new business module

22
BUSINESS SKILLS
2.2 From business idea to doing business –
case study
The case study forms the starting point of the actual training
course. It is intended to awaken everyone’s analytical capabilities
and to provide a basis for discussing key points to consider
before starting a business.
Nathalie’s chicken business – a case study (see Hand-out 8)
Nathalie lives with her husband Tom and their two daughters in a small village 15 km from the
provincial capital. Tom has his own carpentry workshop and makes furniture. Orders for furniture
dropped significantly with the start of the conflict, and so did the family income.
Nathalie decided to start a poultry project to improve the family’s income. She had the idea
because her neighbour Joan was running a successful little chicken business. Joan was raising
broilers and layers and selling the broilers and the eggs on the provincial market. Nathalie figured
that Joan must make a lot of money since she managed to cover her family’s expenses all by
herself.
Nathalie talked to her husband and told him that she wanted to start her own chicken business.
Tom liked the idea. Together they decided that Nathalie would raise broilers because this seemed
easier and promised quicker revenues. However, Nathalie and Tom had no experience raising
chickens.
Nathalie found a supplier of day-old chicks. He told her the minimum order was 50 chicks at $1
per chick and that she would have to pay cash on receipt. Nathalie told the supplier that she
wanted him to deliver 50 chicks one week later to her home. She went back home to prepare
the old shed in her yard to accommodate the chicks.
She bought a few dishes and attached upside-down plastic bottles to sticks next to the dishes
so that the water in the bottle would refill the drinking dish. She also made some feeders and
pegged them to the ground. She added an old oil-burning oven to warm the shed and keep the
chicks warm. The material and the oil for the stove cost her $45. Then she went to the market to
buy chicken feed. The trader on the market advised her to buy “broiler starter feed” for the first
four weeks and “finisher feed” for the last weeks. This would give her nice and fat broilers in a
short time. The trader told her the feed would cost $200 for her batch of 50 chickens. Nathalie
thought the special feed was expensive and decided to buy maize instead. She spent $150 on
maize and decided she would feed the chicks more.
When the supplier delivered the chicks, Nathalie paid him the $50 they had agreed on. She put
the chicks in the shed, lit the oil-burning oven, and put it on the lowest position because oil was
expensive and she did not want to increase the cost of her project more than necessary.
Nathalie checked on her chicks several times a day. She noticed that the chicks tried to get close
to the oven and even started fighting for the best spot. She decided to put her laying hens in
the shed, too, because she believed they would keep the little chicks warm and stop them from
fighting.