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Ernst&Young advices Goodget in startup phase

Winning the Sustainable Hero Award was not only a big honor for the Goodget team, we also received valuable advice from Ernst & Young (EY) on how to start up our business.

As winner of the Sustainable Hero Award, Goodget got advice from EY Partner Jan Peter Balkenende. The clean tech and sustainability department of EY supported Goodget by analyzing their business opportunities with a business model canvas. EY specialists assisted us with our legal and fiscal questions that come with setting up business in Ghana.
In Ghana, we also met with EY Ghana Partner Wilfred Okine and tax specialist Eunice Korley. They offered to help us pro bono with all our questions about tax and regulations in Ghana.

Fortunately we can do something in return: Goodget is now part of an internal EY campaign to raise awareness about the activities of the EY Foundation in the Netherlands. The aim is to get more EY professionals to volunteer their time for a good cause: in our case accelerating a sustainable and social enterprise. We hope the specialists of EY will continue this good work, because good advice is really very important in the crucial startup phase.

 

 

 

Goodget wins FMO Award

On tuesday 3. December Goodget was selected as the winner of the FMO Development contest. At his retirement, CEO of the Dutch Development Bank FMO, Arthur Arnold received a fund of which he decided to award $10.000 to the most promising social enterprises in developing countries.

A contest was set up with the help of the 1%Club: 6 running projects on the 1%Club website were selected. The projects were part of a Co-Creation at the 1%Club head office in Amsterdam on October 3. Volunteers of Accenture, FMO, Frog Design and the Schiphol Group helped the project owners to make a big step towards realizing their plans. In the case of Goodget, a training manual was produced for the local entrepreneurs in Ghana who will sell innovative and life improving products.

Exactly 2 months later, on tuesday 3. December 2013, Arthur Arnold and Anna Chojnacka, founder of 1%CLub, selected the winner: It was Goodget!!

We are the lucky and grateful winners of $7.000,- and a plane ticket to Ghana, our pilot country. We will spent the money on the training of the first local entrepreneurs who are going to sell innovative, life improving products in their villages. Goodget will help them build up a sustainable business, and at the same time improve the lives of many people living in poor conditions by introducing solar lamps, adjustable eyeglasses, water purification devices etc. etc. The training of these local entrepreneurs will start in February 2014 in the Greater Accra Area in Ghana.

We want to thank Arthur Arnold, FMO and the 1%Club for believing in Goodget, and for helping us to realize our dream with our local partners in Ghana!

Goodget discusses next steps with Jan Peter Balkenende

As a part of winning the Sustainable Heroe Award 2013, Goodget had a meeting with former Prime Minister of The Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkenende.

On 11/11, National Sustainability Day in The Netherlands, Goodget won the Sustainable Hero Award from Ernst&Young. This award means we receive advice from Ernst&Young on financial, legal and sustainability issues that come with setting up our business in Ghana. Head of the jury was Jan Peter Balkenende, who served 3 terms as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and who is currently partner at Ernst&Young. He praised Goodget for creating a smart business model that includes the training of local entrepreneurs. By setting up an inclusive distribution chain, innovative and life improving products can reach the people who can best use them. Goodget creates a win-win situation for all involved: we inform end users about renewable energy and sustainable products, we help people to solve daily problems and improve living conditions, we help innovative companies worldwide to reach bigger markets and scale up, we collect user information to stimulate product innovation, and last but not least, Goodget develops local markets and helps to fight poverty

We were very honoured to consult Jan Peter Balkenende on setting up our business, and securing sustainable partnerships with Dutch and local organizations. With his advice, we are ready to start up our 4 month pilot in Ghana in January 2014.

 

Goodget pilot will start in January 2014

Goodget has secured a matching fund from the Dutch Government. This means that we are in business: we can start bringing innovative and life improving products such as solar lamps, water purification devices and adjustable eyeglasses to the people who can best use them.

In the past months, the Goodget team has worked very hard to secure money for the pilot in Ghana. It has been an extremely challenging time for all involved, but we succeeded, and are now ready to give ‘proof of concept’: our four month pilot project will start in January 2014.

After preparatory work in The Netherlands, Emmy and Elvira of Goodget will travel to Ghana in January 2014. With our Ghanaian partners we will set up a Goodget demonstration team, and this team will start demonstrating the products to local entrepreneurs, mostly women. Local entrepreneurs interested in selling our products will receive training so they know everything there is to know about the products. With microcredit, they can buy stock, and start selling the products in their villages. Check our film to find out how Goodget operates.

The matching fund from AgentschapNL makes it possible for us to start up, but we need to raise more funds – loans, investments, grants – to set up a sustainable business and to guarantee continuity. Do you want to support us? Please check the site of 1%Club where we have listed voluntary tasks. We also have a crowd funding campaign running on this site for the training of local entrepreneurs. Contact Elvira for more information on our business model and prospects.

Goodget wins Sustainable Hero Award 2013!

Yesterday (10/10), Goodget was presented with the Sustainable Hero Award 2013 in the Rotterdam office of Ernst&Young.
The jury, led by former prime minister of The Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende, choose Goodget as the winner from 5 nominated companies. The other nominees were: African Clean Energy, MUD Jeans, AIMforthemoon, and Greenclouds.

The jury praised Goodget for its inclusive, well thought through business model, the way local entrepreneurs can benefit, and the social aspect of bringing sustainable, life improving products to the people who can best use them in developing countries.

We are really pleased to receive the Sustainable Hero Award 2013, and the prize that comes with it: 5.000 Euro worth of advice from Ernst&Young. This will help us one step further in bringing sustainable products to underserved markets!

1%Club Co-Creation delivers training manual for Goodget entrepreneurs

Goodget was invited to propose a business case for the 1% Club Co-Creation on 3. October 2013. Professionals from Accenture, Schiphol Group, Frog Design and FMO joined forces to set up a basic structure for a training manual for local entrepreneurs who are going to sell our products (goodgets!). With just a short description of the products, the entrepreneurs, their clients, their level of education and their possibilities, the team set to work. Within 5 hours they came up with much more than a basic structure for a training manual: the team created 4 short modular courses for the entrepreneurs, in which they would learn all they need to know about the technique, book keeping and marketing to sell the products in their shops or villages. Not only did they define the contents of the courses, they also came up with a set of icons to visualize the user information of the products.

In just one fruitful afternoon we now have a concept training manual, that we can present to our partners in Ghana. We will ask for input from our local partners, and hope to test the manual with our target group during our next visit to Ghana.

Thanks very much team for donating 1% of your time to Goodget! Special thanks to our facilitator Marc Harens, and ofcourse to the wonderful people of 1%Club.

If you are interested in donating 1% of your time to Goodget, please check our project page on the 1%Club website, where we post tasks on a regular basis.

Good Progress in Ghana

We are in Ghana again to prepare for the launch of Goodget. Progress has been steady, but not spectacular (yet!). We have already secured serious business leads and negotiated with organizations that can help us reach the markets in rural areas.

Our market research pointed us in the direction of the middle class in the cities. Besides selling our products in rural areas, the upcoming middle class is a very important market for Goodget. The middle class has the money to buy our products, and they will come back to buy them also for their family and friends in rural areas. We have found a very solid partner that can help us distribute the products to the middle class, so our goal to start the business in August 2013 is one big step closer.

Besides partnerships and business leads, we are also in Ghana to do more research on the training and support for our local entrepreneurs. What are the criteria to start a Goodget microfranchise, what training is required, and how can we  best support the local entrepreneurs when they have started their business? We hope get answers to all of these questions from our local partners and from the  entrepreneurs themselves during this trip.

With all the potential partnerships in place, we have now almost covered all aspects of our distribution channel. Back in The Netherlands we will put all information and leads together, fill up the remaining gaps, and go back to Ghana as soon as possible to really start up the business!

 

 

1%Club features Goodget campaign

Goodget is now featured on the 1%Club platform, a Dutch co-creation and crowdfunding platform. The campaign is aimed at getting funding for the training of our first local Goodget entrepreneurs in Ghana, and for the development of a Goodget microfranchise handbook for the local entrepreneurs. We are looking to collect 3000 Euro to cover the initial training costs. Go to www.1procentclub.nl/projects/goodget
to visit our campaign on the 1%Club platform.

Besides the funding, we also posted 2 volunteer positions on the 1%Club platform. We are looking for a volunteer who can help us with communications and marketing, and a volunteer who can help us to set up a financial system which includes inventory management and track&trace of the products sold. If you are interested in either one of the positions, please check on the 1%Club website under ‘1%Doen’ or click here.

What’s Cooking?

Today we visited a factory that produces efficient cookstoves. Very interesting to see how creative they are in making very efficient and easy to use products. We made some photos of course, so you can get a good impression. The cookstoves are beneficial for the end-users because they save 50% on charcoal. The stove therefore repays itself in a short time.

CookClean just started up her production facility on the outskirts of Accra, and they are still experimenting with the paint on the stoves. By april 2013 they hope to be able to produce at least 100 stoves a week. Goodget now has 3 CookClean cookstoves as samples in Ghana, and we will demonstrate them on all occasions. We hope to get back to Nicholas Manu and Erasmus Essah of CookClean soon with some substantial orders!

 

Sustainable Elections

Back in Ghana again to meet with microfinance organisations, local producers of goodgets and other stakeholders. Time for some serious business!

As it turns out, making appointments in Ghana is a bit more difficult than usual. Not that people are unwilling, but the elections are on their way and that is a very big thing over here. Especially in the area of Accra where we are staying: Asylum Down. All the big political parties have their headquarters around the corner from our hotel, and they all drive around in big cars with speakers on top.

We also take a lot of taxis, and when the radio is on you hear nothing but politics. The biggest issue is free secundary education. We have not heard anything about renewable energy and sustainability in the campaigns, but we hope that we can be of help to improve the lives of many Ghanaians and make Ghana more sustainable. On December 7th we will know the outcome of the elections.

In the mean time, we already have appointments with the Dutch Embassy and Ghanecc – the Ghana – Netherlands Chamber of Commerce. We hope to get information from them on doing business in Ghana, and of course we hope they can help us to find the best local partners.

 

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