The Western Region Christian Community Services from the Aglican Church Kenya (ACK-WRCCS)

The financial part of the business plan for an Eco Treelodge

About ACK-WRCCS

The Western Region Christian Community Services from the Aglican Church Kenya (ACK-WRCCS) is a faith based organisation whose core business is reaching out to communities to improve their livelihoods. The organisation works with communities who mainly have agricultural based enterprises with commodities like tomatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes en passion fruit. These products are seasonal and WRCCS is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the actors within the value chain have a forum to benefit from each others services and products.  

A WRCCS spin-off is the ecological social enterprise Treelodge. The goal of this lodge is to be the leading and preferred tourist destination, drawing (inter)national clients while conserving the environment. This is done by developing collaborative strategies with the local communities in Western Kenya.

The business case

In 2010 WRCCS would like to exploit the area of local tourism in a more sustainable and profitable way. The social entreprise of Treelodge aims at:

œ Preservation of the Rainforest

œ Maintenance of the native communities that live in and surround the area (mainly women and children)

œ Make those communities more independent: job and trade availabilities / women empowerment

œ Give the region an economical boost: via tourism and agricultural trade.

The first step was the development of a business plan to conceptualize the idea and enable the organization to  source for capital. Now the financial analysis and forecasting is done in this Expert Programme, to be able to seek investors for working capital.
 

WRCCS sought the mentorship of a professional with skills and expertise in financial analysis and management consulting. The 2-week assistance of Henk Hermans, former president Royal Haskoning Asia, now owner at Im4red, completed the business plan, tailored to develop the eco Treelodge as one of the social enterprises to support WRCCS's development initiatives.

Analysis

Henk and the team at WRCCS (a.o. Maureen Oduori) set up an agenda of meetings and actions beforehand, which ensured a great head-start for the team. They talked with Kenya Forestry Services, the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and many other relevant stakeholders and potential investors.

Advice

The advice given was created with the team. Different stages in the short run were identified:

business development (project planning, structuring)

facilities (building structure, design, procurement)

operations (HR set up, training, trial)

The entire business concept and plan was updated and revised, especially the financial side by Henk. The plan is complete, and the Treelodge team is ready to provide sound investment opportunities for companies and individuals. These investments are needed to take the necessary following steps: planning and actual building of the site.If all comes together, the lodge is ready to welcome guests at the end of 2011.

Impact on the partners

Maureen: "The perfect matching that led to identification of a suitable consultant with vast knowledge in project management for resorts. The whole process was an open sharing process and the consultant walked with the WRCCS team through the whole process as a team member rather than an expert."

Henk: "We achieved even more progress then I had anticipated - thanks to a good team in Kenya!"

Follow up

The team developed a 2year timeline for the project whereby the WRCCS shall give periodic feedback to SharePeople and the Henk on progress.

However, when the project winds up the Business Development stage and enters the roll out stage, WRCCS will see ways of engaging Henk to help set up the local consultants team and possibly play a supervisory role.

For the next phases, SharePeople and Treelodge stay in close contact to decide when to provide the Treelodge team with another expert, probably on project management, hotel operations and marketing.

This is a start of a two-year partnership between SharePeople and Treelodge. Both organisations will keep in touch, and with the expert as well. After this Expert Programme, an official evaluation takes place every 6 months. With this information, another Expert Programme is one of the possibilities to boost the organisation if needed. Participation in a yearly SharePeople Experience Week is also an option.