#Freestyle Today was my second day of convincing traders at the market to save with us so that they get loans and foodstuffs (customer retention) later on for their trust in us
Building an app for market traders with diverse needs is not an easy task. The traders who have joined in are faithfully contributing everyday. Including an old lady whom was convinced by other two traders to join in....she said she will save on the platform without fail even if it meant borrowing from somewhere else. It will make a good community bank for the fish traders.
They are curious to know when they will start to get their round robin compounded savings. I am aiming for 40 traders but we have 18 which isn't bad for a start. If each convinces two more people to join in, we shall have a good number after a month.
They have used round robin money to to buy properties before, but mismanagement has made many traders not to trust round-robin leaderships.
Having paying customers for a community bank in form of savings is joyous. Some have confided in me on how they expect to have a loaning facility in place by December.
Running a start up involves full filling expectations and at times it's scary, at times it makes you to wake up with a realisation that human beings are counting on you to make their lives better.
What I need most is the numbers as we need traders to join in and save everyday on the analogous platform where everything is done manually until we hit the right number. Our projected number is one hundred traders.
I am hopeful and happy about it because few businesses get paying customers who are convinced of the product and services without any flyer or an amount of money to acquire them.
I will be pitching everyday to prospective customers which might mean walking from one stall to the next within the market. I will be writing a proposals everyday to get equity or venture capital or even grant to make it easier to acquire customers and have a loaning facility.
The peculiar habit of looking for a way to add a feature to give out foodstuffs like oil, flour, soap, sugar and rice is a unique need rooted culturally which makes it thrilling as well as challenging.
Of course they will have to pay for it in a human centred way.....but they don't mind paying, provided their needs are catered for. Because I will eventually need a dumb phone to make it seamless to submit money, I am to look for a telecommunications company whom can provide for such.... maybe create a partnership...the traders are to use the company application to remit savings while they provide the phones.
For now I need a team to help me with all that is to be done, and I need to convince them that it will be a winning team all the way.😍
