Photo credit: Mile91
“It is not just enough to start the business without knowing what to do. The service helps women so much by giving them strategies to handle business.”
Doren is the owner of a flourishing business in the city of Uyo in Akwa Ibom state in Nigeria, supplying purified water sachets to the local universities, shops and market traders. Doren is also a mentor to other women entrepreneurs, who have learned from the challenges she has overcome along the way, including establishing herself in what is a male-dominated sector in Nigeria.
Despite being a role model and inspiration for other women, Doren is clear on how her business has been enhanced through her use of Business Women. The text messages introduced Doren to the idea of sending her customers Easter and Christmas cards and using this opportunity to undertake customer satisfaction surveys. This exercise revealed what her customers love about the business – including the eye-catching attractive packaging – but also where they would like to see improvements, such as an improved delivery service. Doren learned from this feedback and is now planning to recruit an additional driver to divide the deliveries between rural and suburban customers.
“I didn’t do these survey letters before. It was from the text messages that I got to know of this and now I’m happy to be writing letters to all of my customers.”
“I didn’t do these survey letters before. It was from the text messages that I got to know of this and now I’m happy to be writing letters to all of my customers.”
Although Doren had a passion for science and a vision for her business from a young age, she recognises that ambition alone does not guarantee success. As she explains, “If you don’t know how to interpret your dreams, your goals, then you don’t have anything. You could have a dream but you also need the capacity to interpret it, to become visible.”
Case study interview conducted by Mile91. Doren is one of the women entrepreneurs trained by Youth for Technology Foundation as part of the Nigerian Women Entrepreneurs and Mobile Value Added Services program supported by the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.
