Entrepreneur Introductions

Hi All

Today was the first day of our official consulting project. It started off early at 7:45 AM, but unfortunately because of the flooding and sudden influx of rain, we were a bit behind schedule.

We got to TSiBA to start the entrepreneur presentations; there were 10 companies, each having 6 students to work with them, 4 TSiBA students and 2 NU students. The projects range from catering companies to stationery and micro finance companies. Mine, however, is a bags/textile company. It's a great concept because there is Township Patterns CC which supports NPO Township and Township Cooperatives. We will be working with the cooperatives who are groups of women that are given orders by the company and then fill the orders, and in turn invoice Township Patterns CC. It's an incredibly successful company; they did all the bags for Gap in the red campaign, and are also promoting green bags for Pick 'n' Pay (the local grocery store chain here). I'll be sure to pick up a few to bring back to the states. Our primary goals with Township CC are the following: to research the textile industry and compare labor costs, to train women in the cooperatives on the basics of financial management and personal finance, and then to leave the cooperatives with tools for success in their future at Township. We are going to visit their corporate headquarters on Wednesday which is in downtown Cape Town. Then on Thursday we will be taking a truck ride to deliver materials/orders to two of the township cooperatives. Can't wait to see where they work! It's definitely a lot to do, but I'm looking forward to it. In the process I'm sure that I will learn a lot from Christophe (the owner) and my fellow NU/TSiBA students.

Alright, back to work on my project about a South African entrepreneur - Patrice Motsepe. On tap for tonight: project, sleep and prepping for a busy day of figuring out a game plan for our consulting project.

Cheers, Hills