For those of you who have never experienced rush hour traffic in Nairobi, allow me to paint a bit of a picture for you. Many roads do not have separate lanes (there are cars EVERYWHERE - often on the wrong side of the road), nobody pays any attention to the stoplights, and everyone is always fighting for an extra inch of space. In addition, there is a lot of roadwork happening throughout the city, which means sometimes 8 lanes of traffic need to fit into 1. Put all of this together and more often than not, you get complete gridlock!
Once everyone had arrived safely at the Mathare site, we started our first activity - a networking game which encouraged the students from both sites to interact and learn about each others business proposals. Students were given worksheets with spaces to write the names of the people they met, their proposed business idea, and one reason why their business was unique. It turned out to be quite a successful mixer. Eva, a young woman from the Mathare site who is planning to start a wholesale food business, was crowned the best networker and given a prize for her efforts.
We then moved on to 'the human knot' activity - a game which encouraged students to communicate effectively and to work together to untangle themselves and their group.
Finally we got into our small discussion groups, which were organized primarily by proposed business idea - hair salons, food, clothing, entertainment, etc. This year we also invited a number of mentors to participate, including previous students of SE:101 who now have their own businesses here in Nairobi. The discussions revolved around the many different challenges students faced as entrepreneurs.
In my group students talked about their fear of approaching microfinance centers and being turned away, the possibility that they will be unable to raise enough capital to open their business, the difficulty of legally registering their business, the problem of security and electricity shortages within Mathare and Kibera, and ultimately, the fear of failure. We discussed each challenge/fear separately and together we came up with a series of ways to address and deal with the challenges. The mentors shared their personal experiences and offered practical wisdom and great advice to our students.
One of the most interesting discussion topics arose when Freddie, a previous student of SE:101 who now owns two successful businesses, asked the students to consider who were the 'biggest enemies' of small business ventures in Kenya. Immediately a couple of students answered family and friends. Why is that? Kenyan people are very generous and they tend to share what little they have with their family and friends. In fact, sharing seems to be expected. Freddie emphasized to students that 'business is business' and that they should not offer additional discounts or loans to their family and friends. He told students to remember that the money was not theirs to loan and that it belonged to their business. An important lesson that the students will hopefully take to heart.
I closed the discussion by asking the three mentors in our group to discuss the most important lessons they had learned when starting their own businesses.
1. Make sure you have a well thought-out business plan, but be flexible and treat it as a working document.
2. Do your market research and make sure you understand your customer.
3. Be patient, dedicated, and passionate. Never give up!
Finally we brought everyone back together for lunch and juice! The lunch was prepared by Francis, a 2010 graduate of the SE:101 program who has started a catering business. And the triple-layer mango, avocado and beet-root smoothies were prepared by Dennis, one of the current students from the Kibera site who owns a juice business. Delicious!
So overall, the day was a success!
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