The Good Money Habits (GMH) App and Videos

PART 1: THE VIDEOS AT A GLANCE … WITH SOME SAMPLES

PART 2: HOW TO NAVIGATE THE APP AND VIDEOS – AND GET HELP

PART 3: BACKGROUND TO THE ‘GOOD MONEY HABITS’ PROJECT AND RESEARCH

PART 1: The Good Money Habits videos at a glance – with some samples

The Good Money Habits Videos comprise 15 short (3-5 minute) training videos on practical, day-to-day money management for informal micro-enterprises that mainly operate in townships, villages and rural areas in South Africa. It is about the do’s and don’ts of running a business.

The videos are available for free in the Good Money Habits App, available at the Google Play Store (for Android cellphones). The videos help managers adopt good habits so that they do not mix money, can see the business finances better, understand business performance and money flows better, avoid money hazards and leakages – and manage better. The videos also explain the different types of costs and how to control them.

Users will learn a simple method to regularly record income and expenses – and calculate profit properly – without having to do complex bookkeeping or accounting statements. This will help them to manage better, grow the business, make more money and create jobs. With such basic financial records they will also be better equipped to talk to a bank manager about banking services and business loans, e.g. to get better business premises.

A conversation…

Within the GMH App, the training videos are carefully structured in a gradual learning sequence. They are accompanied by interactive text – a “conversation” with the user – in which the user inserts brief responses to questions in the App. A few questions are asked before and after each video.

The questions help the business manager to self-identify current habits and potential problems related to the topic of the video. Having then watched the video, the questions help the manager to identify desired changes.

These questions help to empower managers to implement improved practical ways of handling money, revenue and costs. The objective is that they improve their business operations, make more money, grow the business, create employment, become more robust, and so forth.

Illustrative screen grabs from the GMH App

HAVE A PEEK AT SOME VIDEOS IN THE GOOD MONEY HABITS APP

The GMH videos come in a modern, visual package: attractive, punchy, lively, in plain language, no complex jargon, very accessible – not standard accounting videos.

They use animations, lively graphics, enactments in shops, on-site filming in townships, cashbook writing demos … and a persuasive narrator called Sammy.

GMH YouTube Home

Users will receive all 15 videos in a single download within the GMH app. Once the app has been downloaded, users can use it and watch offline.

GMH Video 1: Why Good Money Habits (Extract)

GMH Video 4: The Separation Rule (Extract)

GMH Video 15: Culmination – Combining all the tables (Extract)

For a full list of the 15 videos and topics, see Part 3.

ORIGIN OF THE GOOD MONEY HABITS VIDEOS

The GMH Videos and App are the outcome of a larger project to help micro-enterprises to be more robust, to make more money, to grow and to create employment. It is based on extensive research on the informal sector in South Africa since 2016. It aims to help businesspeople change their behaviour (= habits) for the better – not to teach formal bookkeeping.

Being free and cellphone-based, the GMH Videos App provide a scalable training method: the app and videos can be easily distributed to large numbers of businesses in townships, villages and rural areas.

The GMH Project is based at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State, South Africa.

For user information and tips on how to navigate and control the app and videos, see Part 2.
For more background on the Good Money Habits Research Project, as well as a list of the videos and topics, see Part 3.

PART 2: How to Navigate the App and Videos - and Get Help

This section provides user information and practical tips for utilising the series of 15 short, accessible, plain-language training videos on Good Money Habits – which are made available, for free, in an Android app.

The videos are intended for the owners and managers of micro-enterprises, mostly informal, operating in townships, villages and rural areas in South Africa.

You will also find practical information on downloading and operating the GMH App and on watching and navigating the embedded GMH Videos.

For more background on the Good Money Habits Project, as well as a list of the videos and topics, see Part 3.

1. Downloading The GMH App: Tips and Instructions

To promote maximum take-up and benefits to the user, the videos are made available in a customised Android App. The App can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store – look for the GMH Logo. The download comprises the entire app with all 15 videos.

• The videos have been compressed significantly to limit the size of the app when downloading it to a cellphone.
• The videos can only be watched within the app.

Once downloaded, the app and videos can be used offline. This makes provision for interrupted or weak internet connectivity in township areas. However, your cellphone needs to connect to the internet from time to time to communicate with the GMH database at the UFS.

Take it to a WIFI hotspot periodically to avoid any problems.

2. Operating the GMH App: tips and instructions

App interactivity and navigation

The App adds value to the videos by providing interactive material. The interactive element – a ‘conversation’ with the business owner – enhances the user experience, guides the user through the videos and helps the user to get maximum benefit from the videos.

Before and after each video, the user will find some questions on business practices related to the topic of the video. These questions engage with the current money practices of the user. They help users to assess their own money management habits as well a desired changes and subsequent progress.

The app is coded so that the first time you go through the app and videos, you have to respond to all the questions of a particular video before proceeding to the next video.

This is to help you, the user, to clearly identify how you currently manage money and how it can be improved.

This is to ensure that you get maximum benefit from watching a particular video – and be able to start to implement some of the new things you learned, step by step.

The app will remind the user when a question has been skipped or not answered. Please go back to that question and insert your response. It will help you to better understand that part of the material.

Once you have responded to all the questions for a specific video, you are done with that set of questions (you cannot – and need not – go back to them).

IMPORTANT: you can go back anytime to previously watched VIDEOS and re-watch them as many times as you want!

This means: the first time you work through the app, you cannot jump forward, out of sequence, to a new video. You have to watch the videos in sequence – and respond to all the questions of a particular video – before you can proceed to the following video.

But: after completing all the videos (and their questions) the first time, you are free to watch any or all of the videos as many times as you want – with no restrictions and not having to answer questions again. (See Navigation Tip C below).

3. Practical Video Navigation Tips

How do I STOP (PAUSE) the video to take a break or to check something, e.g. a numbers table?

How do I move backwards (or forward) while IN a video?

How do I jump TO a previously-watched video?

Once you have watched some or all videos (and responded to their questions), you are free to return to any of them to watch them again without having to answer the questions again.
 

The first time you go to a video you have to respond to all the questions of that video.

After that, you are free to watch any or all of the videos as many times as you want.

4. Enjoying the App:  Earning Rewards 

5. Getting Help

How can I get help if I have trouble downloading or operating the app or watching the videos?

PART 3: The Good Money Habits Project for Informal Micro-Enterprises

‘Towards employment growth in the informal sector’

The dedicated project that has led to the production of the Good Money Habits Videos and App was initiated at the UFS in early 2021. However, it is the outcome of a prior research project (the ISEP project) initiated by the project leader in 2013 as part of co-managing a larger research project (the REDI3x3 project) based at SALDRU at the University of Cape Town from 2012 to 2018. The latter project was funded by the National Treasury.

1. Project Objectives 

• To promote micro-enterprise robustness and employment creation by providing cellphone-based financial and managerial upskilling to informal business owners in townships in South Africa.
• To research the impact of cellphone-based videos about good financial habits on management practices, profitability/survival, and job creation of informal micro-enterprises, including the optimisation, viability, and scalability of such methods.

Specific aims of the Good Money Habits project

• To move beyond research and measurement to piloting an intervention.
• To upskill owners of substantive micro-businesses in townships to enable them to manage their finances, grow their businesses, get bank loans, get better premises and create employment in townships.
• Putting them on a new pathway where they could develop into stronger and, eventually, perhaps formalised SMMEs. 

2. The Lead-up: Two Research Phases Identify the Main Needs

Initial research on a national level 2012-2018 

Key facts from informal-sector research using data from Statistics South Africa: 

There are more than 2 million informal micro-enterprises in South Africa. Their role and impact are substantial:

• One in 5 working persons in South Africa work in these enterprises (the informal sector).
• Up to 20% (400 000) are “substantive enterprises” that have paid employees, a fixed structure (kiosk, etc.) and display a business name.
• Their total paid employment (owners included) = 1.1 million, which is almost three times the total employment of the formal mining sector. 

These business owners mostly have normal long-term growth and job creation objectives.

• They are not “merely survivalist”
• BUT: Due to the size, skills and capacity of most of these enterprises, they are outside the scope of standard SMME support.
• They also lack access to financial services (i.e. financial exclusion). AND:
• They get little or no government support. (Not being “registered”, they usually do not qualify to benefit from relevant policies.)
  

For more information on this research and further reading resources, see section 8 below.

Preparatory investigations at township level 2021-2022

• A UFS Centre for Development Support household and business census in Rammulotsi township, adjacent to Viljoenskroon (Northern Free State), followed by
• Face-to-face engagements with the owners of ‘substantive businesses’ (i.e. those with paid employees) on their real needs and situation.

The needs identified indicate the urgency of two high-impact intervention areas. These correspond to the findings from national research: 

• FIRST MAIN NEED: Basic skills in financial management/bookkeeping – keeping track of “money in, money out”.  This is connected to their need to access banking services, finance/loans, etc.*
• SECOND MAIN NEED: Suitable, well-located, well-serviced and safe business premises, whether brick-and-mortar, or e.g. converted shipping containers – and obtaining financing for that. 
  

(* It is expected that having good money habits and basic financial records will make it easier to get bank loans for premises and other business needs.)

3. Tackling the First Need: The Video and App Project

Most training initiatives for micro- and small enterprises in South Africa comprise face-to-face lectures, group sessions, etc. While these are presumably useful and effective, the logistical, staff and time requirements imply that they are not scalable enough to reach the millions of enterprises scattered across hundreds of townships. In any case, the time availability of township business owners is a real constraint.

Accordingly, a decision was made to develop cellphone-based methods, which provide flexible access to users 24 hours per day. Moreover, there is high personal use of cellphones, apps and videos by township residents and business owners, including the youth. 

In addition, business training courses and videos (e.g., those of government departments) tend to focus on formal bookkeeping systems and financial statements. These do not necessarily connect well with the day-to-day challenges (and financial skills) of informal business owners. 

Accordingly, a decision was made to (a) embrace accessibility and plain language and (b) focus on offering an intuitive understanding of practical, day-to-day money management in a micro-enterprise.

The result?

4. The Videos: Good Money Habits (GMH)

A series of short, accessible, plain-language training videos on  Good Money Habits, made available in an accessible way in an Android app.

• Scope: 15 short (3-5 minute) training videos.
• Conceived and scripted by Frederick Fourie and produced by the then-named IdeasLab (a professional video unit in the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the UFS) at UFS cost.
• The videos are housed, managed and maintained at the Centre for Development Support (CDS) at the UFS.
  

Method of delivery: Not talking-head lectures, but cellphone-based short videos that business owners can watch at a convenient time and as frequently as they want.

• They are made available for free in an Android app, which was conceived and scripted by Frederick Fourie and developed in conjunction with coders in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Figures (ICDF) at the UFS (at UFS cost).
• The app and videos can be used online or offline to allow for interrupted connectivity in township areas (see below).
  

Video style and approach

• It is a modern visual package that is attractive and effective, straight-talking, punchy, snappy and lively.
• In plain language, no complex jargon.
• The videos are very appealing in style – not standard accounting videos at all. They aim to change behaviour (= HABITS), not to teach formal bookkeeping. (Note: The content has been vetted by a senior accounting lecturer with a CA qualification.)
  

The videos use

• animations and lively graphics,
• enactments in shops,
• on-site filming at township enterprises,
• cash-book writing demonstrations and a persuasive narrator called Sammy
  

Testing the videos and the app

A concept presentation, using PowerPoint, was tested with about 40 township business owners in 2023. Owner testimonials a few months after the trial presentation:

• “I was selling food. My problem was poor management, there was no growth in my business. I had a lot of debts. But now I can smile – I’m excellent in financial management skills! I have started to see my profit after many years of selling. My business has grown very much. Thank you for sharing with us that treasure!!!” (food business owner).
• “I have not been recording my business finances since the start of my business. The financial training helped me, and I have improved a lot – I can now separate household and business money” (upholstery business owner).
  

The final app and videos were also tested with regard to operational and educational aspects with a group of Rammulotsi business owners in January 2025.

5. List of Videos and Topics – and Excerpts

Part 1. BASICS: Why Good Money Habits – and the Separation Rule

• Video 1: Introduction – Why good money habits?
• Video 2: Making a profit – and not a loss.
• Video 3: Profit in good & bad weeks: Good decisions & avoiding losses.
• Video 4: The Separation Rule* – most important for hazard avoidance.
  

(*Keep the money of the business and the household separate)

Part 2. Managing money inflows

• Video 5: Daily steps to count Money Inflows correctly – and avoid financial hazards.
• Video 6: More hazards when counting daily money inflows.
• Video 7: Correcting daily calculations of money inflows for purchases and hazards.
• Video 8: Examples – Using transaction values to calculate money inflows for a day and week.
  

Part 3. Managing money outflows

• Video 9: Correctly counting and recording Money Outflows: Variable costs versus Fixed costs.
• Video 10: Money outflows: Correctly counting and recording stock purchases and other variable costs.
• Video 11: More money outflows: Fixed costs/ Monthly basic costs / Overhead costs.
  

Part 4. Managing profits and the risk of customer credit

• Video 12: Calculating Profit correctly.
• Video 13: Must I use gross profit or net profit for management purposes?
• Video 14: The risk of consumer credit - another hazard.
• Video 15: Revenue, costs and profits – a complete weekly example with numbers.
  

6. The App: The Good Money Habits (GMH) App

To promote maximum take-up and benefits to the user, the videos are made available in a custom Android App. It can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store.

• The App adds value to the videos by including interactive material.
• The interactive element – a ‘conversation’ with the business owner – enhances the user experience and guides the user through the videos.
• It engages with the current management practices of the user and helps users assess their own money management as well as desired changes and subsequent progress.
• To encourage and motivate the user, elements of gamification are integrated into the app, with rewards (“badges”) being earned by the user upon completion of all the videos and their associated questions and answers.
  

The App was developed jointly with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures (ICDF) at UFS.

7. Conclusion and Future Plans

Research has uncovered the important role that the informal sector in South Africa does and can play in terms of job creation.

• The Good Money Habits Videos Project presents a practical opportunity to make a difference to tens or hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs working in the informal sector / micro-enterprises in townships.
• President Ramaphosa stressed the need to support the informal sector in his opening speech in Parliament – a first for a President.
• The role of informal micro-enterprises should be emphasised in policy documents and implementation strategies/projects to support SMMEs.
• Informal enterprises should not be excluded from such policies.
  

Further research

An integral element of the project is to do further research based on user data collected anonymously and used confidentially.

• The first aim will be to assess the usefulness of, and especially the impact of, this intervention (app and videos) on managerial behaviour and business performance, including potential employment creation, in micro-enterprises, which most often are informal.
• The second aim is to assess the optimisation, viability and scalability of such cellphone- and video-based interventions to inform further potential interventions.
• The third aim is to improve the app and videos and to inform the development of more videos in other areas of micro-enterprise finances and management.
  

Future VIDEO AND APP plans (depending on funding)

• One or more additional series of videos on further financial topics but also key management challenges (e.g. stock management, pricing and quoting, budgets, wages, advertising and social media, getting a bank account, getting better premises, registration and licensing).
• A very basic, cash-bookkeeping cellphone app that matches the framework and approach of the videos. (From that level, the informal business owner can then graduate to standard small-business accounting apps, e.g. Zoho.)
• Executing these plans will be dependent on getting funding support.
  

8. Reading Resources for More Information

Accessible online articles on the informal sector in South Africa:

1. Creating jobs, reducing poverty I: Why the informal sector should be taken seriously and enabled properly
2. Creating jobs, reducing poverty II: The substantial employment performance of the informal sector
3. Creating jobs, reducing poverty III: Barriers to entry and growth in the informal sector – and business cycle vulnerabilities
4. Creating jobs, reducing poverty IV: What policy approach to enable the informal sector?
5. Creating jobs, reducing poverty V: Is ‘formalising’ the informal sector the answer?
   

A resource book for further reading on the informal sector:

Fourie FCvN (ed) 2018. The South African informal sector: Creating jobs, reducing poverty. HSRC Press, Cape Town. This book comprises 17 chapters by national and international researchers and institutional experts.

Get free downloads of the book (or chapters) on the HSRC Open Access platform.

Team

Project leader: Prof Frederick CvN Fourie (PhD, Harvard University) Distinguished Professor and Research Fellow, Department of Economics & Finance, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of the Free State.
Head of the video production at IdeasLab/BLISS: Jerry Mtetwa
Co-director and head of the app production and coding at the ICDF: Dr Herkulaas Combrinck 
Project home: Centre for Development Support. 
Director: Prof Lochner Marais

For more information, please email us.