Profit is key for survival.


Happy New Year everyone !!

 In the last blog I explored some successful social enterprises which are using the micro-franchise entrepreneurs model, in this blog I want to show how while an idea might be great and everyone is talking about you, without profit its worthless.

 Community Cleaning Services (CCS) is a great example of micro entrepreneurship and franchise model being implemented, below is a short video clip about CCS. The company behind the creation is SC Johnson and they are a large international company in the cleaning products sector. 
This post again relates back to my past blog which looked at corporate social responsibility and how companies want to target consumers at the base f the pyramid. Well SC Johnson is a great example, they wanted to explore how to sell their products to a unknown market at the same time and being socially responsible. This is how CCS came about in 2005 in Kenya.


Hope you found the video clip useful and informative.

In 2005 at the time of launch the Base of the Pyramid model (BoP) was a new protocol and haven't really been tested out yet to see if it was a viable market. 

Fast forward to 2009 and the concept was seen as a success' CCS was working with around 20 micro entrepreneurs to clean over 1000 toilets around slums in Nairobi,
 using SCJ products. 

 There was almost no risk for entrepreneurs to join CCS, they were equipped with all the gear and the entrepreneurs just buy the products from SC Johnson to use to clean the toilets. 

 CCS had very good reputation in the local community, they were very professional using all the right kit. SC Johnson did not follow in the foot steps of Unilever for example and offer their cleaning products in sachets for the BoP market, they wanted the entrepreneurs to sale the product by using the service model and targeting pubic toilets. 
Thieme T 2014


What went wrong for  CCS
  • Sales heavily fluctuated 
  • When children were on school holiday residence did not want the toilets cleaned as they would get dirty very quickly 
  • CCS was not  breaking even 
  • The cost of training/quality assurance and sales of the products were making the venture unprofitable 
  • Many entrepreneurs struggled with costings such as how much cleaning product they should be using per job to make a profit.
  • SC Johnson could no longer afford to continue to bankroll CCS to keep it afloat and after seven years it was no longer.
  • While CCS is a social enterprise it needs to be able to be sustainable and the profits can over its operations 
Although financially it failed, it succeed in the concept of getting youths, hustlers and waste workers off the street and crime, into micro-franchisee entrepreneurs who provided a vital service to local residence to help improve sanitation. CCS had got itself established into the local community and the brand was well respected and the service it provided. Thieme T 2014

It is a great lessons for any social business that it doesn't matter if your idea or plan is amazing like with CCS case if you are not able to make profit within the first few years and be self sustaining you will come down.  PROFIT IS KEY.
To read more in-depth about the issue Thieme T 2014 is a great paper



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