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  • Making Money Online Successfully

    Posted: July 30, 2010, 2:41 pm by tranx

    So a while back we wrote about how it is better to earn offline than it is to earn online. Part of the reason why we wrote that article is that many people are trying to build revenue around models that will either:

    1. Not be around in 5 years because the powers that be (ie: Google) have changed their operations to make the strategy unprofitable
    2. Replaced by another method or competitor with a new perspective or method to attract customers.

    How can we define online success?

    How Much Money are You Making Tomorrow?
    I think there has to be a certain measurable criteria as to what makes someone successful online and that can be as simple as the ability to make Kshs 5,000 per day, Kshs 10,000 per day, working full-time independently, etc. that a lot of people like to use.

    However, I think there are less measurable means to determine online sucess as well. If I were buying a business, I’m not buying the business on how much money it made today, I’m buying it based on how much I think it will make in the future. Because of that, there are some criteria that I would like to add to what I consider online success:

    1. Is the business defensible? Is your business model based on arbitrage of PPC ads or is it based on a steady amount of traffic from a variety of sources (PPC, SEO, direct referrals, repeat visitors, etc).
    2. Are you too reliant on 1 supplier, customer, or web site? Supply chain issues are a reality of any business. Now it’s much more of an issue in a manufacturing or product based business but it’s a reality in the online world. If you have just one web site or one source of income, then your success is at risk. If you have just one product or one major client, an innovative competitor could very quickly and easily sink your business.
    3. Is the Product commoditized? This is one of the biggest mistakes that many people make who are trying to make money online. The web sites that they are offering are, in essence, a commodity. There are thousands of other people or web sites out there who offer the same product (or could easily offer the same product). And the problem with a commodity business is that lowest-price wins. And those hyper-efficient markets are very difficult to win in.

    My Definition of Online Success
    A. If you are looking for some extra disposable income, Kshs 5,000 per day is a great goal to have and I would consider that a huge success.

    B. If instead of just disposable income you want to work for yourself, things are a little bit different – instead of considering 5,000 a day a success, we should look at a number that permits you to live comfortably. If that is 30,000 a month, and you are earning that regularly, that’s awesome. Now if you make 50,000 one month and nothing for 3 more months, that’s not really successul.

    C. If you are building a business, that’s much tougher to define. To have a successful business, you must have systems and processes, and if you have systems and processes, then you can have employees. So I think that when you get to a point where can support yourself with company profit and you have an employee on board, then I think you are moving in the right direction.

    Successful Online Entrepreneurs
    There are a lot of people making money online who make more per month that I do and most people would consider them to be successful. These are often people that are in the top 1% of their market. The diffference between them and the rest of the online entrepreneurs is that they have differentiated themselves.

    If they run a successful blog, their differentiation is the personality behind it. If the content was written by a bunch of no-names without the personality, I doubt they would be as successful. And some of the other successful entrepreneurs have built up a portfolio of well-performing sites. They have created processes and eliminated the dependence on any one web site/asset.

    Ideas from the Masters
    I am a big fan of the ideas of Warren Buffett because I think they can be applied universally. Warren Buffett doesn’t follow the stock market on a daily basis and he doesn’t follow quarterly earnings reports. He’s not even a big fan of annual reports – he doesn’t think businesses should be judged based on the amount of time it takes the Earth to circle the Sun. He believes in looking at businesses over a much longer term.

    I think that people looking to make money online need to look more at where they’ll be in 5 years, and not just based on the projects they would like to be working on at that point. If they have a collection of a variety of web sites with increasing traffic from a variety of sources, which have a differentiated advantage, I think they may be much more successful than someone who is making more money right now but with no prospects of growth.

    So if you have a software product that you are selling online that only a few people that have discovered so far but they love it…Or you have a community web site that is very small right now but has a strong, but growing base….Or you have a collection of websites with unique content or a unique, driving idea behind them

    Then I think you are well on your way to being succesul. Just make sure you have implemented the processes to really grow it successfully.Similar Posts:


  • Hustling Online Just Became A Little Easier

    Posted: July 28, 2010, 12:29 pm by wham

    So tuseme you want “in” on this Internet thing. You’ve heard people make money online, and you want your share. Of course the first thing you should do is get yourself onto a computer and head over to this blog and read up on all the things you can do to make money online.

    There are hundreds of things you can do to make money online. One of the easiest, most fulfilling and most intuitive ways of doing so it to sell something online. This is something that most people already understand – you’ve probably sold dozens of things in the offline world. Selling those same things (or others) online may be a new experience but it certainly is something you already understand.

    What do you need to do to start making money online in Kenya by selling stuff online? I’d argue that you FIRST need to think hard about your business. Selling online is no different from selling anywhere else. Your business plan must make sense if you are to succeed. You must think realistically and sensibly about what you want to sell, where you will find it, how much you will sell for, how you will deliver it to customers and how you will market and advertise your new shop. This is the hard part.

    Next, you should think about technical issues – i.e. find a way to set up an online shop. E-commerce technology has existed for years and there are lots and lots of options here. A sad note is that in Kenya, even very simple online shops will usually cost you at least Kshs 50,000/-. This is a bit high, of course, but it is justifiable given the complexities involved.

    Of course this was true only up to last week. Last week DukaPress was launched. What is DukaPress? It is a tool that lets you start your own simple online shop in less than 15 minutes. Have you ever tried to get a blog over at WordPress.com? That’s how easy it is to get a DukaPress shop up and running.

    Why DukaPress?
    There are many other options to DukaPress (akina Magento, osCommerce, CubeCart, etc etc), so what makes DukaPress worth it? In my opinion, DukaPress is probably the simplest way to get a fully functional online duka. Take Magento, for example, it has a fantastic feature-list but actually setting up and running a Magento shop is a nightmare that is too much to bear for the average person.

    How Easy Is DukaPress?
    Have a look at this online shop. That shop is powered by DukaPress. It was built in ten minutes! It is a fully featured shop and can accept payments via: AlertPay, Paypal, MPESA, yuCash, and ZAP among others. If you want to build the same exact shop in even less time, you can do so!

    All you need to do is:

    How easy is that? Should take you a few minutes in total if everything is ready! If you’re stuck, we’re here to help.

    DukaPress is and always will be free to use, and it is from Kenya.

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  • Maybe This Aint For You

    Posted: July 26, 2010, 9:59 am by tranx

    I hate to say it but you’re probably not smart enough to come up with a completely new idea. You don’t have the intelligence or creativity to come up with the Next Big Idea.

    Newton thought up the Law of gravity; the founders of Google came up with a breakthrough by inventing the concept of PageRank to rank websites. Do you think you can replicate these feats, much less come up with one from scratch?

    The reality is that 99.99% of aspiring entrepreneurs don’t have the mental chops to come up with some totally original idea. These are all smart people but chances are that even if you do happen to come up with a great idea, it will either have been done already or it hasn’t been done for a reason.

    The Good News
    Before you abandon all hope and embrace your life as an employee, there is some good news. There are millions of entrepreneurs in this world who had just as much originality and creativity as you do. They didn’t come up with the Next Big Thing and they’re wildly successful. What they all have in common is that they are good marketers.

    Yes, that evil word – marketer. But the fact is that most successful entrepreneurs are successful because they are good at selling their business. They didn’t come up with some earth-shattering idea that their competitors couldn’t match. They just did a better job at marketing their own business.

    Car Dealers Haven’t Invented Anything Lately
    Car Dealers are interesting because they are basically selling a commodity product. If you don’t want to buy a car from a particular dealer, you can go to the dealer down the street that sells a car in the same class for a similar price. And if you want the exact same car, go to another dealer 20 miles a way who sells the exact same model. There is almost no room to differentiate their “product” from their competitors’.

    But I’m sure that we’ve all seen or know the local car dealer that has 5 dealerships, 3 houses, and is absolutely loaded. Somehow they found a way to turn their commodity product into a goldmine for themselves. Why?

    They are good marketers.

    Maybe everyone knows their name from annoying billboard ads or painful TV ads. However they know them, the fact is that they do. Now I’m sure that these car dealers also run a well operated business. You can’t afford to bring potential customers in and give them bad service. They still need to be good business operators. But the fact is that their marketing skills got the name of the dealership out there and people in the door.

    Do You Know How to Market?
    So don’t spend all your time trying to think of the Next Big Thing. It’s a waste of your time. And honestly, you might come up with a great idea but if you don’t know how to sell it, it’s not going to be successful.

    You’re may not be smart enough to come up with new ideas. Spend your time learning how to sell and market and you can sell anything. It could be the most boring product – it doesn’t matter. If car dealers can do it, you can too.

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  • Think DukaPress

    Posted: July 23, 2010, 9:41 am by Kelvin

    Well, it is finally here! We just released DukaPress and it is available for download. If you’re interested, you better hurry and get it because we’ve already had 857 pageviews on the DukaPress site (in about 6 hours). Of course if you don’t hurry you’ll still be able to download it.

    Download it here: DukaPress

    What is DukaPress?
    I think this question is best answered with an example. Please have a look at this online shop. That is a fully functional online shop ready to start selling. It can process payments made by credit card, bank transfer, cash AND all three of Kenya’s mobile payment gateways (MPESA, ZAP, and yuCash). And you know what? We set the shop up in 15 minutes at the cost of 0 (zero) shillings.

    Do you want your own online shop through which you can sell online and accept MPESA and credit cards at the steep price of zero bob? Then you want DukaPress.

    DukaPress is made in Kenya, with love.

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  • How to use Paypal in Kenya

    Posted: July 23, 2010, 9:18 am by Crystal

    I’ve always been sceptical about online trading. I’m slightly spooked by the idea of giving my bank account and details to some random guy behind some computer somewhere. I blame it on The Net, a  movie from the early 90s. It starred Sandra Bullock [LOVE her] and it was awesome, but very, very scary. Of course it was based on those old DOS computers with the green text and the black screens, but it’s still pretty scary.

    Plus, of course, I don’t own a credit card.

    But as I build my business, I find that I do more work online. Most of my clients prefer Paypal, because it’s safe and reliable, even though they charge a small commission on transactions. I got myself a Paypal account some years ago using my mother’s credit card [thanks mum!] and I’ve been using it to buy stuff related to my business.

    Recently, I got a client who insisted I open a Paypal account in my own name, because it was easier for him to pay me that way. And no, I didn’t tell him to ask my mother. I opened the account, but I couldn’t receive money through it, because the service isn’t offered in Kenya. Paypal.ke lets me buy, not sell.

    I tried to attach my debit card onto the account, and as part of the verification process, the Paypal people charged $2 to my bank. It’s a safety measure to prove that it’s my card. The transaction would appear on my card statement with a secret four-digit code. I would take the code and enter it into my Paypal account to prove the card was mine. The $2 would then be refunded.

    Oddly, when my statement came, what I got was a six-digit code, and when I tried to enter it into my Paypal, the card was blocked. I first tried to type in all six figures, but of course, it only took the first four, and pulled an ‘access denied’. I then tried the last four digits with the same result, and by the time I tried a random combination, I could almost hear the buzzers ringing and the metal gate clanging shut. After that incident, any time I try to use the card to pay for anything, even if it’s on a totally separate site, Paypal politely refuses.

    Kelvin suggested I try Moneybookers, and it looked promising. I went through the same process, opened an account, attached my debit card, allowed them to charge my account for verification purposes. This time, the process was slightly different. Moneybookers was to charge my account with between $1 and $3. I would check my card statement, find out the exact amount, and fill in that information to prove myself. Unfortunately, Moneybookers can’t refund.

    The trouble is … the amount on my statement was in Kenya Shillings. And with the exchange rate moving constantly, I couldn’t verify the amount to specific cents. Le sigh.

    An associate told me about a system KCB has with Paypal, so I checked it out. Apparently, KCB has a debit card specifically for use online! How cool is that?

    What happens is you open a prepaid card account with KCB. You don’t have to be a member – I personally bank with Barclays and NBK, and I was worried about joining a third bank. So I was relieved to hear I didn’t need a regular KCB account.

    The card account takes Ksh 1000 to open, and all you need is a copy of your ID and a passport photo. The guys have a digital camera on the ready, just in case.

    As far as I know, the account has no minimum balance and no service levies. You can receive money online once you attach the KCB card to your Paypal account, and you can withdraw the funds from any ATM at a charge of Ksh 20. You can top up the card at any KCB branch; you simply deposit the money at the counter using the 16 digit number on your card. It’s kind of like M-Pesa, with shorter banking hours.

    Of course, you still need to have a Paypal account in the first place. You can get one at www.paypal.com, which redirects you to www.paypal.com/ke. It’s a pretty straightforward process, and I’ll be writing more on how succecsful the KCB card actually is. Specifically, I’m curious to see about verification.

    I opened my card account a few days ago and haven’t received or used it yet, but it seems like a good deal. I don’t know if you can use it with agents other than Paypal, but you probably won’t need to; Paypal is already the Safaricom of the online world. Hopefully, its service is better.

    The second step in working online [where Step 1 is deciding to work online] is probably getting a KCB-Paypal debit card. How else will you get paid?

    Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.Similar Posts:


  • Take Control Of Your Business By Working Less

    Posted: July 21, 2010, 10:37 am by wham

    Recently I was reading a book that was talking about the need humans have to be able to control things. While there were several experiments cited, one of the experiments was done in a nursing home where they had some younger people visit and spend time with two groups of residents. The first group could specify when their visitor would come and see them and how long they would stay. The second group could not specify when their visitors would come nor how long they would stay.

    What the researchers found is that the group that had control over their visitors were happier, healthier, and were prescribed less medication than the group that could not control the visitors. 6 months after the study concluded a very sad after effect was noticed. A higher than normal percentage of the group in control of the visits passed away or became much sicker. What the researchers concluded (but hadn’t anticipated) was that being in control not only makes you happier and healthier but losing this control is much more damaging than never having the control in the first place.

    Entrepreneurs Need to Control
    One of the common characteristics of most entrepreneurs is their independence and need to control. When you think about it, it’s not that surprising. Some of the most oft-cited reasons for wanting to be an entrepreneur are:

    1. Be Your Own Boss
    2. Ability to Work From Home
    3. Set Your Own Schedule

    In each of these cases, an individual is control of their work environment and their day-to-day activities. They intuitively know that gaining control makes them happier than not being in control.

    The Reality of Owning Your Own Business
    The realities of being a business owner don’t always match with the idyllic lifestyle of the entrepreneur who is their own boss and sets their own schedule.

    You’re often in a deadline business. You can never rest on your laurels. There are always deadlines to meet. Customers that leave you. Customers that pay you slowly (A few that don’t pay you at all). Projects that get canceled. Amazingly, you are always on the hot seat – even when things happen beyond your control. Client expectations are often unreasonable. Competition is stiff.

    How to Get Control Back
    A clever entrepreneur is business owner who has built systems and processes into their company so that they aren’t critical to the day-to-day operations of their business. They don’t “hope”. They take control by creating systems that eliminates most of the uncertainty of a business.

    • Instead of hoping that existing clients give good referrals or people just happen to find you online or in the yellow pages, they create a predictable marketing system that delivers new prospects whenever they want to grow the business.
    • Instead of relying on client defined projects, they create products and services that they sell. They aren’t subject to unreasonable client demands because they already have the product.
    • Instead of worrying about cash flow and slow paying customers, they set up a billing process that means they get paid for the products that they provide.
    • Instead of trying to count on unreliable vendors, they define the production process.

    These are a just a few examples of how you can gain control of your business. By not having to work for every single prospect and every single dollar that you’re owed, you can spend your time building your business or doing whatever you want. And once you gain control over your business, and hence, your life, you will become happier. It’s just human nature.

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  • Ship Early, Ship Often

    Posted: July 18, 2010, 8:24 pm by Kelvin

    You know what you do so that your projects are always on time and within your budget? When you run out of time, or out of money, you ship it. What does this mean? It means you present it as it is instead of wasting time making it ‘perfect’.

    What does this mean (again)? Action speaks louder. Don’t just think about it, or even just talk about it. Do it!

    A video worth watching, yes?

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  • Less is More

    Posted: July 17, 2010, 11:38 am by tranx

    I find myself watching some strange reality shows at times and last week I was watching Kitchen Nightmares. It’s hosted by that British chef who’s always swearing at people in his “game show”. The premise of this show is that he goes into a restaurant that is failing for some reason and some drastic changes, brings it back to life.

    Don’t Give Customers What They Want
    In the show that I was watching last week, he visited an Indian restaurant that was bleeding money. The biggest problem he found in the restaurant is that they gave their patrons too many options. The customers were able to customize the sauce that they wanted. The owner came from a sales background so he had a noble strategy – he just wanted to give the customers what they wanted. Great intentions but bad results.

    The problem with this strategy is that everything suffered in the business because their was no consistency:

    • The customers thought they knew what they wanted but the fact was that the experts (the chefs) could put together a better combination of flavors that the customers would enjoy
    • The orders would not come out in a timely matter because there were so many different combinations and the chefs could not operationalize the preparation
    • The waiters could not stand behind and recommend different dishes because they were all just slight variations of each other and could not be differentiated from each other in blind taste tests
    • The customers were left paralyzed with too many choices and felt unsatisfied that they weren’t getting what they want (having too many options is a classic in limiting sales because of “paralysis by over-analysis“)

    Less is More
    The lesson in this when running your business is that you should limit the options for your clients. Too often, we try to satisfy the wants and desires of our clients and what we end up giving to them is something that they don’t really want. They may think they want it when they “order” it but they leave our “restaurant” unhappy with the whole experience.

    Even worse than a restaurant, we get clients who just get up and leave. If we don’t present a clear offer with a limited number of options, they’re less likely to become our clients.

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  • No Business Is Successful Right Away

    Posted: July 15, 2010, 12:10 pm by tranx

    Chances are, you’re going to fail a lot before you build a successful business. Everyone has heard the numbers before:

    95% of all businesses fail within their first 5 years

    If you know people who started their own businesses, they are probably just getting by or they have already boarded up and shut down their business. It’s just the reality of running a business.

    Why Do Most Businesses Fail?
    I’m sure that there has been plenty of research and analysis into why businesses failed but if you just look at it objectively, I think it makes sense.

    • Most new businesses are coming into an existing market and their competitors have a big head start on each part of the business
    • Any obvious profit opportunities have probably already been discovered and exploited by these competitors
    • Competitors in the market have real experience with what works and what does not
    • While the product is the most important part of the business, entrepreneurs need to know how to do everything in a business (accounting, marketing, sales, customer service) and there is a bit of a learning curve with these activities

    You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
    One of the biggest things to remember when setting up your business is that you don’t know what you don’t know. As much as you plan, you can’t plan for things that you don’t know you need to care for.

    You Need Money
    One of the things that I get asked the most is how to take some of the first steps without any money. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s very possible. With all of the mistakes that you make, you’re going to need money to help get you through the bad times until your business finds its way. Your competitors probably have more experience, more time, and more resources than you so you need some money to keep up with them.

    The advantage that you have is that you’re more nimble and don’t have as much of a cost structure that they do. It is much easier for you to change direction until you find what works for you and your business. If you’re using your only resource, time, instead of money, you lose that nimbleness, your only advantage.

    Some Businesses Get Lucky
    Some businesses are successful when they start but this is usually because they were able to change their direction as they went. If you look back on them, they didn’t have the answer but they were able to buy enough time to figure out how to get their operation running successfully:

    • TiVo’s initial business model was based more around of the concept of being able to apply super-targeted advertising options to clients. Now, they’re more of a subscription-based option, which is much simpler than the original vision
    • Google was always a search engine from the beginning but there was never any plan on how they would capitalize on their search engine for several years. Even their Adwords program, which is their primary revenue stream, took several iterations before they got it to work successfully.

    If you talk to just about any successful entrepreneur, I’m sure you’ll find that there original vision didn’t match up to what they became. There were changes that they made along the way to get to that point.

    Accept that you will make a lot of mistakes (whether it’s multiple decisions in your businesses, or multiple failed ventures) until you gain the experience you need to be truly successful. And don’t be afraid to drop some of your ideas as soon as you realize that they aren’t going to work.

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  • Keeping up with business rivals

    Posted: July 13, 2010, 12:01 pm by Crystal

    It’s much, much harder than keeping up with the Kardashians.

    No matter how gifted you are at your craft, someone somewhere is better. And it’s immensely depressing when you meet that someone.

    I’ve just spent four days at one of the prettiest places on earth, thanks to a generous client. We were having what is called a moderation workshop. The author of a book, as well as a team of teachers, editors, and sometimes potential clients, sit together with the manuscript and point out the pros and cons.

    It’s a very intensive process, and often, participants don’t sleep – which is ironic because you’re put up in the prettiest places, with the prettiest beds. My room, for example, was right at the beach, so I could hear the waves  and smell the fishermen. The resort also had a disco, seven pools, 25 water slides, go karting, and a gym … none of which I used.

    Anyway, the people at the workshop were very, very good. They pointed out things that I’d never have thought of. They’re not quite rivals, since they don’t work freelance, but they had me reconsidering my vocation. It was like jogging with Usain Bolt.

    Fortunately for me, these team members live far, far away, and we’re unlikely to fight over clients. But it did make me wonder about other freelancers within the same work pool.

    In any field, you’ll have thousands of competitors. A lot of them will be better than you. But that doesn’t mean they have to earn more than you do. You just have to stand out. Find what Kelvin calls your Unique Selling Point.

    When I first read that article, I got slightly depressed, because I couldn’t really think of one. But the thing is you don’t have to spot one. You just need to make one.

    Case in point. My ‘rivals’ are brilliant editors. Yet the client included me in the team. Why? Well, for one thing, I’ve handled previous projects in the series, so I have some experience with it. Also, I’m a writer as well as an editor, so I can bring in some flair and creative license.

    It might also help that I’m assertive, cheeky, and have purple hair. I admired the put-together look of a fellow editor – she’s so beautiful and stylish. She’s a total MILF, and you can’t tell she has teenage children. Although she’s a lot of fun, she’s quiet and reserved, and it takes some coaxing to bring her bubbly side out. Conversely, it’s easy to get some pep out of me, and when you’re working 12 hours straight for days in a row, it helps to have pep[si] in the room.

    There’s someone else I look up. She’s efficient, professional, and very grown up. We recently got pitched for different parts of the same project. She won quality control, because she’s got that no-nonsense thing going. I got creative … mostly because I have purple hair. The client saw each of our selling points and used them to build a cohesive team.

    As a business person, be sure to floss your USP. It could be speaking politely, finding out the kids’ names, getting some nail art, wearing a power suit, walking in rollerblades, or riding a bicycle to work. Find the one thing that makes you different from other people in your filed.

    Me, I like nice people. I’ve often bought a basic product from a nice salesman instead of a perfect one from some guy with ATT.  So build that thing that makes you seem different. It could be what wins that tender.

    Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.Similar Posts:


  • DukaPress

    Posted: July 13, 2010, 9:53 am by wham

    The Like Chapaa team has been hard at work trying to change the shape of the e-commerce landscape in Kenya. We have a dream to to make it possible for even the least tech-savvy people in Kenya to do e-commerce quickly and easily. Has our labor got any fruits?

    DukaPress. Coming soon. Sooner than you think.

    Interested? Be sure not to miss any updates by subscribing to Like Chapaa today, or signing up to receive free email updates so that you are notified as soon as we officially launch.

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  • Websites Are Overated

    Posted: July 8, 2010, 12:33 pm by wham

    When setting up a website, it will be more profitable for you on the whole if you prioritize getting good content down before you go into the nitty-gritty of what the site should look like. Most people spend too much time worrying about how the site looks and fail to give the same attention to the content of the website.

    Advertisement experts recognize the value of quality content. It is best to get your message out to people in a clear way so that they can understand. In the ad world, ads are constructed around a central concept. This concept must be translatabled into language your customers can understand before you even begin to elaborate on it. Unfortunately, many people spend too much time on fancy designs and features when they move into online marketing tactics. This is reflected when customers visit websites seeking more information about a good or service of interest and find the sites useless.

    Since this is such a basic principle of advertising, it is difficult to know why companies have not integrated the formula of great content/good design onto their websites immediately after creating them. The best designed website in the world will fall flat if its content is nonexistent or poorly written. Especially when pitted against an ad with simply “good” copywriting.

    So, why invest more time and effort into your content before you have constructed your entire website? People are sophisticated. By throwing up a smokescreen of flashy design and empty content you are ultimately discrediting yourself and your product, as your customers will be able to see through the show to the lack of content within. When people are making decisions about items important to their lives, they like to feel as though websites have informed rather than entertained them.

    Also, writing is a solid foundation for anything online. Your main mode of interaction with your website-browsing customer is the content he or she is reading online. Think about it: would you rather buy from a website with beautiful graphics that offers no real information? Or would you rather buy from a website with rather plain design but clear and thorough information about its wares? In this situation, it almost seems as though the ill-designed website practices modesty while the well-designed website compensates for something (Kizuri cha jiuza, kibaya chajitembeza). Whether this is true or not, a customer’s perception that he or she is on firm footing when making a decision is paramount.

    If you are not comfortable writing your own content, it can be easily accomplished anyway. Writers are there for hiring, whether you want to add one permanently to your staff or hire freelancers from project to project. It is usually best to hire a writer to work with your art people, or to use the same freelancers on a consistent basis. You must find a writer who understands the voice you want to have in your copy and who is able to put ideas in a way that explains them exactly how you would like. This is not always quick or easy to find. It is worth the expense and search, however, to have someone who is aware of your organization’s current and future goals and who is familiar with your staff.

    Content is King.

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  • Fundi wa maneno

    Posted: July 6, 2010, 1:18 pm by Crystal

    I picked this line off some song by Jua Cali … I think … it sounds like something he would say. And it’s a fairly good description of what I do. However, being a fundi is rarely a compliment.

    ‘Fundi’ is a generic Kenyan term for anything from a tailor to a plumber. They usually work off the street, in little stalls, sheet-metal shacks, or low rent premises. They generally have a specialist trade, but they will fix anything. That’s why the furniture fundi owns a sewing machine, just like the tailor fundi and the shoemaker fundi. Similarly, the electronics fundi will claim to fix anything from your short circuited TV to your overflowing sewer system.

    Being a yuppie fundi – like me – means I will willingly handle anything from transcriptions to instruction labels on a VCR. This can be good thing, because I’m versatile. But it can also go terribly wrong. Allow me to demonstrate.

    My daughter is at an age where her shoes [and bags, and socks, and white stockings] need repair every day. So two days after I bought her Bata Prefects, I was at a fundi asking him to reinforce the stitchery.

    He was drunk, did a shoddy job, and overcharged me. So even though I was unusually polite, and I chat with him every day, I’ve never taken him anything else to fix.

    A few weeks back, the shoes were spoilt again so I went to a second shoe fundi. This one has a sewing machine. He made me wait a while as he conversed in vernacular. I understand the language quite well, but I didn’t join in.

    Slight digression: when dealing with fundis, it helps to speak their language. They will claim you as one of their own and give you a better deal. Ignore this at your peril. Sadly, I am sometimes arrogant among ‘my own’. Mostly because I’ve seen the negative side of ethnicity, so I prefer to ignore it. I didn’t identify myself as ‘theirs’.

    Despite the long wait, he did a good job, so I gladly went again.

    On the second visit, I took a school bag to have the zipper fixed. Again, I ignored the language factor, and again I was kept waiting. This time, he charged me for a job he didn’t do – he struggled to fix the zip for ten minutes, concluded that it was impossible, suggested I buy a new zip, then didn’t refund my money. Hmph.

    So yesterday I went armed with the new zip, the shoes, a jacket, and two more damaged bags. I budgeted 200. He quoted 250. I offered to sit and wait, he stubbornly declined. We compromised – I could sit and wait for half the work, then I’d come get the rest later. Fair enough.

    Lesson two in Fundi Mangement is to sit there until your work is done. Firstly because everybody else does, so the moment you leave, the fundi will serve another sit-in client. Secondly because it’s extremely annoying, and will therefore get the job done faster. Nobody likes you watching while they work. Except maybe footballers. And porn stars.

    I came back promptly at 3, and in true fundi fashion, the fundi told me that he was ‘almost done’ and that I should sit for just a few minutes. Luckily for him, I was in major PMS, so I lowered my head and grumbled on the inside, but I didn’t say anything out loud. Yet.

    After maybe ten minutes, I asked him what was going on. He said his sewing machine was broken, so he had given my jacket to the fundi next door to mend. Fair enough. At least the shoes were done.

    I waited ten more minutes before telling him to give me my jacket and I’d get it done elsewhere. He spoke through the wall – in the secret language that I fully comprehend – and asked his fellow fundi to hurry up. Then he went next door to see what was going on. I followed him.

    The work hadn’t even started.

    I calmly asked the man to give me back my jacket. He started to protest, but was instructed – in the hidden language – to comply, so he did. I then asked for the shoes, only to see my fundi pick them up and begin to stitch frantically.

    Nkt.

    He tried to calm me down, but I stood over him until he was done, yelling a few choice words in a voice far calmer than I thought I was capable of. The man was afraid, I could see that. I wonder how he’d react to my standard temper tantrum.

    Actually, I wonder why I didn’t throw my standard temper tantrum. I must be getting old.

    In the end, I took my barely finished shoes and my barely started jacket to a second fundi – who, again, spoke the secret language – and sat while she stitched it. She was all smiles at first, but hiked the agreed price halfway through because ‘the fabric was messing her machine’. I was too tired to argue.

    A simple two-minute collection run ended up in an hour that was so frustrating, I ended up needing a drink.

    When you run your own business, do not be mistaken for a fundi – ever. Be versatile, have affordable premises, provide many services, learn many trades.

    But when it comes to delivering on time, having endless excuses and doing shoddy work, do not be the quick-fix guy.

    We often go to fundis because we have no choice. I used three neighbourhood people and got equally disappointed. But I’ll keep going back to them because living with an almost-tween, I will constantly need stuff fixed on the cheap. That means I either buy new items all the time, or I go to the fundi since ‘I have no otherwise’.

    But to thrive in your business, don’t be your customer’s otherwise – be their preference.

    Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.    Similar Posts:


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