Business in Kenya

After successfully failing in a carelessly launched business endeavor, I now have accumulated enough wisdom I think to comment on a number of factors that I think propel most Kenyan businesses to their doom. These are just a few things I have noticed:

1. The number one thing that I learnt from experience will not help a business is cutting corners. Kenyan businesses I believe are in a league of their own when it comes to this. It is a plague that holds back many a great business idea. From the public transport sector to the service business, corners are cut shamelessly. It has almost become an acceptable custom to Kenyan businesses. Symptoms range from rickety public service vehicles that are badly in need of a proper service to eateries who hire waiters so in need of training that they forget or mix up your order a minute after you state it. When a business cuts corners like this, the end result is not being able to deliver the value that the customer pays for, hence nullifying the reason for the business in the first place. This is the reason most people in Kenya are skeptical when one announces themselves a business person.

2. The second important lesson I learnt is that accounts form the backbone of the business. Every transaction should be recorded in the proper way else the business has no proof of its dealings, among other problems. Most Kenyan businesses avoid book keeping as if it is a disease that will result in them losing their sanity. They steer clear of book keeping also so they may plunder the cash register at will and have no records of their misdeeds after. I did not keep accounts myself at first because I thought they were tedious and were only important for companies that could afford accountants. I later learnt the importance of recognizing trends and the value of statistics acquired from proper book keeping.

3. Marketing - One of the plagues of most kenyan businesses is Ineffective Marketing. I know this because I applied ineffective marketing to my business too and yet I still expected mind-bending results. I did get results though, results that pointed directly at the flawed marketing strategy and execution. I used flyers and the internet to the best of my ability and concentrated on making the adverts as visually appealing as i could. I later discovered that the whole process of selling a business begins with a process called market research which many Kenyan businesses ignore. Understanding, the customer, the need and the market including all factors affecting it is the most important thing that a business can do. It is the first part that forms the key to a successful business. The marketing process facilitates the business's existence through research, it's selling points and also the future strategic adjustments for long term sustainability.

4. Most kenyan businesses do not identify a specific business need to address. Some businesses seem to exist because they can rather that to serve a purpose. Some businesses come up as a means to make some money because someone else was seen doing the same thing. There is a guarantee in this country that if you start a business and it seems to be thriving, numerous similar enterprises will be established and attempt to follow your formula for success. If the original business owner does not patent their business technology or have strategic plans that take the business venture to its potential success levels, then the business usually runs out of steam after some time.

5. Customer service - many businesses are quick to accept your money, they are eager in fact to receive it but they are way less enthusiastic when it comes to delivering the value a customer pays for. The effect that this has on customers is eliciting a response such that they hold on to their purses tighter and spend a lot less because they are used to receiving little value for their money. Also, some businesses in the service industry hire people who are outright rude. Some waiters and tellers leave the customer with a bitter taste in their mouths because of the lack of professionalism with which they have treated. In more ways than most consider, this contributes greatly to the way in which customers spend their money and their time at certain business premises.

Though many businesses fail for the reasons mentioned above, there are some though that thrive in this harsh business environment because of their adaptation and integrity. That is an article for another day though. 

The holidays

Ah, Christmas. Not my favorite holiday (April fools, nothing to do with the intelligence of my friends, cough) but I remember as a child how it would symbolize food, drink and presents. It would also mean a trip to the countryside to visit my grandparents. As a child, there was nothing more exciting, I loved road trips, especially since my father had a...uh need for speed. I would sit up for most of the journey, studying his movements as he skillfully drove towards my biggest childhood adventure. I inherited the need though, it's a family thing.

well, as long as its not a cop car :-)

My earliest Christmas memory involves a chicken. Yes, a chicken with a rightfully bad temper because as a child, I loved animals. Frogs, chameleons, dogs and snakes even. I'm still not sure why. Anyway, I liked chicks (still do ha, but uh...different meaning). I liked those fluffy yellow little things and I wanted to play with them. Mother hens were not too pleased with my scheming to get one though. I was chased around the compound by them severally in a way that led me to respectfully keep my distance from those fowl chickens, ha, until my late teenage years. I knew those things were sinister and evil with their flappy wings and their wild bird calls (read cackling). I then decided to hatch one on my own. In my defense, I was very young. I procured an egg and put it under my pillow one night. Imagine my disappointment the next morning when there was no chick there, ha. The egg was under my head the whole night and did not break, this in no way says anything about the weight of my brain, ahem. That Christmas, I learnt that all things take time.

well, timing is everything, haha

I longed for Christmas in the city the more I grew up. I would hear stories about wild parties and fun galore while I was in the village. Oh the jealousy I held in. Then one Christmas, I got my wish. I was in the city but my loving father was not convinced that wild partying was a worthwhile Christmas celebration for his sixteen year old. My months of careful scheming were for nothing, I was foiled. Biscuits!

Soon enough, I was old enough to party if I wished but yet again I was foiled. My astute father did not believe that all those years of watching him drive had magically bestowed upon me impeccable driving skills. Biscuits! It's still a sound argument in my books, ha. Therefore, no partying took place.

ok, ok, yes it went something like that, haha

When I eventually did get to party, I hated it. The clubs were full of people competing to be more inebriated, the bouncers thought they were gatekeepers to untold treasures and even if I got in, finding a seat was an unexpected type of hell. I figured that I had missed the bus and the next two also. Supporting evidence of this came when I tried to party on New Year’s Eve two years ago. I still don't know why every vehicle possible in the city of Nairobi was parked in front of me half an hour to the New Year because I did my new year’s countdown while stuck in traffic; no actually, I was in a parking lot that was charted on Google maps as a main road. Biscuits!! Digestive biscuits in fact. I could not believe it.

After that, I concluded that unless I am at a house party, I will stay home or hang out with friends elsewhere. After all, my take on the holidays is that it is best spent with friends and family. I like to think of that as the best gift of all.

Happy holidays people

pictures from google

My Nairobi

My first memory of Nairobi is of thika road. I remember being very young, we had just moved into the city from Busia. I was excited as I had never been to the big city. The roads were paved all over and there were houses with stairs. I was bubbling with energy like a soda thoroughly shaken with the top closed. I knew things were going to be different, I could just feel it.

I recall the period in which I was in primary school. Nairobi was different then. I remember the riots that university students would stage without warning and how I loved them for they meant no school. I remember the relative safety there was back then, how I could ask anyone on the street for directions home or even for bus fare if I lost mine at the age of seven. I even walked all the way home a few times (I lived on thika road and attended Nairobi Primary school). There was even a time when the Kenya bus company decided to try providing transport with double decker buses, that was the most amazing thing I had ever seen at the time. I only saw those buses on TV. The fact that I rode at the top more than once was enough reason for me to die happy. I had a potentially irrational fear then though, that I would one day be a victim of the mob justice that would take place seemingly indiscriminately then. I was rather small and had no reason to believe that I looked any different from the victims I saw. Fortunately, such actions were frowned upon and faded into history.

As a teen, I saw the introduction of medium sized buses by the Kenya bus company which I imagine was a wiser business approach than double decker buses that became almost iconic of public transport then. Metro shuttles were everywhere and affordable. I was mugged for the first time then too, at needle point if I recall correctly. A very unnerving affair conducted by a boy about my age who seemed as nervous as me and it was right in the middle of town. I was much smaller than him though so I gave him all my money then. At that age, I developed an interest in video games and they were available at yaya centre and Sarit only. Now it seems like a lifetime ago, so much has changed, for the better. There is a mobil petrol station in parklands that gained sudden popularity then among teens. They would meet and listen to loud music from their cars and party with their peers. I never got to go though, my father had no time for my trivial desire to be cool, haha.

As an adult I still see change, great change in my city. There was a time when we had one major mall, Sarit centre. Now they are many and so easily accessible with the major plague of our current Nairobi being the congestion and the incessant traffic jams. There is so much that is good in this city, the entertainment ranging from ice skating and paintball to plays and periodic concerts like blankets and wine. There is definitely something for everyone. That coupled with the road and housing construction taking place almost everywhere is a sign that we got something very right. Everyone wants to be here.

I have travelled the world and my fair share of places I have seen. I find, though, that none suits me or fits me as well as Nairobi does. I have been to Singapore, Malaysia, china, the United States and even visited our east African neighbours but none has such a mix of all the good things balanced to near perfection. A growing metropolis, a vibrant art scene, rich in different cultures but united as one people on the journey of life in a city that not only protects and houses us but also grows in response to our ever-changing needs.