Branches that buy groceries for their offices, old age homes and creches can also apply for support from the Homecare team. We focus our energy to help the branch directors as follow:
 

1. Is to help staff, the director and board members with their personal groceries and other important expenses

2. Help branches buy groceries for their different divisions

3. Provide funds for maintenance costs

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We already explained that groceries for staff members is a "personal" thing and the amount allocated to each person will be kept confidential. We will only reveal the total amount that we used to support staff nationally to the directors of the partnering branches.

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Groceries for branches

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We offer branches the opportunity to use our platform in order to save costs. There are branches that already receive a 5% discount when they purchase groceries from the Shoprite group. We can also offer the same discount from Shoprite, but we can furthermore offer discounts from the other food supplying companies.

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It might be that the branches can save more funds if they have more buying options. Remember that if you are only able to purchase products from Shoprite, then you cannot benefit out of special offerings from Pick n Pay. It might be that Pick n Pay offer an exceptional deal on milk to the public. This project will enable the branch to get the special at a 5% lower cost than what the public is paying.

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Deals negotiated with different groups

 

The Homecare team did not negotiate special deals with the food supplying companies. We use whatever their digital marketing teams offer to companies in general and we build software around their offers.

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We will only after we support 1 million people (wage earners etc.) ask for special support from food companies. We believe that we will break the 1 million target within 24 months after the Enjoy Life phone app is launched. Our intention is to share the discounts that we receive with our partners.

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We develop technology specifically to help wage earners. It might seem to be easy, but there are numerous things to take into account when you develop software aimed to help millions. For example, we need to manage data from different bank accounts, we need to incorporate e-mail servers, sms servers, bar-code servers, numerous different software platforms must all work simultaneously to help wage earners.

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It is a unique project, that will not necessarily work if Shoprite for example wants to do it on their own. The personnel of companies are the people who will indicate where they want to buy their groceries. We cannot foresee how one group will be able to entice all the wage earners so that they only support their branches.

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If we for example approach a manufacturing company to help its employees, we must enable the business owner to help his/her staff with their individual demands. One staff member might request to receive R500 digital vouchers for Shoprite, R200 for Pick n Pay and R400 for Spar. The total amount he/she wants to convert into digital vouchers = R1100. Another staff member might have different requests... can you imagine the requests from 900 different staff members?

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It is these new grounds that we break into that will change the destiny of child protection branches.

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The director also has two non-obligated options regarding office groceries:
 

1. To purchase groceries via the Homecare platform and keep the discounts that we receive. (We share it immediately)

2. ​To purchase groceries via the Homecare platform and donate the discounts towards the development costs of the Enjoy Life app. We explain the benefit of this donation in the next paragraph.

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Option 1)  Discounts we can immediately offer that we receive from food companies

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The current discounts we receive from food companies is as follow:

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Pick a Pay

• Orders between R0 and R25 000 = No discount

• Orders between R25 001 and R50 000 = 2.5% discount

• Orders above R50 001 = 5% discount

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Shoprite group (Shoprite, Checkers & USave) (Old)

• Orders between R0 - R2 500 = 2% discount

• Orders between R2 501 – R50 000 = 2.5% discount

• Orders above R50 001 = 5% discount

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Shoprite group (Shoprite, Checkers & USave) (After Steinhoff challenge)

• Orders between R0 and R9 999 = No discount

• Orders between R10 000 and R99 999 = 2% discount

• Orders between R100 000 – R499 999 = 3% discount

• Orders between R500 000 – R999 999 = 4% discount

• Orders above R1 000 000 = 5% discount

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Woolworths

• Orders between R20 000 – R500 000 = 2.5% discount

• Orders between R500 001 – R1 million = 3.75% discount

• Orders above R1 000 001 = 5% discount

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Spar

• Orders between R0 – R500 000 = No discount

• Orders above R500 001 = 3% discount

 

As mentioned, we did not push for any special deals. We will however one day use our muscle and negotiate with the food companies to offer at least 5% discount towards this important project. We are not concerned about the Woolworths target of R1 million before we get the 5% discount. All of the food companies already negotiated with will actually be easy to support in order to receive 5% discount. It is only with Spar that we will have to put pressure on their team. When we support 1 million phone users, these negotiations with Spar will occur.

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We also need to negotiate with other food supplying companies such as OVK and BKB which sell products in the rural areas (small towns). Remember that we use existing infrastructures provided by food companies. We are not sure if OVK or BKB offer gift cards to the public. We doubt it. We will update this page immediately when we expand the food company network.

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We need to convey to directors reading this page other important information about our strategy to work with food supplying companies. By now, you know about our business plan to help food companies reduce cash transit and cash deposit costs when they receive payments. We do not take the discounts on offer to benefit ourselves. We re-invest all their discounts back into the partnering food supplying companies. This is also part of our reason for changing our support strategy towards child protection organizations. Our strategy is to convince food supplying companies that we use all their discounts and re-invest it back into their stores.

 

Remember that the Homecare team has the ability to source additional funds that will also end-up into the food supplying companies’ bank accounts. We generate income out of beverage sales (funds from hospitality industry) and we use these funds to buy groceries for bedridden patients and staff of welfare organizations. It is money that otherwise would have remained in bank accounts of the hospitality industry. We also entice foreigners to donate their funds… money that otherwise would have remained abroad. We will in the near future send representatives abroad to negotiate millions from global relieve funds… WE ARE the food company’s best partners!

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We can unfortunately not immediately commit to OVK or BKB that the Homecare team can benefit their organizations. We do not have any idea of how many caretakers in their local areas will be supported. The media campaigns in future will invite all the caretakers nationally to register for financial support. We therefore decided not to ask ANY food supplying company for favors. We will only start with such negotiations at a later stage.

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We can however immediately support personnel residing in these small towns. We explain to these personnel via e-mails how we can support them.

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Directors that choose option 1 can immediately share in the current discount structure. In short, if you want to load a Pick n Pay gift card for your branch with R1 000 credit, you will only need to pay R950. The Homecare server will automatically increase the "Shortfall in payment" to provide the correct voucher values. You can mail pieter@homecare.org.za and mention that you select Option 1 should this be your decision.

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Option 2) Donate available discounts towards phone app development

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Directors that choose this option will in future be able to receive extra financial support from the Homecare group.

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At this point, the Homecare team work with numerous people in other industries as well. We already work with estate agents, financial advisors and other business owners who purchase digital vouchers while we prepare the last part of the Wage Payment Software to be ready for the market. This software is scheduled to be released on 31 July 2018.

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These people are all donating their discounts towards software development. The Homecare team is preparing to expand the IT development team. We need more people for the last phase of development, especially fro the period between August till December. We need to do stress tests on the Enjoy Life phone app etcetera.

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We will obviously appreciate as much cash-flow as possible for this important period ahead. One thing is important to know. The Homecare team must evaluate all the different options to complete its task. We need to support bedridden patients, child protection organizations and a small number of church communities.

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If we receive donations from child protection branches, we must ensure that we add value for those donations. Again, we do not know how many staff we will need to support. We know that 1 000 will be easy. The challenge will be to support 4 000 staff members. This might result that we could struggle to help child protection branches and their affiliates with their grocery bills. (We can only do this after we helped the personnel).

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Our proposal is that if a director decide to purchase the branch’s groceries via this project, and donate the discount towards IT development costs, we will then in future purchase the branch’s groceries on behalf of that branch, provided that we completed our pledge support towards staff.

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Our business plan is to raise R57 million per month, plus R122 million in pledges over a 3-month period from 950 000 people in our country. This will roughly enable us to allocate R30 million per month towards child protection organizations. It will be easy to support up to 3 000 personnel and also help up to 100 branches with their grocery spending. We earmark R3 million of the R30 million to support the 100 branches. We will find it difficult to complete all these tasks if we need to support 4 000 staff members. To support such a large number, we will be required to engage more people (up to 1.75 million), which is not impossible, but it still remains to be done.

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We will help the initial 1 000 personnel with their entire grocery budgets if we only work with the 950 000 people, and the rest of the personnel will only receive percentages of their groceries. We can only help branches with groceries after all the staff on our network received their entire grocery bills in vouchers.

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Again, we do not know how many staff will register, and furthermore, how many people in the wage sector as well as ordinary South Africans will use the Enjoy Life phone app… We expect millions on the Enjoy Life phone app, due to the fact that we will in future work with the entire tourism, and restaurant and fast-food industries. Their clientele will all be invited by the different business owners to download the FREE Enjoy Life phone app. These business owners will explain to their clients that the they would appreciate the public to use the important phone app. It enables business owners  to communicate with their clients. Business owners can also reach people visiting their catchment areas. The app will furthermore help business owners to receive honest feedback about poor service that their staff might have provided. All these important functions will actually push the Enjoy Life phone app onto millions of phones. In addition, it will be the best option for the public to get access to exceptional offers from restaurants and fast-food companies. 

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Our proposal is that if a director decides to donate the discount, that the director will receive a Pledge ID from Homecare team allotted to the specific branch. Our pledge is that if more than 2 000 staff members asked us to help them, that the Homecare Foundation will donate the discounts we received immediately to the branches who selected Option 2. It will be easy to help branches when we support less than 2 000 staff members. Branches with Homecare Pledge certificates will not need to use their own funds to pay for groceries.

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There might be 100 branches that select Option 2. We will provide up to 100 pledge certificates, again providing that we do not have to pledge our support towards more than 2 000 employees. The branches will receive support, based on their pledge ID’s listed on their certificates. The first ID will receive the first support. The last pledge ID that we issue will be supported last.

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The amount that the branch will receive in digital vouchers will be the average the branch used during the phone app development period. If branch with pledge ID 1 used to purchase R20 000 groceries per month via the project, then the Homecare team must work until we provide that branch with vouchers of R20 000 per month.

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You may wonder why the Homecare Board decided to publish this proposal? The reason for this is that we got involved with Child Protection organizations due to commitments that Bettie Nieuwoudt (Child Welfare Stellenbosch) made. We honestly did not know about all the different Non-Governmental organizations involved in child protection services during our first meetings with Child Welfare Stellenbosch. It was only after we completed our surveys that we got a better picture about all the challenges ahead.

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Our initial plan was to only develop the Enjoy Life phone app and use its’ income to fund caretakers. Bettie asked the Homecare team to share funds that we will generate via phone technology to help fund Child Welfare Stellenbosch. Her management team actually made a donation towards the Homecare Foundation in exchange for phone app support. There were also two other Child Welfare branches (Helderberg and Kraaifontein) who also followed her path. We already provided our pledges towards 3 Child Welfare branches.

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The Homecare team realized after completing surveys that we will have to do much more than relying on the Enjoy Life phone app alone to help all the child protection organizations. The additional pressure to help most likely thousands of social workers forced us to invest into the Wage Payment Software platform. We always look to be fair, and we want to be impartial towards different groups.

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To be able to reward the initial 3 branches that donated funds, we decided to offer branches pledge ID’s so that we can help these branches with additional funds, provided that we first completed our commitments towards staff from all the groups nationally.

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We also looked for strategies to help people without requiring these people to use their own funds. The best thing we could think of, was to implement a structure, where people can use funds of food companies to get phone technology in place to help themselves.

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You will receive an e-mail explaining all if you perhaps register yourself for financial support. You will read how you will be able to decide how much grocery support you require from us. If you need for example R3 000 per month, then we require you to purchase R3 000 worth of groceries per month via the gift-card structure. We only receive 5% of the R3 000 from the Food supplying companies, and this 5% is utilized to pay for development and other support until the Wage Payment Platform bring in enough funds to eventually pay your groceries. You will also read that if you want R3 000 support, but for certain reasons you can only buy R1 000 worth of groceries via the Digital platform, you receive the option to donate 5% of the R2 000 shortfall yourself. We will in future provide you with vouchers to the value of R3 000. We prefer that food companies donate, but we also want to help staff by offering the most convenience options to them.

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The same principal is on offer to the branch directors as well. The director might decide that the branch should donate a small amount per month (5% of what the director would like in future to be secured via digital vouchers for the branch), and we will in future then help the branch with the agreed cost structures. There is also branches that receive 30 days to pay their groceries via Shoprite and still receive the 5% discount... The problem is that Shoprite does not give discount to the personnel on an individual basis. The branch director might decide to purchase a percentage of the branch's groceries via Shoprite on the existing structure, and only purchase a percentage of groceries from the other partners via the Homecare platform. The branch can then donate a small amount per month in cash, just to build up the same points so that the branch will in future be able to receive enough funds via the Homecare structure to purchase groceries without their own funds.

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It does not matter HOW the branch donate.... and in future, the branch will be able to ask for vouchers shared amongst any of the Food companies.

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As explained, we will immediately stop taking in discount donations if we have to support more than 2 000 staff members. We will then rather immediately refund the branches their donations regarding the branches discount.

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We will however keep the Pledges in place, so that when we get into a financial position that we have enough funds to pay all the staff members their groceries, then we will re-activate the Pledge agreements. The result is that branches with lower pledge ID’s will first be inline for additional support. This is a unique option to receive huge financial support from the Homecare team.

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Financial support for maintenance costs

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Our last focus will be to support branches with these costs. This will obviously only be done after our Pledge Id’s regarding groceries has been fulfilled.

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We will only help branches in this regard, who received Pledge ID’s for groceries. The branch director can only expect from the Homecare team to help him/her all the way if the branch donated their discounts on groceries towards phone app development. Branches with Pledge ID's will be able to forward maintenance requests on a monthly basis and we will then pay funds into the branch's account out of our budgets.

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Branches that ask for immediate discount will only receive immediate discount and cannot apply for further financial assistance.

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If the Director want to apply for a Pledge ID with regards to grocery spending, the Director can e-mail pieter@homecare.org.za (Our chairman). Pieter will communicate with these directors about available Pledge ID's and will also update these directors should we exceed 2 000 pledges towards staff.

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Changes in support strategies

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It is important to know that the Homecare team spent a large number of hours on development strategies. Our initial plan was to  share funds with branches in 63 blocks. It was only after 1 month that we interacted with staff working at organizations that we realized the following: There are a number of staff that are seriously looking for other employment options... looking for other job opportunities.

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We think the biggest concern that the director has, is will the staff be available tomorrow for work?

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We realized that we cannot wait for the phone app to be functional before we provide support. Hence, we developed additional functions and support strategies to help rescue branches under stress.

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The initial plan also required the Board members to purchase groceries via the Digital Voucher platform, without receiving personal rewards. It was branch driven and we decided that the project should be individually driven. 

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You can, if you want to, read the initial distribution plan... The next page will take you into the initial plan. Although months was wasted on the initial plan,  it will not be implemented. We will now focus on the support strategy documented on this page that you have completed.

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If you are keen to join this important project, then you can read "The Way Forward".