Start with 5000ks…

One way that ONOW helps students experience entrepreneurship is through our nano grant program. Students are given 5000ks in cash (about $4) to invest over the course of a week, trying to multiply that 5000ks as many times as they can.

This experiment provides a low-risk opportunity for our students to test and improve their bootstrapping skills. During the next week, we talk about the experience as a class, drawing applications to the future challenges they will face.

Yadanar Oo, a young women in our STARTUP course, was stumped. How should she use her 5000ks over the course of the week? She worked in a factory–twelve-hour work shifts, six days per week–so she wondered how she could find time to invest the money. Then it dawned on her. Why not make money with her co-workers?

She took her 5000ks to buy supplies and made pre-packaged meals of fried fish, shrimp and chili. She sold her packets at a great rate and soon many co-workers were buying from her.

After seeing the profit she could make from her small investment, she realized this was not just an one-time activity, but could be a real long-term business. She developed a larger plan to expand this food packaging and also add more products as well. Her co-workers were thrilled that they didn’t have to prepare food before work, but could simply bring white rice to eat with the curry.

A business was born.