These questions were raised during the recent Tujuane Mixer, an information session on financing and managing a start-up business in Kenya. Some panelists responses are quite interesting. (Appology to the KCA lecturer, whose name i didn't get clearly - to be edited soon)
What are the leading economic trends in Kenya that an entrepreneur should look at?Aly Khan Satchu: with the connection of the fibre optic to our region the connection process has taken off. With this infrastructure in place communication with the rest of the world would be enhanced. Furthermore, the lack of many things creates an enormous opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Moses Kemibaro: still on fibre optic and communication in the region, mobile phone revolution in the region combined with the fast internet connectivity is something to look at as an entrepreneur and see how one can benefit from it.
Annabel Onyando: Agriculture is also a factor to look at. The use of traditional technology in tandem with new modern technology will help East African farmers to have an easy transition and establish a ready market in the vast population in the region of more than 100 million people.
Agatha Verdadero: Entrepreneurs should always keep with trends to make sure they move with the masses.
Gavin Bell: as much as access to technology and information is good, other factors such as the roll of the government in supporting entrepreneurs, the type of education system in place and other factors.
KCA Lecturer: the trend world over is that most businesses are looking at how to harness their natural resources effectively (going green). Kenyan entrepreneurs should also look at ways at which they can use their businesses to harness some of our resources such as reclaimable land, water bodies, sun (solar energy), wind and even our youth (human resources.
What can Kenyan entrepreneurs do to improve on customer service?Agatha Verdadero: there is no excuse for not conducting one’s business in the right manner – even is its how small. Personally I work from a home office and no one can know unless I tell them, because my service is above international standard. (quotes Sunny Bindrah’s article on Tribe Hotel)
KCA lecturer: it always works for us to have good customer service. We don’t take our job descriptions seriously that why we don’t serve our customers well. One thing to note is that for every customer who receives good customer service there will be at most four referrals, but for every customer that receives bad customer service there will be at least seven referrals.
Gavin Bell: poor customer service is a bad culture thing (business culture) where Kenyan entrepreneurs concentrate on the bigger picture and forget the small details that made them get those customers in the first place.
Annabel Onyando: I disagree with Gavin that it’s a cultural thing. Bad customer service I believe started a long time a go. It’s common in most Kenyan household for owners of the house not to say thanks to their house-helps when they serve them. How do we expect to treat our workers differently and expect them to treat customers nicely?
Participant addition: most of us don’t set rules of how we want to engage customers and even if we set them we don’t remain consistent to ensure that the same is implemented in serving our customers.
When it comes to financing for start-ups, banks usually don’t trust such entrepreneurs no matter how good the idea is. Why is this so? And how can it be addressed?Aly Khan Satchu: banks usually have a very rigid outlook that only looks at the business Cashflow (nothing else!). Historically, there is evidence of a high failure rate among start ups (eight in every ten fail!) that’s why banks would rather deal with an organization that has been there for a while.
Annabel Onyando: banks are not wired for start-ups. Please check
www.bignetwork.com on how to get financing for your start-up. But then again some people are not also wired for running their own business. Some are good at being employed.
Gavin Bell: start up support organizations are also in business. Be very careful with them or else you stand a high chance of loosing your business. The best way to finance a start up business is either through personal savings, family/relative/friends support, angle investors or getting a financially strong partner. Also do some research on other similar established entrepreneurs on how they started out. Formal financing route is not the way to go for a start up.
Joanne Mwangi: I would advice anybody who is still starting out not to be too eager to become big. Taking baby steps in any business is always less expensive and helps one to learn the tricks of the business. For an entrepreneur to own the business he must invest heavily in it, if not financially, his time and experience. Access to loans for most self employed persons is very difficult because most of them mix business money with personal money. It’s good for any entrepreneur to employ him/her self in the business and separate the two. Also working from home is not bad/wrong, but be honest about it.
(she gave a vivid description of how she started her business. Quite inspiring!)Agatha Verdadero: for starters working from a home office is not unprofessional. Then again banks are not the only resource that a start-up needs. Most start ups fail because the entrepreneur doesn’t want to tighten their belt and fight for the business. An entrepreneur has to take risk and be ready to loose all.
Moses Kemibaro: trying to get funding for a start-up is always almost impossible. As an entrepreneur you must have a ‘hunter’s mindset/instict’. One should be able to hustle, beg and do any thing to make the business work. Starting up my business, I had to take up a partner who we could compliment each other weaknesses. After seven years in business we are now able to attract financiers from all over the world. Over ten investors have approached us this year alone!
