Follow The Gruddas

Finally, an update on our whole point of coming to Guinea! So excited!!

We finally got a chance to meet the men we will be helping to launch a business. They are mostly Christian university professors who are interested in a way to minister to the city of Kankan as well as supplement their teaching salary (Which is not very much. They only get paid once every three months!) We were able to revise and update a rough business proposal that was written last year. The proposal entails how to start a photo printing business.

There are a handful of small photo printing businesses already in Kankan, but none of them to photos larger than 4 x 6 or offer the option to print full page color Word documents. For anything larger than a 4 x 6, people would have to drive at least 5 hours away to another country to have them printed! We believe we can generate quite a bit of interest in our business and still be able to offer competitive pricing.

We are excited to be able to present our business proposal to the group of young men on Monday. During this presentation we will have the task of explaining what "shares" are and how you can use them to buy into a business, how percentage payouts work, how to budget for unexpected expenditures, why repaying loans is important, why the business should tithe and how to invest in equipment that would increase business for the future.

The goal is for this business to eventually generate enough revenue to create a "business incubator," which is more or less a fund that is available for new investors to use to start new businesses. There are already some ideas in the works for the next business--a driver's education school, an online real-estate company.

All of these businesses have the potential to not only increase income for these men, thus improving their families lives, but to hire employees, creating jobs, and share the news of Christ with the employees and the customers they will come in contact with.

This business could have deep reaching results!

Please pray for us as we prepare to present the proposal and seek investors to join us in this business venture. Pray for those listening to our proposal, that'd they would understand and be able to make an informed decision. And for the future of this business--that it would be profitable and Christ-centered.

-Hannah