A European Union  Funded Project

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The Problem

The client's goal was to  develop a comprehensive and intensive program of leather business acceleration services to be offered to  a select group of promising  startups in the sector. This program sought to equip the startups with the necessary tools required to  achieve a sustainable business model.

Approach

The Approach

The training consisted of 5 modules that were developed by Acumen to help the startups boost their potential by arming them with the required financial, administrative, and leadership skills.  The first module that was delivered to the participants covered the foundations of marketing and sales. The second module was a finance one which went over the basics of the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cashflow statement. The finance module was supplemented by an interactive session where participants spent the day practicing how to fill out each type of statement on Excel. The third module was titled “Partnerships and Team building” and covered topics such as the different types of potential partnerships that a leather startup can form ( e.g. vendor partnerships, customer partnerships, co-selling partnerships, after sales & delivery partnerships), how they should decide whether the partnership is viable or not, and  the measures they can take in order to protect themselves against any risks associated with the partnership. During the fourth module, participants were taught about the different leadership styles and the advantages and disadvantages of each one, and about HR Management and Planning strategies. In the fifth module, “Problem Solving and Creativity”, the participants were introduced to the Design Sprint Model in an interactive session, where the teams used design thinking to map out a five-phase framework aimed at helping them answer critical business questions through rapid prototyping. The final module was titled “Access to Finance and Institutionalization” which taught participants about the dos and don’ts of pitching their business in order to have a greater chance at gaining investments/finance.At the end of each module, the consultants met each team for a one on one mentorship session in order to go over any questions or concerns that the startups had regarding the content of the module.

The Results

By the end of the program, significant gains have been made by each startup in terms of the tools they have acquired, and the ability to use those tools to move their business forward and make it sustainable, irrespective of the resources they have at hand. The startups with the least experience and with the most limited business knowledge have gained a solid foundation of business concepts, became better prepared to pitch themselves to investors, have worked towards developing their brand identity, and have worked on a business plan which has enabled them to:  have a strategy going forwards and have a clearer idea of all the variable and fixed costs associated with their business, amongst other things. Throughout the program all the start-ups have become more organized and more institutionalized in terms of how they price and how they run their business operations. As a result, many of these start-ups have radically evolved their business models throughout the cycle. Others have re-branded. Many have successfully set up Shopify sales platforms. Others have realized that their current costing and pricing structure is losing them money, so they have worked on a different approach to sourcing and to pricing. This has resulted in many of them experiencing a boost in social media traffic and in sales. As well as greater strategic focus for the upcoming collection.