Anzisha COVID Relief package: Extraordinary times call for different thinking
It was towards the end of March when ramblings of the COVID pandemic and its disruption on businesses run by very young entrepreneurs in our community picked up momentum.
After several consultations with our community of entrepreneurs, we realized that the disruption could cause long term damage. Some businesses were no longer in operation while others ran the risk of being unable to pay employees.
The reality is that many communities rely on the businesses that these very young entrepreneurs lead. And it’s not only about the services and goods they offer, but for the jobs they create and the many other contributions they, their employees and their families make to the economy of the communities they operate in.
Extraordinary times call for different thinking. The Mastercard Foundation and African Leadership Academy agreed to repurpose funds for some of our planned activities into a dedicated Relief Fund . The entrepreneurs had a chance to apply and access financial support from the following options:
- EMPLOYEE RETENTION GRANTS: To help businesses deal with the impact of COVID-19, the Employee Retention Grant Program will assist Anzisha Fellows to retain the most vulnerable employees as businesses face decreased revenue. The criteria will be clear, and follow the guidelines of similar programs from governments around the world;
- VOUCHERS/RELIEF PURCHASES: Some entrepreneurs’ businesses are able to operate, and are already providing or could provide important services in response to COVID-19. We will purchase these services (food, deliveries, medical supplies) on behalf of local communities that need them;
- INTEREST FREE LOANS: For larger businesses in our network, we will provide interest-free loans with a 1 year repayment holiday pending a short due diligence process.
Through the Covid relief package, we’ve managed to provide financial support to just over 50% of the very young entrepreneurs in our community. Here are some reflections from managing the process:
The speed of trust: Business happens at the speed of trust, is a well-established notion and the relief package served an important role in reaffirming our belief that very young entrepreneurs should be engaged with, as reliable service providers. This was reinforced as we witnessed (again)their ability to deliver products of superior quality, to do it on time and with exceptional attention to customer service;
- Increase trade within the community: A tangible benefit for being a part of the network should be the opportunity created for more entrepreneurs to interact with each other, and therefore increase the chances of identifying amongst themselves the intended user of whatever they’re selling, a prospective supplier or a founder who is an expert on some problem they need to solve or knows someone they need to reach. We have the unique privilege to boast of an entrepreneur community from across 30+ countries on the continent and although this is a massive advantage, building and maintaining a sense of community amongst entrepreneurs from different countries, sectors and cohorts has not been easy and is something we are intentionally directing more resources towards. The relief package served as a great reminder into the incredibly powerful resource the community can and needs to be. While processing the applications for the vouchers/relief purchases option, we noticed that not enough entrepreneurs had identified or recognized their peers within the community as prospective customers/suppliers. What a costly oversight. We realise that It’s not enough to talk about the importance of networking, we have to teach it and intentionally facilitate opportunities to practice ensure that they learn how to do it well. We’ve seen a few really exciting examples of trading within the community BUT we want to see more. The COVID relief package has given us the impetus we need to ensure that we see more trade and cross collaboration taking place;
- The most sustainable source of funding remains SALES: Real revenue from real customers. The COVID relief package is designed to provide temporary relief and cannot be used as a panacea for long term sustainability. It’s important to hold the right perspective here and that is, the relief package is there to buy time and create space to think and make the necessary shifts to strengthen the business model;
- The critical role of systems and processes: We have observed an increased interest from the entrepreneurs to introduce or strengthen business processes and/or systems. We have long subsidized the cost of accessing cloud accounting platforms but the uptake had been disappointingly low until recently. The pandemic has partly contributed to the positive change in conduct. We believe that what has also been critical is a small yet significant adjustment in our approach; which was deciding to host regular training sessions on how to navigate the platform to ensure one derives the most value. We could kick ourselves for overlooking what we now realise as a very obvious solution. Change can be daunting and introducing new processes may be perceived to be more complicated than it actually is. Our role is to find ways to make the transition as easy as possible. In our experience, once the entrepreneurs gain confidence around using the platform, they end up teaching us and each other which remains our favourite and ultimate flex;
- It takes courage to have difficult conversations: Often times founders make the mistake of falling in love with an idea and rushing to implement it before really validating that others feel the same way. This conduct seemed to be heightened during this period as entrepreneurs scrambled to find alternative revenue streams in an effort to keep their operations afloat. As trusted thinking partners to the entrepreneurs we support, we have to ask the difficult and often not welcomed questions: How do you know this is a real problem? How do you know that you are targeting the right audience for it? How exactly does your idea solve the problem? Is the problem painful enough that customers will replace existing and habitual solutions? Being supportive doesn’t mean always going along with their ideas. Asking difficult but critical questions may sometimes be misinterpreted as one being unnecessarily critical or discouraging but there’s nothing worse than wasting your time and limited resources pursuing another dead-end. These questions should be perceived as an opportunity for the entrepreneur to collect or provide additional evidence that they have the fundamentals in place to set them up for success;
- Wellness support: Mental health during crises should be every business leader’s #1 priority. Mental chaos leads to chaos in your relationships, in your family and in your business. When there are many critical decisions to be made about the business every single day, it’s practically impossible to make those decisions effectively if your mental health is in a mess. We are in a privileged position in that entrepreneurs in our community have access to the ALA’s wellness team, which is a team of trained counsellors and psychologists that provide support to help entrepreneurs look after their mental wellbeing. This is a very important part of our work and one whose value isn’t yet rated as a priority by many within our community. There are many reasons for this but chief among them is how the entrepreneurs have been socialized. Those that have accessed this support have derived a lot of value from it and we look forward to finding interesting ways to ensure that more entrepreneurs prioritize accessing this support.
We acknowledged upfront that funds were both limited and our decisions would not be welcomed by everyone. However, we are grateful that we were able to provide additional support in this way and for the valuable feedback and support received from our community of entrepreneurs.
