Coaching sessions continue from Tangier to Casablanca. EL JADIDA

Yesterday, we held the second day of trainings in Tangier. This time I was giving a coaching session on marketing and social media. I prepared an interactive session in which the participants had to create a logo, slogan for their company, find key words for SEO and learn how to use and choose hashtag words. There was also an introduction to the latest applications such as snapchat. It was very obvious during the training sessions that there was a generational gap amongst the future entrepreneurs. The young Moroccan ladies in their twenties ready to develop their startups and the older generation in their forties who run existing enterprises. The clash was very obvious amongst the believers of the power of social media as a marketing tool and the non believers. Yet I managed to convince the trainers/coaches of ANAPEC to utilise social media to reach out to their audience.

After another lovely French lunch in Hotel Farah Tangier we headed out to Casablanca. It was a 4,5 hour drive. We had quite some traffic on the way. Chahine Majoub (Senior Manager of APEFEASBL Morocco) and I had a longgg conversation on the road. It is fantastic to experience a culture, a country this way. These missions are a learning experience for me as well. The female Moroccan entrepreneurs, the members of AFEM and passionate, professionals such as Chahine Majoub inspire me to even do better.

Morocco is really growing on me. I am starting to feel as if Morocco is a better version of France. Not only the climate is better but the openness of the Moroccan people is very charming. The willingness of the young generation to develop to become something is fantastic to experience.

Today, this Friday we left early in the morning for another 120 Km to El JADIDA. A town outside of Casablanca in the province of El Jadida. Due to circumstances, the coaching began much later in the day and so I adapted the entire schedule. We had a full day of business model planning and marketing. We managed to crush 2 days of training into 1. The candidates were extra ordinary. One woman is developing custom made carpets through local cooperatives. Another woman is developing a secure toy start up company and developing a master franchise for children education. One is opening a psychology consult in office. Another young woman owned a language institute. Amongst the existing entrepreneurs was a hotel owner, a metal company owner and a consulting firm QSE. All of the women had 1 or more masters or MBA. Big Bravo to all of them! I will be posting later links to their companies for all of you to like & hopefully support! Inshallah

Finally we have made it back from EL JADIDA! Chahine Majoub gets to spend time with his children as we have been traveling together for a week. It’s a three day weekend so you won’t hear me complaining. :)

Francine Carron January 8, 2016

Day 1: The art of entrepreneurship

At 9 AM the coaching session was planned to start. Chahine Majoub from APEFE, already told me yesterday that the participants will arrive late. So most people arrived by 09:45 to 10:30. I was quite nervous for this day as I had been preparing the training materials for days last week in Antwerp. I wanted to present a training session that covered how to develop your business plan in a very basic way including all aspects of entrepreneurship. The easiest universal tool is business model canvas by Osterwalder. I pulled information from everywhere including what we already produced at microStart and developed a full training including what to do if your business is declining.

I was nervous as it is difficult to entertain people for eight hours long. On top of that the trainings are in French. I speak the language fluently but I do have a Flemish/English accent which I am conscious about. Inshallah (adapting to the situation) my coaching went well and the participants thought I had a Canadian accent.

The participants were very interesting and young. Many of them in their early twenties and all master students. 1 wanted to start a window company, 1 a contemporary pret a porter line, 1 a marketing company for events, 1 a public construction company, 1 a digital archiving company… They all had very diverse ideas and definitely potential. At the end of the seminar they all had to pitch their businessplan to each other. I am very honoured that I have the opportunity to coach them! & Inshallah again hopefully they liked it. Actually I hope my coaching was on point as my outfit today.