From over thirty potential business owners attending Phase 1 in February, 2009, we had ten who submitted market research plans. This is the largest group we have had for Phase 2 (“Building the Business Plan”). All ten of these were invited to attend “Phase 2” training in May. During this phase of training and development we take the market research submitted by the business owners and translate them into a three-year business plan, represented in a complex spreadsheet developed by the parent ministry, Breakthrough to People Network (www.btpn.org). This is a challenging task for both the trainers and especially for the business owners, because each assumption, each price, each sales volume, is challenged and put in context of the actual business environment in which they will be operating. These candidates are from a wider geographical area than we have seen before, including Braila, Galbiori, and Cobadin.
The candidates who were funded are as follows:
Ciornei Doru
Goat milk products
(Braila)
Ciprian Toldea
Convenience food store
(Cobadin)
Nicu Catruna
Vegetable greenhouse
(Galbiori)
Silvia Miron
Children’s clothing store
(Navodari)
Raluca Valgea,
Simona Marin,
Ema Aigbombe
Custom greeting cards
Daniela Colu
Children’s clothing store
(Navodari)
Silviu Mosman
Event filming
(Navodari)
Neagu Socol
Custom furniture mfg.
(Constanta)
In addition, we are working with two additional possible businesses that initially did not meet our funding guidelines to bring their
projects within these guidelines and have a viable b
usiness plan:
Nelu Rosu Tourist cabins Corbu
V. Stanescu Sports field Navodari
As you might notice, we have a wide variety of business types this year, which is exciting to us. The businesses were evaluated on several criteria, including “Recession Resistance,” strength of the Kingdom Impact, perceived Viability, and the “Strategic Impact,” which is the team’s perception of the business’ potential effect for the Kingdom of God on the community it seeks to reach. We also required the pastor of the owner’s church to support the business owner by writing a letter of recommendation for them.
We are praising God for His “just-in-time” and “just-enough” provision for these projects, and for His protection over us during our October missions to Romania and Moldova.