# **<u>Appendix A: Business Training</u>**

The training includes a village assessment, four modules that cover key dimensions of the business and a business creation exercise (BCE) where participants identify, prepare, implement and close a micro business during the last day of training. The training combines field visits to markets, input suppliers and wholesalers, group work and one on one coaching and is designed for both literate and non-literate audiences.

## <u>Village Assessment</u>

A Village Assessment is a mapping of all infrastructure, utilities/amenities, population, resources and local institutions and organizations in the village. The goal is to determine the socio-economic status of the population, assess the local production of goods and services and identify potential businesses.

## <u>Module 1. The entrepreneur</u>

In this module, basic entrepreneurial competencies are defined. They include, for example the ability to take risks, to plan and set goals, to gather information for decision-making, to persuade and negotiate effectively, etc. Participants identify and assess personal competencies, and are provided tools to develop them.

## <u>Module 2. The project</u>

This module focused on how to identify businesses ideas and select the most viable one based on the village assessment and the qualities of the entrepreneur. The concepts of feasibility and the components of a business plan are introduced and participants are asked to develop one for their own business creation exercise to be implemented in the last day of training.

## <u>Module 3. Marketing</u>

In this module, participants visit a nearby market and are introduced to the 4-Ps (product, price, place and promotion). The importance of establishing links with wholesale buyers is discussed.

## <u>Module 4. Financial Management</u>

In this module, participants learn the importance of using receipts, and keeping records of all sales, purchases and expenses, inventory, debt and receivables. Participants are required to develop an accounting system for their own BCEs. With the example of interactive exercises, participants are introduced to the concept of a balance sheet and profit and loss statement. Participants realize that these statements are important to track business profitability.

## <u>Business Creation Exercise</u>

During the last day of training, participants apply the topics learned during the training by starting and closing a mini business of their choosing for a day. Through the BCE, participants are able to analyze their own competence for business, are required to generate a number of business ideas, choose one, assess its viability and assess their expected profit. They are given a small budget and have to cost their product/ service, and maintain record of sales and expenses.

# **<u>Appendix B: Variable definitions</u>**

# _<u>Baseline characteristics</u>_

# _<u>Individual</u>_

_Female_ is a dummy that equals 1 for women and 0 for men.

_Age_ is respondent’s age in years.

_Years of education_ is years of completed schooling, and is top-coded at 16. _Married,_ a dummy taking the value of 1 if member is married, 0 if single, divorced or widowed.

_Digital span recall_ reports the number of digits correctly recalled after being shown an eight digit number for 30 seconds.

35