Case : Janets Experience Janet has a small farm and her husband works in a nearby mine, but even though both of them have jobs, they do not earn enough money to pay for their childrens education. Janet decides to try and start her own business by rearing chickens to sell. She knows how to do it and her uncle gives her a loan of $400 to start the business. However, before she buys the chicks, someone tells her that there is a huge demand for sunflower oil because of its lack of availability in the market. Traders are knocking on the doors of local farmers asking them to produce it. Thinking she can earn a lot more money from pressing sunflower seeds for oil, Janet changes her business idea and starts an oil pressing venture. Janet has never grown a large quantity of sunflowers. She spends all the money from the loan to buy seeds, fertilizer and the oil pressing equipment. Since she uses most of the family farmland to grow sunflowers, there is less land to grow maize and vegetables for the family to eat. The chemicals from the fertilizer begin to make her children sick. She now has to buy more food for the family. It takes a lot of time and effort to process the oil, so, Janet has to employ someone to help her. A lot of other farmers have started growing sunflower seeds too. Therefore, by the time her oil is ready to sell, the market is already saturated with the good and Janet cannot find a buyer. To reduce her losses, Janet has to sell the oil at a very low price to a local shop. As a result, Janet makes very little money and she is not able to pay back the loan. Reflection question: What is wrong with Janets business idea? Why? Case : Lilys Experience Lily had been working in the assembly line of a garment factory for more than five years. Her salary was low and she was often required to work overtime. Lilys sister-in-law came to visit her and complained to Lily that she was unable to find any good clothes for her 12 year-old daughter. She said that the clothes in the stores all seem to be either made for younger children or for adults. After the visit, Lily decided to go around to the clothing shops in her town. She saw young teenage girls shopping in the stores, but she noticed that the number and variety of clothes geared to that age group was limited. She had already been thinking of quitting her job and opening her own business. Therefore, Lily decides to design some pretty clothes and dresses for young teenage girls. She makes some drawings of clothing that would appeal to that age group. She then takes her drawings to the local clothing shops, asking the owners if they would buy the dresses in the drawings, how much they would pay for them and how many they would buy. The shop owners seemed to be quite happy with her designs and said they would display her clothes. Lily then uses her savings to buy a sewing machine and some material to make her first batch. She works in the evening after getting off from work at the garment factory. All of the dresses she makes sell very well and the shops are willing to pay her in cash upon delivery. Lily then decides to quit her job to focus on her own business. Within six months, Lily starts receiving regular orders from the shops. She plans to buy one more sewing machine and hire one of her friends to work for her. Reflection question: Why is Lily successful in her own business? What did she do that made her successful?