Friday, October 10, 2008

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…

Saturday, October 4, 2008

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!