From Twenty Hens to a Contract: Reading about Entrepreneurs and Business Development

1Before you read

1. Name a small business near your home. What need does it meet?
2. If you had 60,000 Frw to start a business, what would you do with it?
3. Predict: what is the most common reason a small business fails?

2Reading: Five Steps from an Idea

A feature article written by Ganzaa. Clarisse Uwera and her business are imagined, and the figures are illustrative. The facts about business registration and about Zipline come from the sources listed at the end of the lesson.

1 An entrepreneur is someone who sets up a business and takes the risk of losing money in the hope of making a profit. The word sounds grand, but most entrepreneurs start very small. What separates the ones who succeed from the ones who give up is rarely a brilliant idea. It is usually a habit of testing, measuring and learning at every step.

2 Spot a need. When Clarisse Uwera was nineteen, she noticed something about the boarding school near her home in Nyagatare. Its kitchen bought eggs from a trader in Kigali, and the eggs often arrived late, and some of them broken. The school needed eggs that were fresh, reliable and close by. That was a need, and a need is the beginning of every business.

3 Test small. Clarisse did not borrow a large sum. With 60,000 Frw of savings and a small loan from her aunt, she bought twenty laying hens and sold their eggs to neighbours and, after some persuading, to the school kitchen. She wrote every sale and every cost in an exercise book. After three months the book told her three things: people wanted her eggs, the hens ate more than she had expected, and her profit was very small. Testing small meant that her mistakes were small too.

4 Start properly. Clarisse then registered her business. In Rwanda, registration is done online, free of charge, and normally takes about six working hours. She opened an account at her sector's savings and credit cooperative (SACCO) and, for the first time, kept the business's money apart from her own. "That was the day it stopped being a hobby," she says.

5 Grow. Growth needs money, and money needs evidence. Because Clarisse could show the SACCO a year of records, it agreed to lend her enough to build a proper henhouse and buy 180 more hens. She hired two workers and paid a motorcycle taxi to deliver to three schools. Growth brought new problems: one wet season, a disease killed thirty hens in a week. Now she pays a vet to vaccinate every new bird.

6 Sustain and scale. Today Clarisse has year-long contracts with the schools, so she knows her income in advance. She puts part of each month's profit back into the business, and she has found a second product in what was once waste: the hens' manure, which local farmers buy as fertiliser. Her plan for next year is not more hens but a better market: hotels in the district.

7 Case study: a real idea that took off. Not every business starts with hens. Zipline, an American company, designs drones that deliver medical supplies. In October 2016, after an agreement with the Government of Rwanda, it began delivering blood by drone to rural health facilities from a distribution centre in Rwanda. A second Rwandan centre opened in 2018, and deliveries grew to include vaccines and medicines. The company later took the same service to Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and other countries, and by January 2026 its drones had completed more than two million commercial deliveries. Like Clarisse, Zipline tested its idea in one place, measured the results with a partner, and only then grew.

3Comprehension

1. According to paragraph 1, what separates entrepreneurs who succeed from those who give up?
2. What need did Clarisse notice at the school?
3. What three things did her exercise book tell her after three months?
4. Why does the writer say "Testing small meant that her mistakes were small too"?
5. Why did the SACCO agree to lend Clarisse money?
6. Explain the meaning of "That was the day it stopped being a hobby."
7. How does Clarisse turn waste into a second product?
8. Give three facts about Zipline's work in Rwanda, with dates.
9. What do Clarisse and Zipline have in common, according to paragraph 7? Do you agree that this is the key to success?

Show answersHide answers

1. A habit of testing, measuring and learning at every step, rather than a brilliant idea.
2. Its kitchen bought eggs from Kigali that often arrived late and some broken; it needed fresh, reliable eggs from nearby.
3. People wanted her eggs; the hens ate more than expected; her profit was very small.
4. Because she had spent little money, any errors (such as underestimating feed costs) cost her little and could be corrected.
5. Because she could show a year of records as evidence that the business worked.
6. Registering and separating the money made it a real business, with rules and accounts, not a pastime.
7. She sells the hens' manure to local farmers as fertiliser.
8. October 2016: began delivering blood by drone to rural health facilities, after an agreement with the Government of Rwanda; 2018: a second Rwandan centre opened; deliveries grew to include vaccines and medicines.
9. Both tested the idea in one place, measured the results and only then grew. Open answer for the opinion.

4Vocabulary: the language of business