Overcoming challenges in business planting through the Business Model Canvas and coaching
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Helping church planters to start businesses in Africa, Asia and the Middle-East can be messy! Not everything is going on well.
We encounter challenges beyond our control, like COVID measures, high inflation or political instability. At the same time we have to deal with mindsets, strongholds and cultural beliefs that are holding people back.
We have to be honest about these challenges, face them, pray about them and come up with strategies to adapt, improvise and overcome.
In this article I want to share the first 2 challenges we are facing and what we are doing to overcome them.
Let's dive in!
1. Addressing the written communication gap
A significant number of the trainees we work with come from backgrounds where written communication is not strongly emphasized. We have noticed a recurring problem: after completing the Pioneer Business Planting training, participants frequently have a hard time writing a business plan. This delays the process and demotivates the people.
To tackle this issue, we have incorporated the Business Model Canvas from Strategyzer into our training program. This tool offers a visual simple alternative to conventional business planning by condensing the creating of a business plan in a visual way and on a single page. This doesn't mean that business plans aren't necessary. But it helps the trainees a lot by mapping their ideas on one piece of paper. The participants have responded positively to its simplicity and user-friendly approach. See an example below of a Business Model Canvas of a carwash business in Kenya that we are starting.
Image 1: Business Model Canvas of a carwash business in Kenya
2. Helping people to implement through coaching
Most of the people we work with come from hard places and have to work hard to survive. People are easily caught up in their day to day life after the training and didn’t implement.
To overcome this issue we implemented a coaching structure. Within these coaching relationships, people get timely insights on what to do, but most importantly they receive encouragement. Based on our research, in areas where this strategy has been implemented, we have observed significant improvements: disciples feel better supported, their businesses thrive and loan repayments become more consistent.
Coaching is a term that is used everywhere and can mean a lot of things. Our definition of coaching is NOT that we hang out for an hour a month, talking about how you are doing.
No, it is an intentional focused strategy of sharing life and keeping the coachee accountable to his or her vision of making disciples and planting businesses.
We use 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12 as a theme verse for our coaching:
7 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing [mother] cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. 9 For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. 10 You [are] witnesses, and God [also], how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; 11 as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father [does] his own children, 12 that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. (NKJV)
We are fathers and mothers for the ones we are coaching. We are gentle as a mother and exhorting, comforting and charging as a father. The end results will be that the person we are coaching, will walk worthy of God.
In our coaching we follow a simple process that we call the Coaching Flow:
We start with prayer
The coachee reports on what has happened within their churches and businesses. To help them focus to pass on what they have learned, they also report on what is happening in the churches and businesses of the people they are discipling.
The coach gives timely input what to do. This can be a reference to an article, book or specific wisdom to overcome challenges.
After this, we encourage the coachee. Even if he or she has implemented something small. Everyone needs encouragement!
From here, we help the coachee to make plans for the coming week.
The coachee will write down his or her specific “I will statements”. His or her commitment.
We end the meeting in prayer.
Figure 1: Coaching flow
We want every participant of our Pioneer Business Planting training, that is implementing, to be paired with a local coach that follows up regularly and helps them to be fruitful in business planting. At the time of writing we have 70+ trainers and coaches available. Most of these are the local Africans and Asians.