Conclusion

The overall conclusion of our project

The mission of Sustainable Rural Initiatives (SRI) is to improve the quality of life for the local community in Okana. They want to achieve this by opening their eyes to the potentials and opportunities that are already amidst them. Our research discovered how they can realize their goal and we are going to help them with this.

First, the problem is that the carpentry workshop doesn’t gain enough orders so they can grow in their business. At this moment they ended up in a vicious circle as you can see below.

They buy materials so they can make new products to sell. This gains into a profit, but because the order size is too low nog enough money is collected to and pay the salaries and buy new products. This results in having to choose between paying the employees or buying new materials so they can sell new products.

We feel that with a structured marketing plan, we can increase the order size. Besides promotion material, like leaflets, brochures and using the website, we will interview the employees, we look at competitors to learn from them and we will talk to potential new buyers in Kisumu. Together with the financial support of S4S to buy an initial stock wood we break through this vicious circle like you can see below.

The addition of an initial stock will provide into being able to buy more materials so they can generate a larger production. Therefore in combination with a the marketing plan they can sell more products so the profit will grow. If we achieve this we can make sure there is enough money to pay the salaries and also to buy new materials again to make new products.

Because our goal in the end is to help them become more self-sustainable. In the second stage of our project we will focus on the continuity of the carpentry workshop. We will help them with their administration and finding them a suitable manager who can take the lead. We are also going to document their carpentry workshop knowledge so it’s easier for new employees to become more familiar with the work progresses. And last but not least we want to look at the mindset of the employees. We want to increase their dedication and motivation for the carpentry workshop, so their engagement will grow which will lead to a positive influence for the continuity of the carpentry workshop.

So, when we meet again on the 29^th of January we hope we achieved these four following delivirables:

Expansion of the customer network to gain more orders
Implementing structured marketing plan
Help in becoming self-sustainable for continuity
Find suitable manager for continuity