Kenya Bitter Truth

It is always fascinating how people answer that question. It basically depends on what you are paying attention to! Some people are paying attention to politics, some to sport, some to celebrities in music and movies. And yet others are interested in gossip [there are even newspapers to cater for them]. There is nothing wrong with any of it because that is your interest. And I will never criticize you for it or ask you even to change. But what if I asked you that question as an entrepreneur? # Concerning your industry # Concerning your country’s economy # Concerning Africa # Globally? “What’s happening?” Sometimes I will call someone like Ralph Mupita, and say “What’s happening?” It means I’m looking for his insights on the African telecoms sector because he runs MTN. Or Babatunde Soyoye: We can chat for an hour and scan the entire continent and then discuss the capital markets! Or I can call Dr Agnes Kalibata, and say “What’s happening?” She will smile and say, “How much time do you h...

__"Mathematics allows for no hypocrisy and no vagueness" If you don’t know how to read accounts, you will end up at the witch doctor! I once knew an older gentleman who ran a very successful trading business [by the standards of his time]. He had shops, warehouses, farms, and a large family. Then the economy of the country began to slow down, and soon there was hyperinflation. The impact on his business did not come at once, but soon he was struggling, and he came to see me to unload and vent: “I don’t know where my money is going. People are stealing from me. I also suspect I have been bewitched.” Since we were related, I felt an obligation to try and help, so I asked him the following: “Would it be possible for me and you to sit down with your accountants, so I can get an understanding of your financials?” To which he answered: “I have a bookkeeper who keeps records for the tax people. It’s another relative. I have to be careful, you know. And besides, we have to manage tho...

Since I started this platform, many of you have written to ask what you should do when the business is failing or fails completely. Given that about 70% of all start-up ventures fail within the first year, the chances are high that I’m speaking to a lot of you who have faced failure yourselves, or know someone else who has faced failure. You have heard me say often that “a business idea is only as good as your first contact with paying customers”. To you, it is a fantastic idea, and you have poured your heart, soul, and probably your savings and borrowings into it. But... No one is buying, and things are slow. You are sinking into ever more debt and trouble with it. Even when someone else is making a success of it, it does not mean you, too, can or should succeed. I have been in this place many, many times, and so has Aliko Dangote, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs… every successful entrepreneur knows it! It is the #Process by which we evaluate a venture’s future: Bringing in fresh eyes that are...

__"Nobody can do everything but everyone can do something"... When I was a student in England, I used to cross a very busy highway, opposite a school. One day there was an accident, and a child was killed. The following day I saw a gentleman come out of his very expensive car, put on a white coat, and raised a sign asking cars to slow down! After that, I saw him EVERY single day, without fail! After a few months, I saw that they had installed a proper crossing, but I did not know that he had lobbied the local council. One day I mentioned it to someone who knew him, and she told me that he was a CEO at a very large company. It was not his child who had died or someone he even knew. He did it because he felt it was the right thing to do…   Every day, each one of us sees something which we can take action to solve, which does not need us to wait for some authority. We can each do something. Here is another very important thing you can try to do each day, that might just help sav...

__"Read 500 pages, every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest". [Warren Buffett] As we're on the countdown to the last days of the platform at the end of this month, I want to remind you of one of the most important lessons I've taught here since back in 2013 when we got started: The importance of #Reading. We all read these days, more so than at any other time in history. The guy looking at his small phone following social media platforms actually reads a lot! He probably reads as much volume of writing as Warren Buffett! So don’t say things like: “I cannot read long things”. The secret to unlocking “hidden treasures” is #Reading – but #Reading the right stuff! I read very fast, and very intensely, at the same time. I trained myself to be able to do this! You can train yourself to do this, too -- if you really want to, and if you are convinced it is what will set you apart. It is the most valuable of all #Skills! __Let me give you...

About 30 years ago I wrote a letter that changed my life as an entrepreneur. I've told some of you about this before. I had come across a newspaper article announcing the private sector arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, was setting up a special fund to help what they called at the time “Small and Medium Size Businesses” - SMEs. [We don’t really use that term much anymore; today we say “Entrepreneurs]. The article was right there in the local newspaper that we all #Read. But I read to DO, so I always have a pen and paper... READY to FOLLOW UP! Back then there was no email, no Internet. I decided to write a letter and then had to wait months and months for the reply. A black guy from Guyana eventually wrote back, and said he was one of the people working on it. To cut a long story short: he traveled to Harare to undertake a Due Diligence of my first little business. Together we worked on my Business Plan. He actually had the first laptop that I had ever se...

__Listen up, because you need to hear this, and you might not like it “Money is king, and it is bigger than your idea”. Serious investors will never want to steal your idea, because they need you to run the business… and to run it well! When you go to a financial investor, you pitch to convince them to invest their hard-earned money, explaining [with numbers] how if they do, your business will GROW their money. Few investors are interested in dividends, they want GROWTH! I have told you this before! They want to invest say $50,000 and after 5 years sell their shares for at least $250,000. Most don’t want to be receiving small little dividend cheques from profits! [And remember, investors are not donors. This is about making them money!] Investors wants you to properly manage the business created by their money. If you fail to achieve the agreed growth, then you must step aside! There should be no “Buts” about it! If you said that the business would be generating so much revenue, and so...

One of you reminded me of a post I wrote here back in 2016 where I said that what you do AFTER you have a great idea, is what becomes your legacy in life. That you’ll go nowhere as an entrepreneur if your #Plan to finally get down and work on your dream is ... “one of these days”. “You must first believe in yourself,” I wrote, and then commented: “This whole topic is a subject for another day! There’s much to be said about faith, and faith at work!” Thank you to Jacqueline Adeagbo for reminding me of that post a few days ago, and for asking if I could write something more on the topic before I close the platform. In fact, that subject would take a lifetime of posts but let me flashback to the one she mentioned, to get us started for today. It’s then over to you! Several years ago, long before Internet and Amazon, I was in London going from shop to shop looking for a bible translation called The Living Bible. I’d just heard a sermon about the meaning of Matthew 12:35: “A good man’s spee...

__Would you consider merging your business with that of another entrepreneur? A merger is when you combine your business with one created by another entrepreneur. Most people think that Mergers only happen between large businesses, but that is not true. I have done some really cool mergers in the past, and our business would not be as big as it is if I had not mastered the power of merging. Mergers have always given me an opportunity to make my business bigger, faster.  We call this getting @SCALE. It is still about the two key formulas of the entrepreneurial playbook: INNOVATION PLUS MARKETING-COST=PROFIT. A business [that has identified and reaches out and solves a human need] #Scales as a result of the “3Ps”, and nothing else! #Product #People #Process. You might have a good #Product [that solves a customer problem in an #Innovative way], but you don’t have the #People who can drive the other pieces—Marketing, Process, Cost Management. If you hear an announcement that so and so comp...