Business modelling

What we do

Business modelling shows whether a business can work, and what it needs to grow. We build a model of a business's unit costs, margins and break-even point, using its real numbers. We have done this for businesses of many kinds, from fish ponds and hatcheries to compost producers.

A model also shows where a business sources, who it employs and who it sells to. That lets us see the jobs it can create, the finance it needs and the risks that could stop it, and helps us choose businesses that supply nutritious foods and give women and young people fair jobs.

The models feed our other work. The AgFin Solutions Lab uses them to prepare bank-ready cases, and the Market Ready Jobs Pathway uses them to build youth businesses that supply processors. Our approach is the foundation of GIZ's AgFin methodology, which our team developed with GIZ.

Business modelling in practice

Three ways we use models: to understand a market, to plan a business, and to test whether a product is worth making.

Insight

Aquaculture, Malawi

We modelled four types of fish farm and hatchery for women farmers, working with 161 stakeholders across eight districts. Each model rests on what farmers, hatcheries, buyers and lenders told us.

Planning

Youth employment, GIZ

A five-step method to find and promote business models that young people can run, tested in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique. We have built many models since, for businesses young people run and for processors that buy from them.

Feasibility

Models for processors

We modelled products a processor could make and sell: chilli powder for export, birds eye chilli powder for the local market, chilli sauce and mango atchar, and cassava flour in Malawi. Each model compares costs, price and margin, so the processor can see whether a product is worth making before it invests.