Business Talk

“The best way to navigate the near future is to hyperfocus on creating value for customers and moving at the speed of the Internet.” “Waste in a lean startup are those activities that do not produce learning.” “Don’t follow your passions; follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions and to success. Where we all want to get to is what drives you to do the things you do. What motivates you to work on a particular project?” “A learning organization puts data before rhetoric, testing before executing, customers before business plan. It runs experiments to reduce risk, uses data to resolve conflicts, and interacts with customers to understand them deeply.” “Lean startups use three primary methods of testing the validity of their assumptions: 1.      Customer interaction. 2.      Running experiments. 3.      Analyzing data. “The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.” —Thomas Alva Edison”“In...

many people in Kenya are venturing into entrepreneurship, the one business that has caught the attention of young people is the car wash business.  The car wash business is one of the most thriving businesses in Kenya. Walk or drive into any of the estates in Nairobi or in major roads and highways, you will not miss seeing a car wash within a 1km radius. Right from the low-income areas of the city to the opulent suburbs, car wash businesses of different magnitudes have thrived into existence to meet the needs of the high number of vehicles being imported into the country. What could be the contributing factor towards the success of a car wash business? Is it a viable business that any aspiring entrepreneur can consider or is the field already crowded? Why this business is thriving : Low Startup Costs        Generally, setting up a car wash business is not an expensive undertaking. We have different sizes or car wash setups from the heavy machinery reliance ones ...

There are countless weaknesses in the realm of man. We are weak beings, no argument. However, while some of our weaknesses make us vulnerable to all sort of things, there’s a particular weakness that makes the crowd vulnerable to entrepreneurs. With this weakness, smart entrepreneurs are making millions (sometimes billions) That weakness is this; We love to buy. Human beings love to buy stuffs. We don’t have to need things to buy them. As long as it appeals to our heart (emotion), we go for it. How many people do you think NEED a Range Rover or an iPhone? You want to make calls, browse internet, take pictures and you think you need an iPhone? No. You don’t need such expensive phones, but you want them. Human beings (mostly) don’t buy what they need. We buy what we want. It’s a weakness! Buying is what we love to do. It doesn’t have to make sense. We just have to do it. Look around you and see how materialistic we all are. Look at how we all run after the latest phones, latest clothes, ...

Formal training A salon is a sensitive venture. Lucy Wanjiku, a hairstylist and the proprietor of Super Style Salon in Nairobi’s Kahawa West, says anybody who wishes to invest in a salon must seek some formal training first. This is because you will be dealing with products made from chemicals whose reactions you need to understand. Capital For a basic salon, Sh.150,000 can be enough to purchase basic equipment, such as a blowdryer, curling iron, dryer and combs, as well as styling products and cover a month’s rent for a small outlet. Operating licenses You need business permits as well as fire safety certificates from your county, which can set you back around Sh.9,400. Given the heat treatments a salon offers, you must have equipment to deal with any fire mishaps that could destroy your establishment. Good location Fredrick Ombachi, a director at Steal That Look salon, says you need an outlet in a place that is safe and convenient for the calibre of clients you are target...

Most people have great business ideas but cannot get their businesses up and running because they lack the finances to do that. Capitals vary depending on the type of business. You can start a business with Ksh.1,000 or Ksh.100,000. Commercial Capital LLC says that, for most entrepreneurs, finding the money to start their small businesses is usually one of the first problems they face. If your business requires a good amount of money to hit the ground, sourcing its capital can be very hard and frustrating. Experts say looking for the money in the wrong place and with off the beam expectations makes the whole process more frustrating. Sourcing for capital to start your small business is one journey that requires hard work and patience more than anything. Dave Lavinsky on Growthink says it’s crucial for an entrepreneur to know when, where, and how to acquire the funds they need. However, most aspiring entrepreneurs just have a rough idea of how to go around and get some funds. Some end u...

Have you ever paused for a moment and thought to yourself “I must be doing something wrong with my life, how comes I don’t have a single profitable /successful investment running under my name despite working diligently for all those years?” Yes, you have the zeal and willingness to invest…but somehow, things seem not to be going your way. May be you even have a job, with a steady monthly salary and you do your best to save something at the end of the month. But still somehow you’ve not been making any meaningful progress. If you are in business, despite toiling and moiling all your life, you still can’t narrate any success stories worthy of a gossip blogger’s attention. It’s a painful reality that most of us prefer not to talk about. It yields a sense of hopelessness and can easily make you wonder what your purpose in life is. As it turns out, making it in Kenya (or Africa) is not as easy as it may sound on paper. Despite the fact that Africa is on the rise, we still face subtle probl...

If you perform a simple Google search for the keyword “Capsicum Farming in Kenya” or “Pilipili hoho farming” I am sure you will come across dozens of articles hailing this agri-business as one of the best investments one can possibly make.  Some call it a low-cost, high yield investment. Others describe it as one of the few farming products with a ready market.  But just how true are these claims? Is capsicum farming as profitable as they describe it in blogs; is it a good business idea for a small investor?  Here are the answers. * Requirements for Farming Capsicum * There are two ways to farm capsicum. The first way is through open ground farming and the second alternative is through greenhouse. The greenhouse option is more popular because it yields better harvests and minimizes on usage of pesticides and fungicides although it’s a bit expensive to set up.  Open ground farming on the other hand isn’t all that bad either, it’s cheaper to set up and prod...