After a week of planning, I was ready to travel to Kenya, Africa, to assist farmers who were part of a coffee co-operative. The average household in Kenya has eight to 10 people, and they’re all reliant on one acre of coffee beans to sustain them. My goal would be to provide my business acumen and mentorship directly to the co-operative board of farmers—who represented 5,500 other coffee bean farmers—so that they could get fair prices for their coffee. 

With eight years of EO membership under my belt and three years on the EO London chapter board, 
I was armed with all the best practices for what I was about to do. But I had no idea how challenging my week in Kenya would be and how many lives I was about to change for the better.

I got involved with this project through the Lorna Young Foundation of Entrepreneurs (LYFE). LYFE is not a charity; rather, it’s an entrepreneurial drive that’s by entrepreneurs and for entrepreneurs. Lorna Young was a woman who pioneered the selling of fair trade coffee to supermarkets. Fair trade was created to deliver farmers in developing countries a better price for their commodity crops through a more direct relationship with their consumers. LYFE matches successful entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial grower co-operatives across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Its objective is for entrepreneurs in the West to mentor farming co-operatives in the developing world and to offer peer-to-peer learning on how to better run their businesses.

In one week’s time, the Kenyan farmers and I mapped out a more effective business plan and strategized on how to make more money for their coffee beans. It's wasn’t going to be easy, but we made a lot of progress that week, and we’re continuing to make progress today. A friend from EO Singapore, who runs an accounting software company, has agreed to donate software to move the co-op away from paper-based accounting. We also met with coffee roasters in the UK about what would need to happen to buy direct. Additionally, a local college in Kenya is investigating how they can create a course on entrepreneurship and marketing.

I think I have learned more from the farmers than they have learned from me. I have discovered that when you take on a project like this, you have to go back to the business basics. You have to go outside of your comfort zone when you’re working with a different industry, culture, language, country and level of economic understanding. But doing so is completely rewarding. These farmers are happy people, even though their economic situation isn’t great. They’re ambitious and driven. They remind you how lucky you are to have what you have, and they remind you to appreciate your success.

Now, more than ever, is the time to give. If I had waited another five, 10 or 20 years—or after selling my business—that would have been time lost that I could have spent making a big impact on global poverty. A little help goes a long way, and I’m going to continue my involvement with LYFE while still running my own business. As entrepreneurs, we’re built to spot things that others can’t. We’re able to look at a shabby situation and spot the opportunities within it. We’re able to make a difference.

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If you are interested in learning more about LYFE, contact Brian Keegan.