Sucasa
Case Studies – Video Gaming
Didyne Dufatanye
Entrepreneur
Didyne knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur even when he was studying pharmacy at Rwanda University. His first venture was reselling mobile phones, before moving into videogaming in 2013 with, Sucasa, which rents the latest games and consoles by the hour.
Vidya Kotamraju
Consultant
Vidya is product manager for Dominion Enterprises in Vancouver, Canada, which specialises in online solutions for the recreational marine industry. She came across Grow Movement while studying Strategy, Innovation and Leadership at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. “What I really liked about the programme was how it was using technology to solve business problems. I really related to Didyne’s project—the domain interested me as I have a background in videogame development, and I felt I could help him.”
Business challenges and objectives of the project
Didyne’s main challenges were keeping on top of the general management of the business as a lone entrepreneur and working capital. As his margins were low, he found it hard to make enough money to reinvest in the business to maintain and upgrade his supply of games to keep customers interested.
Vidya worked with Didyne on a SWOT analysis of the business and its direction. By creating some simple document templates Vidya was also able to help Didyne keep better records of cashflow and monitor trends in the business. “With better structured record keeping we could estimate the profit margins on a monthly basis and figure out where to use that money and what to get out of it,” she says. With better information and control of the business Didyne was able to better organise staffing around times of peak demand, and also set aside enough for a small advertising budget to create flyers and promote the business.
One thing that came out of the analysis was the need for partners – to identify gaming suppliers who would be interested in supplying Sucasa on a more consistent basis and also complementary businesses that could work alongside it. Supplying food and drink to customers seemed like the way forward and Didyne has now initiated a partnership with a popcorn seller and plans to look for more partners.
The Results
In the short term Didyne has found a number of ways to improve the margin on his margins, through advertising, partnering and better use of staff. He has created one job – popcorn maker – and seen profits rise by 50%. Now he is working to fund the purchase of new machines from revenues without borrowing, and then to expand the Sucasa brand into more locations.
The Impact on Didyne
“I had always planned to expand, to have many computers in other places, but it was only thoughts, a vision. The challenge now is to build a great team.”
The Impact on Vidya
“I gained a great deal of satisfaction being able to use my experience and knowledge to help someone build a better business and a better life. It was also very personally satisfying to speak with Didyne on a regular basis and get to know about each other’s lives, to connect to a person from a whole different country that I would probably never go to.”
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