Truly there is something bigger than de-I (and you know how big de-I's ego is so it has to be REALLY BIG) that is pushing all this forward.
🙏🏽
3 comments:
after the delay of Covid, I'm glad to see momentum picking up!
Saying "Congratulations" feels trivial. It truly is a testament to your vision and hard work.
Go Big! Go Fast!
and you can still eat well......
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