AMINTAS STORY

1
AMINTAS STORY
2

• This is Aminta.
• She lives in a village near here and is a lot
  like you.
• She is worried.
• What do you think she is thinking about?

3
You are right!

• One of her big concerns is her children. She
  would like them to go to school but she cant
  afford the notebooks and pens they need. She
  would also like them to have better food.

4

• Aminta has saved 10,000.
• She wants to use the money to start a small
  enterprise from which she can get an income.
• She decides she will make tie-dyed cloth like her
  sister-in-law.

5

• As Aminta works she thinks
• I will make 5 pieces of cloth and sell them for
  2,500 each. Then I will make 12,500.
• She is very excited about her idea.

6

• Next day Aminta goes to town and stops at the
  first store she comes to.
• She buys the supplies she needs and is surprised
  to find she has to use all her savings. So she
  has to walk home.

7
Back home Aminta gets to work
It takes a long time as she has never done
tie-dying before.
8

• What is happening here?
• Why is her husband upset?
• What could Aminta be thinking?

9
Aminta goes outside to collect her cloth and
stops in alarm. What can she see?
10

• Aminta hoped to make 12,500 by selling 5 pieces
  of cloth.
• How much will she be able to make now?
• How much has she already spent?
• What do you think she should do?

How many pieces of cloth will she be able to sell?
11

• Aminta gets up early next morning to go to the
  market.
• What does she see when she gets there?
• What do you think she is saying to herself?

12

• Aminta sits in the market all day. People
  bargain with her.
• Eventually she sells each piece of cloth for 800.
• She is very discouraged and cant understand how
  her big idea went so wrong.

13

• Next day she asks her friends.
• What do you think they are saying to her?
• How could she have avoided all these problems?

14
Aminta decides to try again, with the help of
some friends
15
Is soap-making a good idea?

• How can they find out?
• What are the women doing in this picture?
• What questions do you think they are asking?

16
Aminta and her friends start thinking about the
things they need to buy to make soap and how much
they will cost.
17
These are things the women will buy and keep.
1500
2500
1700
They will last at least a year, so they can be
used lots of times.
Total cost
18
This what they need to make one batch of soap.
10 litres of water. It does not cost any money.
2 litres of palm oil.
1400
500g of lye.
What is the total cost per batch?
200
1600
19
Now they can think about what they will earn.
Each mould can make 17 bars of soap.
So how many bars of soap can they make in one
batch?
If they can sell 1 bar of soap for 100, how much
money can they get from selling one batch?
51
5100
20
Aminta and her friends work out how much profit
they can make per batch.
Income
5100
less
3500
gives how much PROFIT?
21
How much money do Aminta and her friends need to
start making soap?
7500
So how many batches must they sell before they
get their money back and start getting an income?
2
22
Aminta and her friends think making soap will
provide them with a useful income.
Now they will have to decide how they should
organise themselves and how much time it will all
take.
23
And the moral of this story?

• Plan your business idea!
• If you dont plan properly, you will not succeed.

24
(No Transcript)
25
How to adapt this story to your local
circumstances

• Choose two products from your own locality with
  the following characteristics
• First product Requires some technical skill to
  produce
• Many local producers exist
• Limited market demand
• Second product Requires some technical skill to
  produce
• Sufficient market demand warrants more
  producers to produce
• Potential for profitability, i.e. costs are
  less than the expected sales income
• Change the name of Aminta and her friends to
  local names.
• Substitute the first product you have chosen for
  the tie-dying and change all the amounts of money
  to fit your currency situation. Make sure you
  use a higher expected sales price in the part of
  the story illustrated in slide 5 than you do the
  part that is in slide 11.
• Substitute the second product you chose for the
  soap and change the details of the equipment and
  supplies to fit your product. Change all the
  amounts of money to fit your situation and make
  sure you do the complete set of calculations so
  that the figures work out as you wish. If the
  business projections do not show a profit, choose
  another one for the second part of the story.
• Try to use real or play money for the story
  presentation and consider showing trainees how to
  use a calculator as part of their learning
  experience.