If you have received an invitation about this from EGF and AMI, you are invited to apply for a FREE spot in the African Management Initiative’s (AMI) Grow Your Business programme complementary of EGF! This is an exciting and practical 12-month programme offered by AMI that has been designed to help you to grow your business.
AMI invites you to apply for the Grow Your Business programme here.
What is the Grow Your Business programme?
GYB is a new, innovative approach to help you, as a leader of a small and growing business, grow your company and become more profitable.
This programme is based on global research on what makes a business succeed. If your firm is selected to participate, AMI will help you to identify and introduce five key business practices into your business over a six-month period. If chosen, your firm will also have access to AMI’s 3000 practical business tools and online courses. To maximize the growth potential of your business, without asking for a lot of time away from your core business activities, GYB is a light-touch programme focused on streamlining what you do day-to-day.
Companies that follow the GYB programme report immediate benefits, leading over time to bottom line improvements over the 24 months they report data.
Why is it free?
AMI, in partnership with the Equity Group Foundation, is able to offer you this opportunity free of charge because the programme is part of a research study funded by the Argidius Foundation and conducted by Prof. Tavneet Suri and Prof. John van Reenen from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
The research will measure the effectiveness of the Grow Your Business training in helping firms grow.
Who can qualify to participate?
AMI is looking for companies with:
- 5-30 employees
- An annual revenue of between KSh 1,000,000 and KSh 30,000,000
- An owner/CEO who will actively participate in the programme over the next 12 months
- A working Internet connection
- A willingness to track and share their business’ growth by recording financial figures every month and submitting these figures to AMI
If you meet these criteria and are excited about improving your company’s business results through adopting new business habits, we invite you to apply for this programme here.
As part of the research, all firms need to agree to answer the research team’s questions about their businesses at regular intervals over the next 18 months. You will also be expected to dedicate at least 12 hours a month to your core programme project – which is the implementation of core practices to help your business grow, and submit monthly metrics on how you are doing.
How does it work?
Those selected for the study will be divided into three groups.
The first group will receive AMI’s blended Grow Your Business programme. If selected, your company’s owner/CEO will:
- Participate in 3 one-day in-person workshops over the next 6 months;
- Participate in 5-6 smaller informal group meetings at your convenience over the next 6 months;
- Work on a project to grow your company’s profitability over the next 12 months;
- Download and use online tools to support your project over the next 12 months;
- Report monthly on your company’s performance to AMI over the next 12 months
The second group will receive AMI’s online Grow Your Business programme. If selected, your company’s owner/CEO will:
- Participate in 4 virtual (online) sessions over the next 12 months;
- Work on a project to grow your company’s profitability over the next 12 months;
- Download and use online tools to support your project over the next 12 months;
- Report monthly on your company’s performance to AMI over the next 12 months
The third group will be the control group. They will not receive any training.
Please note that by applying for this programme, your business may be selected for any one of the three groups. Firms will be allocated randomly by lottery.
Unfortunately not all companies can be accommodated, so we invite you to apply for consideration by completing the online application form. Only those who complete the application form in full will be considered.
This is an amazing opportunity to work practically on well-researched methods of growing your business. You will emerge, not just with more knowledge, but with a stronger, more profitable business.
How to apply
If you would like to apply, please click on this link
AMI will only share the information you provide with the team of two researchers from MIT in order to select the firms for the programme. AMI will not share any record of your company name, your name, or any personal or contact information that can link you to the data you share with anyone outside the research team.
You will need the following information about your company. This information relates to the size of your business (in terms of revenue and headcount) and is needed to ensure that your business is eligible to participate in the programme:
- Your company’s revenue for last year and last month;
- What you estimate your company’s revenue will be for this year (2018);
- The number of full-time employees you had in January 2018 and the number of full-time employees you have now (December 2018);
- The number of part-time employees you had in January 2018 and the number of part-time employees you have now (December 2018)
*Applications will close at midnight on [TBD]
Learn more about AMI’s Grow Your Business programme here.
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