Wedding & event planner, Ireen Mutwale

Ireen Mutwale travels the world to get the best wedding ideas for her customers. As a wedding planner Ireen maintenance a good relationship with bride and groom and makes sure the big day runs smoothly. She also organizes events and runs several shops where she sells and rents out wedding dresses, wedding cakes, shoes, wedding cards, wedding decorations, chairs, tables and all you need for a beautiful African wedding. She  wanted to expand her business. Watch how Jacana guided her for 1 year.
The below video shows how Ireen started and what she wanted from Jacana (taken Sept 2015).
Expert Jeannette Biesbroeck

Jeannette Biesbroeck is an experienced wedding planner from the Netherlands. Jeannette traveled to Zambia and worked together with Ireen and exchanged experience. Jannette can see a great future for Fairy Tale wedding planners. Keep following Ireen here. Want to know more about the work of Jeannette Biesbroeck? Visit her website: http://www.dewareweddingplanner.nl.

Jeannette Biesbroeck and Ireen Mutwale both wedding planners

Guiding & Monitoring data

September 2015

  • Ireen finalized her Lean Canvas Model. She decided to focus on starting a new Branch in Livingstone. To test if people in Livingstone are interested in her service and shop she will put flyers at Livingstone Civic Centre. When in a month 4 people call her and 2 people make an appointment than this is a proof that people of Livingstone are interested in her business.
  • When Ireen opens another branch in Livingstone it is imported for her to control the financial books, because she needs to be updated about all the sells and items that are hired out in both shops. Jacana instructed the staff in how to use stock cards. 016StockCardTraining

October 2015

  • Jacana checked on how the stock cards are filled by Ireen’s staff.

November 2015

  • A plan was made for starting up her new Branch/shop in Livingstone.
  • Jacana checked what the basic computer skills of Ireen are.
  • Check finances if Ireen can employ an assistant in January 2016.

December 2015

  • Ireen’s finances were entered in the Jacana bookkeeping system. Rik explained Ireen how she can improve her financial data entry to get a better financial overview in the future.
  • Ireen got the opportunity to rent a new shop in a promising area in Lusaka. She decided to first open this shop and later open a shop in Livingstone. At the moment she is painting the shop. In this shop she has the opportunity to start a small hair and beauty saloon for the brides and bride maids.
  • A wedding planner from the Netherlands wants to guide Ireen for a few days in February. Ireen looks forward to this.
  • Ireen was interviewed, together with Rik and Dinie, on Pan African Radio. She explained about her business to motivate the youths from Zambia.

January 2016Ireen's 2nd Shop

  • January is always a quiet month for the wedding planning and event business. This gives Ireen the time to concentrate on her new shop in Lusaka. She decided that the main business in this shop will be beauty and hair saloon. She hired three more staff and a shop manager. In this shop she displays wedding dresses, groom suites and all kind of other materials for weddings. She guides people to her other shop when they are interested in the wedding business.
  • Ireen advertises through her facebook page: Fairy Tale Wedding Planners Lusaka,Zambia.

February 2016

  • Preparation for the Wedding Planner expert from the Netherlands.
  • On 26 and 27 February Jeannette Biesbroeck came to Lusaka to guide Ireen for two days. Together they visited a customer of Fairy Tale Wedding Planners and discussed a lot about the business as it is now and looked for opportunities for the future. Jeannette’s conclusion is that Ireen is far ahead of other wedding planners in her country. She believes that is the strength of Ireen’s business. Jeannette and Ireen made a plan how to go forward and Jacana will guide Ireen.expert

March 2016

  • Ireen and Rik started designing a website for Fairy Tale Wedding Planners.
  • Ireen discussed with Jeannette about Terms and Conditions and Contracts for her business. Jeannette gave Ireen some examples. Ireen is adjusting them to the African standards.

April 2016Fairy tale wedding planners web-site

 

 

May and June 2016

Fairy Tale Wedding planners started with 3 people staff, at the moment Ireen has 7 employees working for her.

July 2016

Ireen’s business is doing fine, especially in the dry season. A lot of people planned weddings and events during this period of the year.

August 2016

Jacana evaluated the last year with Ireen and you can see the results in the video at the top of this page.

Ireen MutwaleIreen, mother of two daughters, started 7 years ago with selling one wedding dress. At this moment she is director of Fairy Tales Wedding Planners and Events Hire in Lusaka and has four employees. Next year she wants to open a new branch in Livingstone. Ireen is eager to learn, that is why she attended the three day training in business, financial and marketing planning. Ireen is happy that Jacana selected her for the one year guidance. 016WeddingPlanExample2016WeddingPlanExample1 Example
 

Business plan

PROBLEMinfo

Not finding the correct design and size of the wedding dress Some people are very busy and need a wedding planner

SOLUTIONinfo

Custom made design from abroad Arrangement of wedding

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITIONinfo

Experience of seven years in Lusaka Good quality of goods and services Custom made design

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGEinfo

Experience Wedding carriage Good network abroad for custom made designs

CUSTOMERinfo

Those intending to get married in Livingstone and surrounding

EARLY ADOPTERS

Relatives and friends of the branch manager of Livingstone and old clients

KEY METRICSinfo

Monitoring sales Number of people referred to the shop by others

CHANNELSinfo

Word of mouth  Face book Flyer Old clients network

MOST CRITICAL ASSUMPTIONinfo

The market in Livingstone is big enough to start and sustain a new branch

TESTinfo

Put flyers at the civic center where people register for marriage for two months.         GO : Per month 4 people called and 2 Count the number of calls after leaving the flyers at civic center?                                               persons made an appointment.

COST STRUCTUREinfo

Cost of making flyers K 100 Cost of making flyers K 3

REVENUE STREAMSinfo

The same price as in Lusaka

Click here to learn how to read a Lean Canvas Business model.

Jacana will support Ireen during one year in:

  1. Business planning
  2. Implementing a stock keeping system
  3. Implementing a book keeping system
  4. Computer skills
  5. Management skills

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