Business Plan Competition
Within the holistic approach of our Fellowship Program, Kula’s Business Plan Competition serves as a focal point of each cohort, supporting its entrepreneurial endeavors in the most tangible way possible. One of our core objectives is for fellows to understand their opportunities to start a new business or grow an existing one, and ultimately to see themselves as capable business people. While most already produce and sell their crop, there is still often a gap between seeing themselves as farmers and as owners planning for and growing a business. Through the preparation and presentation of these business plans, our goal is that fellows will build confidence in their ability to analyze business potentials, strengths and challenges and increase their long term success in their endeavors.
Every aspect of the 15-month program ultimately feeds into the competition, as fellows and their families first create a vision for their household and an action plan to achieve their goals, usually involving either starting a new business or investing in the growth of an existing one. Throughout the program, fellows are learning skills to spark business ideas and ensure their overall success, and by the time they dive into the actual business plan training in the last few months of the fellowship they are ready to put everything they've learned into a proposal.
Learning the components of a business plan, analyzing market opportunities, planning a budget, projecting costs and profits, and receiving direct feedback and support from our mentors, fellows are equipped to submit their plans in the initial stages of the competition. Mentors review all these proposals to select the most standout in each region, which then go to the final round of in-person pitching to a panel of Kula staff and local government representatives. This panel hears the presentations and asks challenging questions regarding each project's viability before selecting the best, to ultimately win cash investment to jump start the ventures.
In our first two fellowship terms we invested in 65 new businesses, and at the conclusion of this year's competition we will invest in 36 more. Past winners have created businesses for grain milling, bee keeping, leather working, carpentry, sewing and weaving, and advancing their coffee farms, among many others.
On average business award winners are able to increase their income by an amazing 235% -- over 3 times what they were previously earning -- and over 75% of businesses we’ve invested are continual and profitable one year after inception.
We’re thrilled for this year’s winners to launch their plans and to see where they take them!
