Entrepreneur Chats; How to scale your Business- Part 2

This is a series of learnings, if you haven't read part 1, feel free to have a look.

The main reason I was drawn to this session, was because I saw Esther Muchemi listed as a speaker. Yikes! the cat is out of the bag. If you don't know her, you are about to have a glimpse. I enjoyed her session, she was as real as it gets. She shared lots of gems about how she has grown her businesses, very passionate and funny. She is the author of "give me my mountain", which was reviewed here by business daily. She was also interviewed by Caroline Mutoko on her Youtube channel which you can watch here for part 1 and two.

What did I learn? *clears throat*

• Business is a spiritual journey. It has lots of ups and downs. You need an anchor.
• Clarity. Understand what you need to do and specify what's your end goal. Then focus on it.
• When an opportunity comes your way, learn how to dive to the point you can understand. You will learn as you progress.
• Never allow fear to take over. If you fail, it's not personal. Its the idea/project/business that failed. Keep moving.
• Focus on one business at a time. She focused on one business for 10years. You focus so that you can learn the ropes, be a master, resources are limited (don't spread yourself too thin).
• Invest in places/things you can afford. Before she bought buildings in CBD she started buying property in Githurai, Kahawa Sukari and Ruai, waaaaaaaay back!
• Being honest and being a person of integrity goes a long way. Your stakeholders will appreciate the honesty in the long run. Don't lie to suppliers that the check is about to be signed and there are no funds. Tell the truth as to why they are not being paid.
• Side hustles are side shows, PERIODT! She said what she said.
• There is power in focus. in giving the very best in something. Mindset is very important as to helps you be objective. If a business is not profitable, "funga na usonge mbele"
• It's biblical to dominate the world. The bible tells us in Genesis to dominate and multiply.
• In every milestone, in every setback, celebrate yourself. Be your own cheerleader. No one is walking in your shoes.
• Gain Mastery( of the business model), be great at timing and optimisation of resources. Internalise the process of running the business, what success looks like. This will be important as you elevate.
• For each business, adopt technology from onstart. Not adopting can cost you in terms of financial fraud, operational efficiency, marketing, inventory etc.
• As you scale up, there is a time to scale down. When you have zero control of your business, your health has been affected, "when the business is controlling you", when the business is experiencing immense financial fraud. You will have to sacrifice lots of things to come back up.

Risk, find it before it finds you. This could be taxation issues, fraud, legal. There is strength in dealing with it prior.

• Find your support group. Could be your spouse, friends. Who you can call upon when things hit the roof.
• Scaling without a foundation is setting yourself for failure. Don't scale too quickly, take care of your employees well, Don't substitute long term for short term as it doesn't work. Document your business process. Handle one business goal at a time, break it down to actionable goals.
• Ask your yourself, what is the next big thing in this industry? What is the biggest opportunity for me, and the business?
• Build wealth, and detach yourself from it. You are not defined by it. Keep giving, donating to different causes.
• Predetermine what industries you want to be in. Evaluate based on how they correlate with one another and what are your strengths. By industries/sectors she means, hospitality (she joked she didn't know if this means hospitals, or hotels, but she wanted to be in, and now she is), manufacturing, agriculture, education etc.
• On matters gender, focus on the agenda, not the gender.

There was a time one of her competitors hired her entire sales team from her shop. Everyone. She found out on a Monday after they did not report to work. At the time, she had just bought in new stock worth for the shop. What did Baus lady after the shock?

• After the major setback, she reorganised her business to ensure something like that would never happen in her business
• She didn't dwell on it for long, she was losing money. She stepped back and crafted her way out of it.

As I close, she challenged the audience( those religious) to identify your mountain, to ask God for your mountain, for your destiny. and conquer it.

Centonomy uploaded the video on youtube, you can watch it here

Next was Michelle Ntalami of Marini Naturals. If you've had natural hair for a while now, then you know her products. If not, join the bandwagon and use the new products they currently have for both hair (women and kids) and beard.

The key takeaways from the session;

• Raising capital- Look for multiple sources and evaluate their terms which are a win win for you and your business.
• Customer feedback on product is key. Use that as a metric of revamping your product lines
• Family support is key on your journey. This could be friends who are family, your squad, your nuclear family, parents.
• Use discernment when on social media as a public figure. Don't take the trolls personal.
• Be your brand. own it.
• Good product sells itself. Wahenga walisema chema chajuiza, kibaya chajitembeza.

Closing this with a quote from Esther, Be less anxious, master more faith and have less fear as you step out everyday.

Before you go, Botlab is hosting a session on data protection. Consider it handled; your business guide to data protection on 19th February 2020, 5.30pm-8.30pm at Lattice Community, Applewood Adams (Adams arcade roundabout along road)Poster below. We look forward to learning with you. If you are not sure what if the session is about, we have prepared a prelude to help, read it here