There’s a version of business most people imagine when they hear the word: spreadsheets, invoices, barcodes, maybe a swivel chair, and some neat rows of numbers telling you what to do next.

That’s not the kind of business Denis ran.

Denis is 29 years old, the fifth of nine siblings—six boys, three girls—born into a big, tightly-knit family back in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). After completing his Senior Six studies, violence forced him and his parents to flee to Rwanda in 2013. They’ve lived together in Kigeme Refugee Camp ever since.

When Denis opened his shop in the camp in 2017, it wasn’t backed by a pitch deck or feasibility study. It was a move made out of necessity. Like many displaced people with limited access to formal employment, Denis turned to entrepreneurship because it was the only viable option.

To a casual observer, Denis seemed to be doing well. His shop was stocked. Customers came and went. But the books, if they existed at all, told a different story. Sales were frequent, but profits were elusive. What Denis had created wasn’t so much a commercial enterprise as a social institution: a space where needs were met, transactions were flexible, and structure was loose, almost ornamental.

“I had many clients,” Denis says, “but I didn’t know who had paid and who hadn’t. I sold everything on credit. I wasn’t even writing it down.”

If business is a game of margins, Denis was playing without a scoreboard.

Chapter 1: A Full Shop ≠ A Functional Business

Definition: Customer (n.) — Not a friend you do favors for but someone you serve with structure.
Before joining Inkomoko, Denis had what many entrepreneurs chase: a steady stream of customers. Yet despite the foot traffic, the cash drawer was empty.

“I thought the more clients I had, the better I was doing,” he explained. “But I wasn’t tracking credit. I didn’t even know how much I was losing. Eventually, I didn’t have the money to restock.”

This reflects a broader pattern. A 2021 World Bank study on microenterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa found that nearly 70% of losses weren’t about poor product-market fit, but weak financial systems—especially poor credit management.

In economic terms, this is a monitoring failure: a situation where performance becomes impossible to track due to the absence of clear feedback or metrics. This is why firms create performance-based incentives or enforce audit systems. But what happens when the owner is the system, and there’s no feedback loop at all? Denis, acting as both owner and operator, had no oversight mechanisms in place. Instinct filled the gaps where structure was missing. Over time, that instinct cost him.

CHAPTER 2: Write It Down or Watch It Disappear

Definition: Bookkeeping (n.) — The business architecture of accountability.

When Denis joined Inkomoko’s Training Cohort 5 in 2020, the first skill he adopted was deceptively simple: track everything. From then on, he recorded every transaction—however small—and began calculating daily profits.

“Now I write everything down,” he says. “Even small sales. I need to see how the money moves.”

This one shift reshaped the way he worked. He learned what sold quickly, which products brought real returns, and how much money was tied up in restocking. As a result, his average daily revenue doubled from 30,000–70,000 RWF to 100,000–150,000 RWF.

His understanding of cashflow improved too. He could now estimate how long capital would last and adjust operations accordingly. The business now serves 30 customers a day, is valued at approximately 5,000,000 RWF, and employs three young workers in the camp.

Research by MIT’s J-PAL Lab backs this up: microenterprises that adopt structured financial tracking typically see profits increase by 20% or more within a year. Denis didn’t need a study to see it. The proof was in his own books.

CHAPTER 3: Loans Only Work When You Know What To Do With Them

Definition: Capital (n.) — Fuel for the engine. Fuel for the engine. Without direction, it just burns out.

For many small business owners, access to capital is seen as the panacea (it is, in part). And while Denis certainly needed financial investment, what he lacked more was the ability to use it well.

His first loan from Inkomoko allowed him to stock strategically and refresh his store. But the real breakthrough came before the disbursement: during training. Inkomoko introduced him to tools like the Business Model Canvas, which helped him assess the business across multiple dimensions: value proposition, customer segments, cost structure, and revenue streams.

This mirrors insights from Nobel Laureate Bengt Holmström, whose work on contract theory emphasizes that information must come before incentives. In simple terms: a loan only works if the borrower understands the system they’re plugging into.

“The money helped,” Denis says, “but it was the learning that changed how I used it.”

Since then, Denis has grown his credit access to 1,000,000 RWF, thanks in part to the Jyambere program, which subsidizes half of each loan. His decisions are now grounded in data and planning, not guesswork.

Chapter 4: Business is Emotional, but Growth is Rational

Definition: Vision (n.) — What you plan to achieve with your profits.
With a working model in place, Denis began to plan long-term. He’s saving toward buying land and dreams of opening a restaurant and bar. These goals aren’t hypothetical—they’re budgeted, paced, and informed by his shop’s performance.

Bonus Tools in Denis’ Business Toolkit

Digital Commerce: Buys and sells online to reduce friction and reach more clients
Daily Record-keeping: Logs every sale, however small because unrecorded losses compound
Financial Separation: Keeps personal and business money separate to protect sustainability
Structured Credit: No more informal IOUs — now he receives stock on credit from wholesalers
Clear Expectations: Customers are informed, not indulged
Employment Creation: Three young people now earn their livelihoods from the shop he’s rebuilt

Denis talks about his business with clarity now. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers. But when markets, suppliers, or even customer preferences shift, he recalibrates. He has systems for that now.

Economist Ofer Azar, known for his work on behavioral economics, found that people tend to stick to good practices — even when no one is watching — if they truly understand the reasons behind them. Denis’s story brings that insight to life. No one is forcing him to keep ledgers or reevaluate his margins. He does it because once he knew better, he wanted to do better.