The Kenyan Entrepreneur: HOW TO REGISTER A BUSINESS IN KENYA

The Kenyan Entrepreneur: HOW TO REGISTER A BUSINESS IN KENYA: Kenya has been listed as one of the most unfriendly countries to register a business in. This has some truth in it given the numerous unnece...

BUSINESS IDEAS IN KENYA

Hello citizens.
I am thinking of writing a series of posts showing a step by step guide to starting a business in kenya. The series is titled, 'From concept to business,'. In this series I will pick an idea and take it through all the stages it requires to become a fully fledged business including solutions to some of the common problems that we face as entrepreneurs.
If you love business and you have no idea where to start, this will be a good opportunity to learn about some of the things that you need to get done before your business can get off its feet. I am no real expert in business but I have a lot of personal experiences and I believe that this blog will be helpful in showing you some of the mistakes I've made along the way. Avoiding them wouldn't hurt.
I'm calling to all who read this blog to submit ideas about what I should include in the series, business issues that you would love to see me examine and any contribution that you may have. I want this to be the most interactive business lesson yet.
Now for the cream on the pie, I am holding my own sponsored competition for the best business idea. Submit your ideas as comments on this blog and I shall pick the best. This is the idea that I will take through the stages from conceptualisation to realisation as a business. If your idea gets picked, you will have the opportunity to get the most detailed plans and advice on the best way to proceed from me and the experts that I shall consulting.
Share this post everywhere and lets get the ideas rolling.

EMPLOYMENT VS. BUSINESS

I’m not very old; neither I’m I very young. Three weeks and I’ll be done with campus. The hugest decision for me right now seems to be whether I should get employed or I should keep doing business. Trying to explain to my family, friends and relatives how my business (Which has not yet netted much profit) is better than the job offers that are flying around is harder than selling umbrellas in turkana.

It presents a bit of a conundrum really. On the one hand, employment presents security, a cheque at the end of every month, opportunities to work for some of the big names in the industry, career growth, social status and bragging rights at the next reunion.

Business is this dark world that springs surprises at me everyday, knocking me left right and centre. At times leaving me no option but surrender. A wealthy businessman once told me that, to do business successfully I have to be ready for failure. It sounds like a bit of an oxymoron to anyone who hasn’t tried business but ask me about it. Everyday is a learning curve in business. Difficult clients, cashflow problems, investments that don’t generate returns and concepts that just can’t work in this market are the daily experiences of every businessman.

The problem with entrepreneurship is that, if the entrepreneurship bug is in you, you will never get satisfied with anything but business. There is no special school to teach you the ropes of doing business. You either adapt or you die. The question now becomes, where you draw the line and hang your coat. This is something I have found no answer to. I guess we are all different; we have different capacities to cope and adapt to difficulties and that is what will separate successful entrepreneurs from the not so successful.

The Kenyan Entrepreneur: IAN KAHURA'S FIRST RULE OF COMMERCE

The Kenyan Entrepreneur: IAN KAHURA'S FIRST RULE OF COMMERCE: "For every expenditure, there is an equal but opposite income". Give it some thought, someone is making money in each and every aspect of ou...

IAN KAHURA'S FIRST RULE OF COMMERCE

"For every expenditure, there is an equal but opposite income". Give it some thought, someone is making money in each and every aspect of our lives. Everything you do, every minute of everyday is driven by commerce. the thing that separates the rich from everyone else is the fact that the rich discovered the only secret to true wealth:Getting people to spend their money.

Karl marx might have had some ideas on redistribution of national wealth but his hugest failure was his innocent belief in the purity of mankind in commerce. As long as people have different money IQs, Someone is bound to get richer and someone else is bound to get poorer.

My formulae for making money is very simple. Get someone else to spend his money on my products again and again and again. This dual rule of commerce is the driving force behind double entry accounting, advertising, brand-building, market wars and even government. A government that spends more than it earns is bound to get its citizenry into some grotesque abyss. A man who thinks that spending a lot of money will attract more money into his pockets is a huge nincompoop. 

Successful businesses get us to spend our money on basic needs (food, shelter and clothing). Huge corporates are built on satisfying our carnal, narcissistic needs. Lets face it, we are all small kids at some emotional level. We have an undying need to feel special, powerful, beautiful, handsome, all-knowing, almost Godlike. If only I could come up with a product that satisfied this need in everyone. Oh! Hell! someone already did. Have you ever asked yourself, what need Facebook satisfies? It is this narcissistic child inside everyone of us; I mean, facebook gives us the power to build an image of ourselves on a not so anonymous platform, to tell lies and live in this world of fantasy where everyone is your friend and we are very pretty and we are the most popular kids in class. Do I really need to tell you what amount of money we have netted Mark Zuckerburg? By recent valuations, we've built his wealth to 27Billion dollars. These are the sums of money that make my skin crawl. God, what I wouldn't do for 0.1% of that.

So, is commerce an evil which should be burnt at the stake? Like hell NO! This is the greatest invention of mankind. It is the most beautiful form of art there is. Commerce embraces the power of the human mind to create something out of nothing. Its the apex of human evolution; an act of God. Without commerce, we would still be living in caves and hunting in cohorts of fifty naked cavemen with a bone through our nose. Hail King Commerce, the only true love of mankind.