HOW CAN A MICRO-ENTREPRENEUR BECOME A SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR?

The Story of a Social Entrepreneur

Ahmed Aiyoun is a young man from Minia, Egypt, who benefited from PPI- People Power Inclusion‘s expertise in supporting entrepreneurship. SAGE – Sustainable Accelerated Growth in Egypt is a European Union funded program managed and operated by a joint venture between CEOSS – Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services and PPI.

Ahmed Aiyoun decided to become self-employed through an innovative idea. He built a micro-coffee shop on an old bicycle that offers almost all kinds of coffee in addition to other drinks manually. The bicycle had a tank for water that is filled every day before moving to Taha Hussein, the commercial, strategic street where he reaches potential customers.

He branded also the idea with his name Aiyoun, which means (Eyes) and the logo is an eye, with a coffee bean iris. The coffee and other drinks are unique as Aiyoun customizes each coffee cup to include the name of the customer. He started to sell to most of the shops in the area and pedestrians who became frequent customers marketed by Ahmed’s smile and his natural welcoming.

And the story did not end here.

The micro-business has grown not only in terms of revenues but also Ayioun’s happiness and pride. Ahmed is now running his new project, a tricycle with modernized equipment to enhance the quantity and quality of hot and cold drinks.

Ahmed’s idea created new job opportunities as he rented his old bicycle and still thinking of replicating several bicycles-coffee-on-the-move ready to produce a wide range of drinks through sharing the business model with a social contract to run an innovative micro-franchising, promoting social entrepreneurship in Minia and other governorates.

Moreover, Ahmed is working on franchising his micro-business to other potential entrepreneurs, promoting social entrepreneurship. This is where PPI’s support has a multiplier effect: from supporting one micro-entrepreneur to enabling large-scale job creation.

« To succeed, the objectives are more important than the ideas », additionally exchange of experiences and best practices » – Ahmed Aiyoun

Ahmed Aiyoun is not the only entrepreneur to know such a success thanks to SAGE project since it supports a wider range of innovative social entrepreneurs and businesses.

The program aims at improving the quality of life through various Business Development Services, including micro franchise models, an e-learning platform/mobile app and vouchers system to support 60 micro-social enterprises, through training, workshops, field visits and capacity building of 12 NGOs operating in the targeted governorates of Beni-Suef, Minia and Sohag. The program also enhances the employability of 1000 unemployed youth, with a focus on women through administrative and vocational training.

« This is not all, we have visible beneficiaries, like Ahmed, but we also have two types of invisible beneficiaries to maximize our social impact: the 12 NGOs that we train in the field, and the future entrepreneurs that will benefit from the micro-franchises we contribute to set up.” – Haidi Tariq