Chrys opened a small internet café less than a month ago on one of the local college campuses, with hopes of filling a niche for students who – at a rapidly growing pace here – are going on line.  She did a preliminary survey on this campus and discovered that about 30% of the students already own a computer (desktop or laptop), and the majority of them are either on Facebook and email or are trying to get there.  While there were originally a couple of additional Zambian friends who were supposed to invest, those arrangements fell through but Chrys – undaunted – underwrote construction, negotiated placement on the campus, and brought her dear friend and neighbor, Marjory, on board to partner in the venture. Marjory’s family (5 kids and assorted nephews and nieces) are active staff at the café – and they are all making it work.

The café is open from early morning until 11pm each day, selling not only internet connection at eight stations, but offering wireless connection (students can buy time and work from their dorm rooms – the café is in a courtyard surrounded by the dorm complexes), “Talk Time” (cellular minutes you buy in various increments), typing service, printing and photocopying, and a wide variety of popular snacks and drinks.  The really cool thing is that the connection Chrys has is THE fastest in Zambia! She made the choice to invest in the speed and bandwidth no one else (at least to her knowledge and experience) has…and this is a real selling point when you try to do anything online elsewhere.  The challenge now is to get the word out about just HOW fast this is and use it as a major draw to bring customers in. 

While I am here I am trying to lend a hand at how best to market the café and build the customer base…so we’ve done a few things already: 

• I put together a half page flyer that is being used to get the word out all over campus and at other campuses about the café and all the offerings.
• Chrys engaged the help of a young man (Ja) – the nephew of a co-worker – to do the “feet on the street” marketing…he’s taking the flyers, coupons for some trial minutes, and a big smile all over the campus and to other schools in the area, and talking it up.  I just heard from Chrys that after one day the effort is paying off – some students from another campus came by today to check things out!
• Together we’ve been doing cost/revenue analysis to see which services and products are most profitable, and which may not be worth the effort.  Talk Time is really just a “value add” service and can only be sold at cost – but it sure brings people in to at least take a look around and be enticed to try out the speedy connect.

We’re brainstorming regularly on new ways to get prospective customers in for a trial run, figuring out how to allow more space for overflow customers to plug in their own laptops, etc.  Chrys’ biggest challenge (aside from getting the café to profitability) is educating Marjory about business in general.  The concepts of investing in a business for later returns, marketing overall (versus “we build and they will come”), and overall cash management are new for her. She is totally dedicated to this venture and works endless hours with her family.  I believe that in time it will all work out.  I am hoping by the time I leave in a few weeks that there will be nice gains in customer traffic and a smile on Chrys’s face!

NEWS FLASH!!!  Today (the day after I wrote this entry) the customer traffic in the café really picked up!  There apparently were more students coming by to try out the service and using their laptops on wireless…Ja’s marketing is already working – and Chrys went to bed happier than I have seen her yet.  Good blessings.

Cheers!