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Mkono Impact Report 2020

Mkono's impact report assesses the support provided to 30 entrepreneurs through its pilots launched in late 2019 and early 2020. The report identifies four key themes: improved cash flow and pricing, vertical integration, business pivoting during crises, and enhanced marketing and branding strategies. Key learnings include the need for longer support, expansion to alumni, improved service delivery, and larger loan amounts.

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35 views9 pages

Mkono Impact Report 2020

Mkono's impact report assesses the support provided to 30 entrepreneurs through its pilots launched in late 2019 and early 2020. The report identifies four key themes: improved cash flow and pricing, vertical integration, business pivoting during crises, and enhanced marketing and branding strategies. Key learnings include the need for longer support, expansion to alumni, improved service delivery, and larger loan amounts.

Uploaded by

agripioneers.kasulu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Impact

Report
Executive summary

In fall 2019 and early 2020, Mkono launched its first two pilots.

As for the end of 2020, Mkono had supported 30 entrepreneurs

Our impact assessment method consists of interviews 3, 6 and 12 months after

The following report is our first assessment of our impact.

We identified four key themes


1.
2.
3.
4.

This year also provided Mkono with many learnings


Our year in numbers

for
Key themes

1.
Improved cash flow and pricing

A. Mkono helped some entrepreneurs better manage their cash


flows, which in turn added value to the entrepreneur’s
Entrepreneurs who
customers and employees. manufactured
● physical goods
often did not have
capital to produce
the goods before
●
delivering to
clients because 1)
B. Mkono helped some entrepreneurs think more strategically they did not think
about down payment to avoid fronting large production costs.
to ask for a down
● payment or 2) they
could only receive
payments from
●

● clients once the


goods were
delivered. Mkono
C. Mkono’s tips around record keeping tooling and software
were aspirational, but not confidently implemented and/or
allowed them to
understood by some entrepreneurs better manage
their cash inflows
and outflows.
Key themes

2.
Vertical integration

Mkono helped entrepreneurs by providing upfront capital to


fund purchase of tools, unlocking vertical integration. This
Several
improved quality control as well as profit margins, allowing entrepreneurs
entrepreneurs flexibility with pricing and employment
mentioned that the
● costs of production
were high as their
●
processes relied on
upstream vendors.
●
Mkono helped
entrepreneurs
become vertically
● integrated,
increasing their
profits, through
●
lower production
costs, higher
volume, and
●

●
improving output
quality.
Key themes

3.
Business pivot

Mkono brainstormed with entrepreneurs how to find


opportunities in a time of crisis.
Several
entrepreneurs
●
experienced a
decline in sales
during the
pandemic. Most
● struggled with
keeping existing
clients, but also
● with acquiring new
●
clients to drive
growth. Mkono
helped them find
ways to pivot their
business and
leverage their
skills/assets during
the pandemic.
Key themes

4.
Marketing and branding

Entrepreneurs implemented ideas suggested during the Mkono


mentorship sessions to stand up an online presence to source
Many
new clients. entrepreneurs did
● not have dedicated
and/or scalable
customer
●
acquisition
strategies, and the
pandemic caused
even further
challenges to
retaining clients or
finding new ones.
Mkono helped
them find ways to
reach existing and
new clients online
more effectively.
Learnings and improvements

Longer and more localized support

Expansion to alumni

Better service delivery

Larger loan amounts


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