Business Talk

A study shows that businesses lose 10 to 25% of their customers every year. Business experts say attracting new customers is difficult than retaining customers who have experienced your products or services already. And, with this in mind, losing your customers can be frustrating and a setback for your small business.   However, in business, the harsh reality is that you are bound to lose customers from time to time. Ideally, you are able to attract and retain a good number of customers and rely on their loyalty. Even with efforts to attract and retain customers, some customers will come and go, and sometimes, the number is high. And as a business owner, you need to figure out why your customers are leaving and find a way to reduce customer churn in your business. Research by McKinsey shows that 13% of customers have a tendency to stay loyal to just one brand. On the other hand, 87% of customers choose to shop around with almost 58% tending to change to a new brand...

If you are looking for a business that is fairly passive (does not involve a lot of hard thinking), and allows you to keep doing your current hustle, but still provides you with a nice return on investment then starting a small laundry business could be your best bet. In a laundry (also known as a laundrette or laundromat) you wash clothes for your clients using water with the option of using a washing machine or manual labour. My idea is that as an entrepreneur who simply wants to start small, you should invest in a laundromat first and nurture it gradually until it grows into a fully-fledged dry cleaning outlet. *Step One: Find A Good Location* As you know rent prices in most major cities of Kenya (and Africa in general) are too far above what a small investor can comfortably afford.  Fortunately, there is a small hack to this especially if you are starting a business that relies on daily exposure to survive. You simply need to rent a small office which will act like ...

HOW TO MAKE KSH.100,000 PER MONTH ON 1/8TH ACRE LAND Strawberry farming has huge income potential and can easily turn you from a job-seeker to a job-creator or from an employee to an employer in less than 12 months.  Would you like to find out how? Keep reading the next few paragraphs. Strawberries can grow in almost every part of our country provided there is constant water supply and stable temperature in the range of 10 – 30 degrees Celsius. *Step 1: Getting Started* Of course, you need some land to plant your strawberry crop. 1/8th of an acre would be adequate for a beginner but if you are in an urban setting you can invest in a few containers (which you can then put in your backyard) and start farming. Once you have secured a good piece of land in a place that has adequate water supply start looking for seedlings. The best variety to go for is “Chandelier Strawberry” which is perfectly suited for the Kenyan environment. You will require about 3,000 seedlings for a ...

Everyone has a business idea that if provided with adequate capital, and everything else they require, they will be well on their path to entrepreneurship.  However, there is a big difference between having an idea and executing the idea. A business idea may sound easy and straightforward but most new entrepreneurs are hit with a rude shock of how tough it is to get a business up and running. Here are six common mistakes new entrepreneurs make and tips on how to avoid them. *1. The ‘I can do it all attitude’* A new business idea is like a baby to most people. We cuddle it, stroke it and protect it from anyone who shows up to critic your idea or any one who wants  to give you a list of reasons why your idea won’t work or even explain vividly how it will be impossible for you to implement the idea.  These often makes new entrepreneurs shy away from sharing their ideas and involving other people in the potential business. The feeling of, “Since I came up with the idea, I am ...

There are many ways to make money in the music industry in Kenya. You can earn money on YouTube, live performances, digital sales, sponsorships or become a brand ambassador.  You can work in the music industry as a producer, musician, record label or music promoters in Kenya.  Therefore, if you are thinking of getting into the music industry, there are many opportunities and areas you can venture into. *Lucrative Ways to Earn as a Musician in Kenya* You could be wondering, how do Kenyan musicians make money? The following are excellent ways you can generate money through the music industry in Kenya. *YouTube Channel* You can earn extra income by uploading your music on a YouTube channel. If your channel becomes popular, Ads will be displayed on it.  Whenever people click on an advert on your channel, you earn a commission.  There are many platforms through which you can use to collect the money you make through YouTube. *Selling Merchandise* Musicians can...

The moment graduates complete their undergraduate education, their hopes are up there, you can’t convince them that jobs are scarce in the country; they will even spit at you. Six months down the line, you meet a number of them in the street, dejected, resigned and embarrassed to speak out their cases, but we understand them anyway.  Most of them have sent over 1,000 applications to companies and no one has been sympathetic enough to give them even an internship.  This is the moment a graduate starts becoming innovative. If you find yourself in such a situation, you better stop thinking about employment and figure out a suitable business to start so that you can scare away some common conditions like depression.  If you succeed to secure employment when you still own some business venture, well and good but don’t allow yourself to be a slave of your academic papers. The people you see around driving big cars, living large and spending like nobody’s business are all entrep...

The entertainment industry in Kenya and around the world is a great industry to venture into. Many Kenyans own a TV, a DVD player, or a laptop making movies and series a great entertainment option at the comfort of their homes. Some own TV decoders but accessing the current movies and series requires them to pay for a premium subscription. We also have international online platforms such as Netflix and Showmax that give access to TV shows, movies, and series on a subscription basis. Both services are deemed expensive by many people and have pushed many towards movie shops. Movie shops in Kenya have been seen to bridge this gap for many Kenyans at a low price. With as low as Ksh.20 and a maximum of Ksh.50 depending on the location, Kenyans can enjoy the latest series or movies. The movie shop business is one of the lucrative small business ventures for young Kenyans. As a young aspiring entrepreneur, this is a good and profitable business idea to pick especially if you are a...

“If I had the money, I would start a business, invest in real estate and do so much more with my life”.  How many times have you said one of these statements to yourself? You have the ideas but never enough money to execute them.  Your financial success is hugely dependent on your relationship with money. What is your relationship with money like? Is it one filled with insecurity, discontent, jealousy and lack or is it one filled with abundance, love and respect?  Like any other relationship, you have to invest time and put in the work to understand it and make it successful. A great relationship with money will lead you to financial success and help you build wealth beyond what you ever imagined possible.  In order to build a better relationship with money, it is necessary that you become aware of some of the myths and lies you’ve been telling yourself or that were told to you by others that are sabotaging your financial success.  *(1) THERE ISN’T ENOUGH MONEY ...

The online space is a gold mine opportunity for entrepreneurs to run their business even without owning a physical store. Common platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are widely being used in Kenya just like across the world to open and run online businesses. Carol is one among thousands of small business entrepreneurs in Kenya whose business operates mostly online. She runs Karols Apparel, an online clothing retail shop on Instagram and Facebook that offers trendy wears for both men and women. Carol is a Community Development graduate from Egerton University and her love for fashion drove her towards the fashion business. *Starting up* I started my business in 2019 after I lost my job at Carrefour. It took me 6 months to get another job and I lost it in March 2020 due to COVID. That’s when I decided to start the business officially and concentrate on it. I didn’t have money or a set capital when I started. My business started with Ksh.3,000 borrowed from a friend. I jus...

Well, what if you succeed? Why have you chosen to see this half-glass of water as ‘half-empty’ instead of ‘half-full’? The fear of failure is the most crippling reason why many of us will never start a business in our lifetime. We admire successful entrepreneurs as if they knew from the beginning that they would succeed. You should know that they had the same doubts like you do. They all feared for an uncertain future, an irregular income and total failure. What if you fail? What if your business idea doesn’t sell or work? While these are very important questions, you may never know the answers unless you try. In the world of entrepreneurship, success and failure live in the same house. If you’re afraid of failure, there’s a very thin chance that you will ever taste success. How do you win a boxing match if you’re afraid of entering the ring? Business is, and has always been, about taking risks. That’s why entrepreneurs are known as ‘risk takers’. There is always an element...

Every household in Kenya uses onions. If one wants to cook githeri, one uses onions. If one wants to cook vegetables, anything, name them, one uses onions. What does this tell you about onions? This implies that there is a market for onions and many people are not aware of it. Venturing into onion farming is a lucrative farming business if people took it seriously. Do you know that you can make one million shillings from an acre of hybrid bulb onions for only three months? Now you know and it is high time you stopped complaining about the lack of jobs and created one for yourself through onion farming. The current market price of hybrid onion is 50 shillings per every kilogram. A well planted and cultivated acre of hybrid bulb onions gives you twenty thousand kilograms (20,000). This means that twenty thousand kilograms times fifty shillings gives you a cool million.  It takes about 4 months for onions to fully mature and ready to be harvested. High yielding varieties i...

Investing in real estate is a wise investment decision to make due to high returns associated with it. You can buy real estate e.g land for investment purposes and leave it vacant for its value to appreciate.  If you are one of such people, here are some of the things you could do to earn some income from that vacant land as you wait for it to appreciate. *1. Beekeeping* Beekeeping or honey farming has huge untapped potential. Whether a small or a large chunk of land you can reap big by starting this kind of farming. It is simple and relatively cheaper to start. An ideal location would be one away from noise and human disturbance. *2. Dig a Borehole* Water is important in almost everything that we do. Digging a borehole is an easy way of getting some extra income from your land. If your land is closer to a town, you can set up a water kiosk and earn money from it. *3. Camping ground* If your land is in close proximity to a tourist area such as a lake, a park, or a mount...

Gaming is fast becoming a popular pass-time activity in Kenya; and since most people cannot afford to buy and maintain private gaming consoles at home then you can capitalize on this opportunity to launch a small business.  One good thing about setting up a gaming lounge is that you don’t need to a lot of pre-training to get the wheels of the business rolling. A strategic location and ability to keep up with trends are the two most important qualities required in order to conquer the market. Here is a step-by-step guide (inclusive of capital breakdown) that will help you get started. *Step One: Pick A Location* Your choice of location can either make or break your business. Previously, a location in the Nairobi CBD would have been highly recommended but nowadays there are too many outlets there and competition is cut-throat. Consider looking for a cheaper location, preferably near an upcoming college/university. Think of areas like Chuka (Chuka University), Kabianga in ...

With rapid urbanization taking place in most parts of Kenya, more and more people are switching to using LPG Gas for cooking.  Cooking gas is cleaner and more convenient as compared to using charcoal or kerosene. That’s why the idea of starting an LPG retail business is not only a timely one; but also an environmentally conscious one.  Let’s dive into the details on how you can implement this low-cost business idea (and how much you can potentially make).  *Step One*   Like with any other business the best approach to setting up a cooking gas retail business is by first conducting research. This article will help you – but it is even wiser to carry out some on-ground research to get the finer details.  Some points you need to pay close attention to during your research include:  *Ideal location for the business  *Rules and regulations of the industry  *Challenges  *Safety measures  *How to manage the business  *Step Two*...

Now before you rush into investing your money in any investment product, I think it’s worthwhile you read the following tips on the best investment product to invest your money in. What should you invest in? *1. Invest in something you understand* There’s a strong inter-relationship between business and investing. Just as it’s advisable you start a business with a thorough understanding of the industry you are going into; the same is applicable to investing.  Sometimes I find it funny that people actually start a business or buy an investment product based on the recommendation of a friend or their financial adviser. Others invest in an investment product just because someone succeeded with that same product. Without financial knowledge, people look for someone to tell them what to do and where to put their money. Just like Lemmings simply following their leader, these people race for the cliff and leap into the ocean of financial uncertainty; hoping they can swim to th...