Burro Enhances Household Security

Ayisha Tahiru is using three Burro batteries to power her LED flashlight that she hangs above her compound each evening to provide general lighting and nighttime security. Before switching to Burro, Ayisha was spending about the same amount for inferior, carbon-zinc batteries that she needed to carefully ration to stay within her budget. Such "cheap" batteries can add up in cost quickly, particularly if they leak (as they are prone to) and destroy equipment.

Now, with Burro batteries, Ayisha is able to power her light all night long, every night. One set of batteries lasts Ayisha four nights straight. When they do drain down, she simply walks a dozen yards or so to her Burro agent and swaps them for fresh ones at no additional charge. Ayisah appreciates the enhanced security that all-night lighting provides her. She intends to renew her Burro battery subscription.

For an affordable, flat monthly fee, Burro promises to provide superior lighting solutions to women like Ayisha throughout our expanding market area.

Burro Client – Papa Bashiru

Mr. Papa Bashiru is a highly satisfied Burro client in Tin Kong, a large village on the main road, about 14 km south of Korforidua. He has no electricity at his home, so he is dependent on battery power for his entertainment. Mr. Bashiru tells us that with Burro he is saving a bit each month compared to his prior purchases of conventional batteries, but, more importantly, he tells us that he is now able to enjoy his radio far more than he was able to before Burro. He especially enjoys listening to the news in the evening after working his farm all day. He intends to renew his Burro subscription next month.

First Burro Employee – Philip Sarpong

Philip Sarpong signed on this week to be Burro's first ever employee. In true Burro fashion, he's wasted no time jumping right in to help deliver on our "Do More" promise. Here he is checking in his first agent on his first full day in the field. Philip joins Burro as the Assistant Branch Manager for our pilot branch here in Koforidua. We received more than 100 applications for our online job posting, and Philip stood out from the very beginning. He has a wealth of highly relevant prior experience including:

• Analysis of route operation statistics for the largest passenger bus carrier in Ghana;


• Extensive field experience coordinating teams of people to execute dozens of promotional events for the largest brewer in Ghana;


• Teacher of high school mathematics and English literature;


• Scenic Designer for the National Theatre of Ghana;


• Degrees in both theatre arts and sociology;


• And substantial and ongoing professional acting experience in television commercials and soap operas.

A Co-Founder with me of the Career of the Month Club, Philip promises to bring the eclectic flair and heads down execution we need to begin to develop Burro agents into the most disciplined and powerful sales force yet seen in Ghana.

A big Burro welcome to Philip!

Burro Agent Jump-Start Brings Limitless Tunes to Elder Gentleman

Francis Aniteye Larwer interviewed for Burro's first Assistant Branch Manager position, but we felt he was stronger agent material. He agreed to give it a shot from his home turf of Koforidua Ada, a major suburb on the northeast flank of Koforidua proper.

With some quick in-office training at Burro worldwide HQ and a formal education in marketing, Francis went off dutifully to assess the market on the 4^th of November. He returned to Burro on the 6^th full of ideas about how to better handle Burro distribution, partnerships, sales and marketing. But he hadn't sold a single battery. It was time for the big guns.

Burro partner Tim Gamor (right) headed out with me and seasoned Burro agent Eric Boamah (left) to give Francis a proper introduction to full-contact, in-the-field, Burro sales techniques. In just minutes, Francis was batting close to 100%. Here he is seen closing the sale of six batteries to Mr. John H. Abogah (seated next to Tim).

Living just off of the grid but loving his old-school, traditional Ewe folk music, Mr. Abogah had invested a great deal in a very heavy duty radio and cassette player only to find that its demands on conventional batteries were so great that he had to very carefully ration his listening time. Burro was able to deliver six "always fresh" battery rentals for a monthly amount well within his budget, and Mr. Abogah is now very happily enjoying limitless access to his favorite tunes.

Exceptionally fast on the uptake, Francis has applied his training to great effect with a record-breaking first week performance of 87 battery rentals. This swept him to victory in Burro's first weekly agent promotion, earning him an attractive bonus prize payment in addition to his rapidly growing, sustained earning base.

Congratulations, Francis!

Mr. Hayford Atteh - Burro Agent

No better way to break a long silence than with a salute to Hayford, one of Burro's top-performing agents, and a very special soul.


Hayford is a boundlessly energetic 64 year-old gentlemen with a heart of gold and countless friends all up and down the paths for miles around his village of Sonkwenya. The image shows Hayford suited up as a volunteer for the major polio vaccination drive that Rotary sponsored worldwide a couple of weeks back.

Working a few hours a week over the last month, Hayford has signed up more than 50 Burro clients who are now benefiting from the Burro "Do More" promise. Subsistence farmers, cocoa growers, snail hunters and shop owners are among Hayford's clientele enjoying lower battery expenditure, greater productivity, enhanced security, and more entertainment options.

Hayford himself is well on the way to building a business that will supplement his other income by more than a buck a day. That may not sound like much, but Hayford is as optimistic as we are that his Burro business will grow well beyond these humble beginnings. Just last week, Hayford finally withdrew some of his accrued commissions. He bought school books for his young grand-daughter. Little things truly can make a big difference.

Burro salutes Mr. Hayford Atteh.

Burro Promise Gains Traction

In less than three weeks of operation, Burro has five agents trained and selling. More than forty clients have signed on. More than 120 batteries have been rented. All indicators are rapidly improving. Interviews with clients suggest high satisfaction and a high likelihood of renewal. Almost without exception, agent performance has exceeded expectations with agents highly enthusiastic and highly satisfied.

Our most recent training just yesterday brought on board Nurudini, shown below with Jan and his ten first batteries for new cutomers. Nurudini hails from Tin Kon, a small town on the main road about 14 kilometers south of Koforidua. Tin Kon has electricity, but battery usage is still high for a number of reason. Nurudini runs a small shop in the town with his sister. He sold out these ten first batteries in his first day before taking public transportation back to Koforidua today to refill his stock with us.

Eric also signed up yesterday as an agent operating within a large suburb of Koforidua. He too sold all of his first ten batteries in his first day on the job and returned to Burro HQ for new stock today.

Jan has done a great job of calibrating our growth plan to our current capacity. While we could go much faster, we've decided to add a new agent about every other week for now. We'll have strong representation in three critically different types of service areas: more remote villages, smaller towns on main roads, and the heart of our larger city, Koforidua. We're focused on supporting existing agents and clients at 110% to ensure that by 15 November we understand all critical parameters related to the ongoing success, sustainability, and scalability of the business. If all signs are as positive then as we now expect, we will be dropping our second, major order for additional batteries.

Being a bit of a carto geek, we of course have a giant, large-scale map mosaic plastered on the wall to help us plot our expansion. Here's a tiny section of it over the heart of the region. The pink dot is Burro HQ. The green dots are our two agents who are currently working "Kof Town". Yellow dots show areas we believe should support a new agent. The larger map over the entire region hosts about 40 yellow dots.

It is still very early, but Burro's future is looking brighter with every battery rented…

Jan Leads First Burro Agent Training

Barely 48 hours after touching down in Accra from JFK, Jan Watson, Burro partner and ops wizard, was leading Burro's first ever agent training session. Here she is with Burro partner, Tim, answering questions from Agnes and Hayford who are covering the half-dozen or so villages along the Adawso - Mangoase road about 10 miles south of Koforidua. They already have 17 clients between them and haven't even yet begun any real sales effort.

Beatrice, Francis, and Victor Azagro are kicking off coverage within the city of Koforidua beginning tomorrow.

This is a huge milestone for Burro. Welcome, Jan!

Gbolokofi Goes for Burro

What began as an informal market study trip this weekend to Gbolokofi (a village not far from Burro HQ in Koforidua) quickly turned into a sales event as enthusiastic word spread among the villagers who seemed very pleased with Burro's new way to buy battery power.

These two gentlemen , cash in hand, were eager to sign up for four batteries each.

Tim (Burro partner playing agent here) was soon taking down orders as quickly as he could write. In less than 30 minutes we sold out of all the batteries we had on hand, securing nine additional Burro clients with many more eager to sign up when we return next week.

Broadband 4U Burro

Ghana Telecom came through with flying colors this week, as promised. Yesterday they installed the Burro land line telephone (+233.81.222.05) and today, our fabulous "Broadband4U" ADSL "broadband" connection (with its screaming 256Kbps download, 64Kbps upload speeds). It doesn't get much better than that, folks -- at least not on a startup budget.

Here's our groovy configuration. (Can you tell that the furniture makers are a touch behind schedule?) The DSL modem supplied by Ghana Telecom seems a little flaky -- we are dropping the Internet side from time to time -- but they promise to dial it in over the next few days. It is certainly serviceable already, particularly through our very racy DLink gigabit/wireless N router that was hand-carried from Seattle by yours truly.

Notice my laptop online and open to burrobrand.blogspot.com. (Please don't tell me if you haven't made the Burro blog your home page just yet.)

We've Got the Power

Following two weeks of daily bureaucratic battles, Burro today finally got electricity at its worldwide headquarters. This is a critical milestone for a company that will effectively be reselling electricity. The delays made me appreciate the utility of our offering even more.

This groovy smart-card is the new, breakthrough way to sell power in poorer markets. They've adopted the cell phone "pay as you go" model. You simply load up the balance on your card at any of numerous pay points around town, then insert your card into your meter to receive credit. There are many smart protections and customer service options built into the card and meter. It's a pretty slick system really. Once it's installed...

This has further whet my appetite for innovative, enabling info tech aimed at the Burro market opportunity. We'll be evaluating optimal Stage 2 tech requirements as soon as we start to see viable demand for the core offering.

Brand Identity Work Round 2

Maria and Tatianna at Creable did an amazing job integrating Michael's Round One feedback. We'll be working on feedback to the second round ovewr the next several days. Your comments are welcome too.

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Burro's First Customer

On 22 September 2008, Mr. Stephen Acquah became Burro's first customer with the payment of his first month's rent on four batteries for his radio.

Now We Are Getting Official

I resisted as best as able, but eventually I was compelled to procure an offical "stamp" for Burro Brand Ghana Ltd in order to transfer the ownership of the truck to the company. Pretty nice, no?

Certified to Commence Business

Oh yeah. 15 September was a big day with the delivery of our certificate of incorporation, the exit of our first batteries from customs, and, my personal favorite, our official Certificate to Commence Business.

Fresh off the Burro truck from Customs in Accra, the first Burro batteries are unloaded at Burro worldwide headquarters in Koforidua.

Burro HQ TLC ASAP

Burro HQ will require much TLC before occupancy. Fortunately, local partner Tim has much experience marshaling forces for such transformations. The crew has arrived...


Daniel is actually an amazingly accomplished cabinet-maker, but not above grabbing a broom to begin the clean sweep.


When he's not making coffins, Awarty is the caretaker for our landlord's property. Here he's replacing a missing screen to keep Burro bug free.

"Allo Allo" is a skilled electrician with a fun nickname from his native francophone Togo. He's going through all the wiring to assess fixes required before we get power turned on and those that can come post "electrification".

Burro Identity Development 1st Round Feedback

Thanks everyone for your feedback on the 1st round of Burro brand identity work. Michael and I considered it all as he drilled down with Maria and Tatiana to distil the following direction for the next round.

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From: Michael Connell
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 11:35 PM
To: Maria Gaviria; Whit Alexander; Tatiana Redin-Wyden
Subject: 1st Round Feedback/Direction

Burro Team-

After several discussions, I wanted to quickly summarize so that I ensure that we are all on the same page.

General Comments

Strength seems to be a fairly consistent element throughout all of the executions. Although strength important the execution here is often too strong or aggressive. The burro begins to take on qualities of a trojan horse or a god like image.

Simplicity: Another adjective that seems to be important is simple. In fact simplistic lines can help give strength without adding the aggressive tone. We are targeting the 3rd world consumers to help them "do more". The people may not considered poor in their social circles but they usually come from simple backgrounds. Therefore any ornate decor or hints of royalty should be considered taboo. Think Caterpillar rather than Chrysler. Simple, industrial, strong and steady.

Approachable... Burro must be mans friend. Not in the social "friend" sense but as a partner to help him get things done. Trusting and reliable... Think banking institutions, the red cross, Caterpillar or even Volvo. A trustable support provider that helps you "do more" and is reliable.

Round 2 - Primary Focus
Opt. 02 - Iconic, functional, strong yet too aggressive and ornate (sharp points). We feel that this is a great foundation or direction for the logo it we can make some critical adjustments and achieve the targeted consumer experience.

Icon Direction:

Approachability: Although the icon feels strong, it has gone too far making it very aggressive and almost a symbol of a warrior. The sharp aggressive edges and overall outlook need to be toned back so that it still feels strong, trustable and reliable but without a violent edge.

Reliable Worker: "Do More" implies work! Although this is too big of a story to tell in an Identity, the more we can integrate it into the symbolism the more successful the ID will be. The bigger risk is creating a symbol that represents a majestic Burro. It is not a majestic animal and that is partially why it works so well. The burro is considered to be a hardworking partner of "man". There when you need them and willing to do what it takes to get the job done. Also considered to be smart, strong minded, willful, etc. Subtle hints of work should be integrated into the design.

Round 2 - Secondary Focus
Opt. 06 & 07 - Iconic, strong, type lock-ups are strong but functionality across variety of application is limited. Animal resembles a horse more than a burro and scale will likely become an issue when it is applied to products like batteries.

Further Exploration:

Horse vs Burro: Modify design to become recognizable as a burro.

Work vs Trojan Horse: Explore attributes of work (i.e.: halter, packs, saddlebags, harnesses, etc) and downplay the aggressive overtones.

Light: The addition of the sun was a nice note. Providing the idea of light, renewal and hope, however in application this may overcomplicate the symbol and diminishing functionality. This is something to consider in the next round and possibly use this element only in specific executions (i.e.; Signage, Stationary, etc).

Other Topics

Type Direction

Although typography was not a primary focus in the first round and it is critical that the type be chosen based on the final icon, some feedback based on what was presented might be helpful...

Foundation: Stable, simple and strong but not too basic.

Character: Some sense of personality, craft and/or human touch. Again this will help with approachability and trust.

Texture

This should be explored more once the symbol and type are further along.

Time Table
Monday the 22 is the planned delivery date for the next round

If I missed anything please let me know ASAP.

Looking forward to the next round of awesome work! Thanks all!

Michael

Pleased Partners

Burro partners Tim Gamor (L) and Whit Alexander (C) pause to celebrate agreement on Burro's first lease with Mr. E.C. Offei-Boohene (R), our new landlord.

Burro Worldwide Headquarters

Here's Burro's first HQ in the heart of Kof Town. We have the entire second floor -- ample space for a 3 bedroom residence, an office, and a full shop with training area.

Better Than Tiger Head

Here is the enemy -- incredibly low-life, carbon zinc, partial capacity, Tiger Head D cells. Typical usage is to go through the power in one of these about 4 times per month. For about 3 times the price of one of these per month, we will provide more capacity in every charge and unlimited recharges. Do More!

The Path Forward...

is not always along the road ahead.

It's Not All Fun and Games

But some of it is.

This is me with James, our able guide at Mole National Park in northwest Ghana. My daughter Rachel snapped this during our tour of the country before getting down to work on Burro.

The First Burro Batteries

Batteries are Burro's first business, and these are the first ever Burro batteries. Not terribly pretty just yet, but more powerful than the largest batteries currently sold in Ghana.

Brand Identity Work -- Round 1

Some amazingly talented folks are helping Burro build a world class brand identity. What do you think about these Round 1 concepts?

The Burro Way

The Burro Way	Client	Company	Self
Respect	Serve the client better than you have ever been served. Ask her, listen carefully to her, and learn about her.	You and the company are trusted partners. Always build upon that trust.	Know that you can succeed. Care for your body, mind, and spirit.
Innovate	Different is not always better, but better is always different. Think of better ways to serve the client and share your ideas.	Do not accept "good enough". Insist on better every day.	Build upon your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses. Seek out criticism and remake yourself stronger.
Empower	Help the client get the most from Burro offerings. Communicate ways that Burro can improve her life.	Build the brand for all of us. We are strongest when we push forward together.	You control your destiny. Set goals, get smarter, work hard, and do more.

Welcome to the Burro Brand Blog

Burro is building a global brand one micro-franchise at a time.

We're starting in Koforidua, Ghana with a simple pilot to show that a better mouse-trap and the dream of being your own boss can spark a movement. Burro goods and services create income earning opportunities, enhance personal productivity, and empower people with very low income to do more with their lives.

Burro(TM)
Do More(TM)