Women for Women

100% organic soap (and other cosmetics in the future).

The production cost per unit is less than $1:00. However, because of performance, packaging and price of similar products, it can be sold for $5:00 a unit. I have a clear plan to sell 125,000 units in the first year. Product extensions to lotions, ointments, and powders will follow.

Rural women make the crude soap by adding palm kernel oil to wood ash. This specific ash is organic because it is derived from burnt cocoa-pods shells or banana peels dissolved in water. The pods are waste materials after cocoa beans have been removed. All these ingredients are boiled and left to simmer in a pot. The result is a soap paste.

I buy this crude paste from the rural women. Then I mix it in a tank with other herbal essence like eucalyptus, lemon grass, organic fragrance and water. I then bring it to a viscosity and color consistency. It is filled into plastic tubes using a filling and sealing machine.

Other equipment that will be required during this process are a borehole, a filtering machine, a power generator and packing tables. I will require 2 helpers to do between 8 to 10 hours work 5 days a week. These laborers will need to have basic safety skills and lift 35 pound of weight. They must also be able to do repetitive work for 4 hours at a stretch.

The target market is Nigeria. The geographical coverage is all the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. However, I will focus on the universities first. The main characteristics of my consumer are female, between age of 16 and 40 years, top 5% social class and trendy.

I will need a constant supply of raw crude soap, water, fragrance and plastic tubes. These materials are available throughout the year. My core suppliers are rural women. Increased raw soap volume can be secured from the rural women with guaranteed advance orders. Packaging materials will be sourced locally from the open market at a competitive rate.

My customers will buy the product because
1. It is innovative and manufactured to the highest level of quality possible (visually, performance, value and perception)
2. It will sell at comparable price to similar soap presentations; average price for liquid soap is $7:00 in Nigeria, it will sell at $5:00 at retail.
3 I will provide consumers with newletters to continously engage them in beauty tips, games and similar interests.
4.I will provide a higher profit margin for traders and resellers.

I will appoint 4 distributors to sell to 20 universities each. Introduce product with "buy-2-get-1 free". Launch one-to-one word of mouth campaign.

Volume projection is based on;
1. Female population in universities is 258,697
2. Number of Universities is 81
3. Assume 2% consumer penetration
4. Each buys 2 units per month
5. Annual volume is 124,992 units per year
There are additional 81 tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It is possible that volume will double.

How will I deal with competitons?
There is virtually no competition in the category of liquified herbal soaps in Nigeria. The level of competition is personal-use quantity of cosmetics carried by international travellers.

It is purely an organic liquid soap with aroma-therapeutic properties. It comes in an innovative premium packaging. The product is priced in such a way that a wide spectrum of consumers can get value from it.

I was Group Account Director for 141 Worldwide, a global advertisement agency. I have 12 years of sales, marketing, product development and people management experience with Procter & Gamble and British American Tobacco, both Fortune-500 companies in Nigeria.

I am a graduate of Engineering and have a Masters Degree in Psychology. I obtained distinction in Information Technology. I have experience in successfully producing and selling music.

I have learnt that to be a successful entreprenuer;
1. You must to produce what people need
2. Know what your target market is willing to pay for goods
3. Make a good product and pack it excellently
4. You must believe in what you are doing

Some of my Professional training include;
Project Management, Creative Thinking for Marketing Managers, Finance for non Finance Managers, Distribution Edge Series.

Some words that describe me are creative, analytic, leader, energetic, visionary, ambitious and knowledgeable

My developmental objectives;

1. Guarantee the income of 20 women who produce organic soap, from average of $20 to $120 per month within 18 months and grow to 100 women in 5 years. This will impact the lives of about 700 household members. Currently, estimated 70% of Nigerians live on less than $1 per day. Most of them are illiterate, between the ages of 25 and 54years old, the prime of their lives

2. Create a scholarship for the post secondary school education of the eligible girl-child in rural areas. This is estimated at $1,500 per year. Post secondary school graduation eliminates 20% of the probability that she and her future generation will live below poverty.

3. Unleash hidden capital in this activity through formal coordination of production and selling activities.

4.Protect and grow an endangered cultural industry

5.Create jobs and opportunities for people who want to be independent distributors of the products

6.Enhance social integration in the community