MALALA Rutgers University March 2015

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NAME Malala

AGE 28

PROFESSION Paruma Seller

STATUS Single

NUMBER OF CHILDREN 0

BUSINESS Parumas/Purses

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 1 Partner

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

BUSINESS OVERVIEW

Malala started off baby-sitting in Panama City. She wanted to return to the village and start a business closer to home. Her mother used to sell Parumas in the village, so she decided to take up the same business. Today she makes one trip to Panama city each month to buy parumas. While there she buys 40 paruma cloths that cost $17 and make two parumas that sell for $!5 each. She splits the cost 75/25 with a business partner. With the extra parumas that she does not sell at the end of the month, she keeps some to sell later and with the rest she makes purses. She is able to make 1 purse an hour, each cloth yeilds 4 purses, and sell for $15 each. There are additional costs associated with making the purses, however they are more profitable. She is the only one in the town that makes purses, however she does not sell many in the town. Most of the purses that she sells are sold outside the town, and sell very easily. In the town there are 2 other people in the town that sell parumas, each of which have to make a trip to Panama City each month to buy the new style of parumas. There is not a lot of competition between the 3 vendors of parumas, because they do not try to steal eachothers clients. Therefor there is little incentive to try to reduce costs in order to attact the other vendor’s customers.

BUSINESS: Malala

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STRENGHTS

She is very outgoing and positive, she is driven to make profit-yielding changes for her store. She is cautious however, and has a low risk-tolerance, but that is because her livelihood depends on this business.

Has a lot of potential to grow into new markets/be set apart from paruma sellers, because she is the only Paruma seller that makes purses.

Parumas are a very popular product, so there is high demand, as the women always want to keep up with the new styles. However the market of Parumas is fairly saturated

She has a strong network of family support; she has multiple sisters, and her twin is treasurer of the Caja Rural.

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

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CHALLENGES

Makes multiple trips to Panama City a month, which can be costly, around 30 dollars per trip.

It takes her 5 hours to make a purse out of the un used/unsold paruma cloth.

Unorganized credit sales/ not enough strict policies for on-time payment of parumas.

There are 2 other paruma sellers in the community, so there is competition.

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

BUSINESS: Malala

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

Day 1 – [Date] Day 2 – [Date] Day 3 - [Date]

-  Describe meeting -  What did you and the

business owner(s) do? -  How did the business

owner(s) react? -  What questions did the

business owner(s) have? -  What specific requests

did the business owner(s) have?

-  What recommendations did you provide?

-  What are some next steps?

-  etc.

Today, we thought it would be best if we let Malala do most of the talking, so we could get an overall feel of the business and the history. She was more than happy to answer all of our questions (why did you start, what type of work did you do before this, where do you want to take this, etc…) We found out that she has been letting a lot of her clients pay on credit, without a set interest rate.

Today, we focused our questions more around her challenges. We aimed to figure what we an do to make it more efficient, and cut costs so we could deliver a final proposal with tips. In terms of requests, she expressed that she has a low-risk tolerance, so we knew to not push dramatic changes as suggestions. We asked her for a book of her sales, but she explained that she would show us them tomorrow, and they needed organization.

We typed up and created separate books/tables for her to keep track of her sales/credit, and her supply expenses. Then we suggested that she market herself more, so we made a basic flyer for her to draw inspiration from. Finally, we proposed that she buy parumas in bulk for cheaper, selling them to other vendors for profit, and then using them to sell for her own paruma business. She was happy when she realized there were simple achievable solutions to making more profit.

SOLUTION 1 SOLUTION 2 SOLUTION 3 SOLUTION 4

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

Organize financial statements and balance sheets, and keep separate books for sales and supply purchases.

Market herself more and essentially create a brand for herself via flyers/business cards, and a catchy business name.

Purchase Parumas in bulk, so its cheaper for her, and she can save money by making less trips to Panama City.

Serve as a middle man, by selling the Parumas to other vendors in the village, and then selling her own Parumas. Overall, she will gain a lot more profit.

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

BUSINESS: Malala

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

FURTHER DETAILS & OBSERVATIONS

She was able to recognize that the market did not have much room for growth, and so she wanted to move into another market but was not sure how to do this. At first we felt like she wanted us to do this for her, however we did not know the market of the area. To help her in this she we asked her the questions that she would need to come up with a new market. Eventually she told us that men’s clothing was not sold in the town. Though she does not have the capital, and she does not want to incur the risk of this venture, at the moment, she could be able to save enough capital to start this venture in the future.

INFORMATION GATHERED AFTER INITIAL QUESTIONS

We found that she spent a lot of money on unnecessary trips to Panama City unrelated to business, that we got her to admit that she could cut out in order to help her achieve her goal. In addition she would buy parumas, even though she would never totally sell out of product.

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

NEXT STEPS

IMMEDIATE CHANGES

•  Organization advice •  Given ideas to market her business via flyers, business cards, and social

media (Facebook)

SHORT TERM CHANGES (WITHIN 3 MONTHS)

•  Hopefully she will learn how to fill out the balance sheet •  Altered amount of supply in order to compensate for unsold monthly stock

MEDIUM – LONGER TERM CHANGES (+3 MONTHS)

•  Attract more customers •  Tap a new market by buying paruma cloth in bulk and selling and charging a

premium to competitors to save them a trip to Panama City •  A large increase in profits due to selling cloth in bulk •  A better understanding of how to market and operate a business

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

BEST PRACTICES FOR DELIVERING WORKSHOPS

By practicing and showing our ideas, Malala was able to quickly learn how to organize her information accordingly. We also printed out a balance sheet and taught her how to gather and utilize information to optimize her business transactions.

ADVICE FOR FUTURE BRIGADES

The next brigade should be able to present visuals and teach them to their clients in an easy to understand manner. They must also be able to ask vital questions and pick out useful information from useless ones. Brigaders must lastly be personable and build a relationship to make the client feel comfortable enough to give out certain information.

MALALA (MARCH 2015)

CONTACT DETAILS

BUSINESS OWNER(S) Name: Malala

COORDINATOR Name: Patricia

TRANSLATOR(S) Name: Herardo, Juan David, Azael Name: Phone Email:

[UNIVERSITY] BUSINESS BRIGADE

Names of all students: Karan Khanna, Colton Kelly, Yashkumar Mahida, John Portillo