new business module

36
BUSINESS SKILLS
is planning to start a tailoring business. The example is intended
to underline the detail that is required when developing a
business idea for the first time.
Baboukar’s tailoring business – a case study (see Hand-out 13)
Baboukar has a wife and two children and lives in Ziguinchor. He used to earn his living working
as a tailor in a local garment factory. Six months ago the factory went bankrupt and all of its
employees lost their jobs. To make ends meet, Baboukar started to work as a daily labourer on
construction sites. There is little work available, however, and he finds it difficult to earn enough.
One day Baboukar heard about an economic support programme run by a non-governmental
organization (NGO). He learned that the NGO was providing people like him with financial
support to start a small business. He contacted the NGO and was informed that he would be
eligible for support if he could provide a well-defined, developed and convincing business idea.
The NGO provided him with a form to help him draft his idea.
Thus, Baboukar began looking for a business idea. He figured he should use his tailoring skills
and start his own tailoring business. He decided he would have to offer several products and
services to succeed. He figured that he should target two market segments of people buying
locally produced clothes: middle-income people buying ready-to-wear-clothes in the little
clothing shops located in and around the central market, and high-income households buying
locally produced tailored clothes. Baboukar believed that this would provide him with a fair
amount of work.
To make sure that he could earn enough money to provide for his family, he also decided to
offer alteration and mending services. He figured that some middle-income households might
be interested in altering the ready-to-wear clothes and that poorer households would be
interested in having their clothes mended instead of spending money on new ones.
Baboukar decided that he would sell the ready-to-wear clothes to the little shops in and around
the central market, because that was where most people bought their clothes. The tailored
clothes, on the other hand, he would sell directly from his tailoring workshop, as the people who
bought them would have to be measured and fitted. He would also alter and mend clothes at
the workshop.
To keep his costs low, Baboukar decided he would rent a little shop in a cheaper neighbourhood
near the central market and transport his ready-to-wear clothing to the little shops on the central
market using his bicycle.
The box below shows one way to develop Baboukar’s business
idea; it is by no means the only way. You can make additional
assumptions and add more detail if you wish. For example,
Baboukar might realize that high-income households do not
want to shop for their clothes where less wealthy households
bring their clothes for mending, and might thus be prompted