N-Frnds, accessing business support services

N-Frnds provides cloud based cutting edge business and financial software solutions that are accessible and affordable to the 400 million MSMEs and 4 billion individuals who lack the resources to access the internet. Enabling them to use any mobile device and leapfrog directly into the cloud and access a wide range of useful software.

The N-Frnds platform provides end-to-end solutions to connect emerging market businesses and value chains at rates as low as $1 per user per month. The enterprise has been in operation since 2010 and in market since 2015, employing over 25 people and working with a number of partners.

In this interview, we speak to N-Frnds Director of Business Development Caylee Talpert about her experience of accessing Business Development Services and what additional services her enterprise could benefit from.

Have you accessed business development services while growing your business? If so, which?

We were selected and funded by Microsoft and the Microsoft 4Afrika fund, who provided us with great insights, introductions and ecosystem support and business development opportunities and skills. We were also selected by MasterCard to participate in their Start Path programme which was very helpful.

Did you find the support easily? How did you access the services you needed?

We are probably quite different to many inclusive businesses in that we have a founding team that are already experienced entrepreneurs with strong networks. In general, I think networks are exceptionally important.

Are there additional services that you need, as an inclusive business, that other SMEs and ‘business as usual’ don’t? Have you been able to find support in that area?

Yes there are a few areas of support that we feel we would benefit from.

1. Grant applications – as an inclusive business there are numerous grants relevant to us, this is quite time consuming and is not our team’s area of expertise and detracts from our focus on growing our business. Services to assist us in identifying and then applying for relevant grants would be hugely helpful and also allow us to focus on some of the more vulnerable and difficult to reach segments where grant support is necessary.
2. Impact Evaluation – relating to the above this is always a requirement, while we recognise the importance of this and believe our company is immensely impactful it would be useful to have someone help us define our impact and how best to measure it in line with requirements of impact investors and other funding bodies. We have collected strong analytics through our platform, but could certainly use support in collecting broader and more qualitative impact measurements.
3. Partnership development – Every time we attend a conference or networking event we meet amazing partners that have led to some very productive collaboration. Perhaps if there was a service dedicated to connecting potential partners in this field this could be incredibly helpful. For example – any business with broad customer bases/value chains such as agricultural companies, banks, health organizations, FMCG companies etc. could all greatly benefit from our platform. The list is endless so a service to help connect interested parties could be very helpful. 

Did you find any gaps in the services that you accessed? If so, have you been able to plug those gaps yet and if so, how?

Apart from the above, perhaps marketing services. As an inclusive business we have many diverse audiences – end users, partners, donors, investors, impact investors – we find this can be challenging in developing our marketing messages.

What advice would you give to other businesses looking for business development support?

Tap into existing services by networking as much as possible, signing up to all relevant newsletters, social media groups etc and make sure you are part of the dialogue.

This blog is part of the September 2016 series on Inclusive Business Development Services, in partnership with the Inclusive Business Accelerator. Don’t miss the whole series on support available to inclusive business from practitioners, donors and intermediaries including Afrilabs, DFID, Endeva, EY and many more…