Key Characteristics of Theodora Africa That Make It A Unique Social Impact Enterprise

A lot of things we talked about early on in Theodora Africa were viewed with skepticism. And if I were to  be objective (which of course I am not), rightfully so. No one had done anything like what we were talking about. The whole idea of taking a young woman, from Africa, with no knowledge of the United States, no knowledge of how formal business was done in their own county let alone in the U.S., and turning them into a professional administrative assistant seemed preposterous. 

 

Yet, it is in fact what we have done (though we are not a finished product yet) and we are well beyond the proof of concept phase, building a true base to be a successful, self-funding, social impact business. What is curious to me is how both the concept and the enterprise are now perceived. I get a much different reception these days. As opposed to the polite smiles covering skepticism I received in the beginning, I am having significant players - both business and social impact - speaking with us seriously. 

 

I suspect a lot of this is simply because we are still around and we actually have clients who like what they are getting and still paying us. Nothing gets attention more than making your promise a reality. But we do have some very unique aspects to our program compared to others working in the same social impact space. As a result of this new attention, we've gotten much more focused on the distinctive points of our program. On the off chance that you might run across or know someone engaged in the social impact space related to African development or know business owners who have a social impact inclination, I am providing these for you below.

 

1.     We are Market Driven – We find markets for outsourced services in the U.S. that are under-served. This means we know where we are going to sell our services before we work with the first person we want to transform. This strategy is opposite of almost every other social impact organization looking to serve similar populations.

 

2.     We Have an Environment That Promotes Rapid Behavior Change – Because we are a business and we have real customers with real expectations, the new women brought into Theodora understand they must immediately take on a new set of personal behaviors to succeed. This transforms their personal lives. It gives them confidence. It gives them life skills.

 

3.     Everyone is Paid from the Beginning – All our participants get what is effectively a middle class wage from the time they are fully taken into the program. This also builds self-worth and keeps participants from falling back.

 

4.     We Are A Team – We work together. We support each other. We work on clients together. We are creating our own culture of transformation and empowerment.

 

5.     We Are A REAL Business – We provide services that are in high demand to a set of clients that have difficult affording these services at American Wages

 

6.     Our Market Potential Is Huge – There are 25 million businesses with no employees (2020 census) in the U.S. A typical Theodora Africa participant can easily handle 5 clients. If we had 1000 women working – 5000 clients – we would not even have measurable market share.

 

7.     We Will Become Self-Funding – We are currently working to achieve breakeven. We expect to get there no later than the end of the second quarter of 2023. Our profit potential is such that we will be able to add new participants at that point on our own.

 

8.     Doing Good By Getting Good – Theodora Africa is one of the few programs where a business person can know they are making an impact while they are getting valuable services for themselves.