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It's easy to join a startup and speculate that the future
prospects will not only be promising but also have a bountiful effect on the
way you view how to operate a business from its nascent stages to that point in
time where it can sustain itself into an abnormal profit making venture but
also a body corporate which is preferred by many as the best place to start off
their career. That is if it will mutate to such a position because most reach
contentment stage very early.
I am currently on a sojourn with a startup because I have been
frustrated and disillusioned by the whole process of finding an advertised job
with better perks and because I want to build up on experience and even if they
are going to pay me peanuts, I will have be safe. Being employed in Kenya is
tricky. Plus you cannot get employment necessarily with the little knowledge you
got in school. Thus maybe, I will change career because I was all intent on
getting money. Working for an online shop is quite an experience. It will add
up to my ken and who knows? I may get the best experience ever. I have taken a
hibernation of a year now never to be applying for jobs. When things are not
looking up, I will leave and venture elsewhere because this is not my career
aspiration but a means of making money.
Most startups end up not attracting the best talent available in
the market because they cannot pay the robust figures that such persons may
require because it still has liquidity issues and this may mean only one or two
such individuals are chosen while in some situations even none at all. Having
meagre financial muscles are some of the causes why most start-up never get to
that break-even point earlier on in their life. The worst prospects is that
most of these companies or firms end up closing shop especially if the owner is
not steadfast and resilient to counter the debilitating effects and conditions
of loss making in the fledgling days.
It is even worse when it is one run by rookies who are still
learning about the intricacies and ambivalence that beleaguer the industry in
general. Education is important. It demarcates the knowledgeable from the riff
ruffs who have no idea what they are doing or where to take the company to. The
best incentive that a startup can capitalize on is to heavily take advantage of
the readily available manpower in the country especially in Nairobi and actualize
its mission and vision because there are so many Nairobians in need of an
engagement but cannot find one. Its the best leverage.
The best thing so far about start-ups is the fact that they offer
employment opportunities to the many Jane and John Does who are eagerly
searching for employment (in some cases they take those experienced which
is more than often the case). The pay is not at all motivating.
The working conditions are worse but you just cope. Nothing like benefits
exist. All because the owner is either adamant to offer the industry match or
just wants to find out whether you can be patient enough to grow with the
company up until that point where it will be minting enough and you sure will
be liable for the same because you have contributed in one way or another in
making the company live past its tentative years of failure.
There are so many lessons one can be able to learn while working
for a company that is growing. As a prudent chap, the far you have reached and
the place you are going is what matters. Obviously, all firms started from
somewhere, what is however needed is the virility to surmount the challenges
that come with the prevailing and upcoming storm and niceties that are bound to
happen whether or not a proper plan or strategy is in place.
The best thing is that our company is slowly gaining traction.
While it looked like it was going to be a tough ride, the fact that there is
hope more than anything else, there is reason to be more buoyant even when
things seem not to be working. What with the initial fear having been overcome.
There was a time we had this notion that the enterprise will take several
months to mature and stand strong on its feet, however, the strategy adopted
makes some people just want to come back every other time. Our focus now is how
to marshal the requisite market to be loyal and buy more. That way, employees
are bound to see that the hard work they put in place does not go to waste.
Does the growth rate meet expectations? Not yet. Until that time
when we shall be featured as a success story, we still have a long way to go.
We still haven’t been able to reach the escape velocity necessary to be a
large, innovative, independent player in the payments space where we can talk
with temerity that we are actually there. We still envy those who drive albeit
we keep on postulating that things will happen. Slowly, we shall be able to
reap big from the patience we have dedicated. Seeing results and acting on it
appropriately is far more motivating and time will unravel itself so that
things will work just fine. All our employees use route eleven as a way of
saving and keeping fit.
“Life, growth, and achievement work like a pendulum. On one side
you have failure, rejection, pain and sadness. But on the other side, you have
success, victory, joy and happiness.” A successful businessman was once told.
The owner of the business knows this well and ultimately acts on it cautiously.
There are those times we went without selling and it was tough and hectic.
There was constant bickering that things were not going as they smooth as
should have. However, now things look promising in the meantime.
Still there is fear among Kenyans about this whole thing of
ecommerce and online shopping. Trust is not ingrained among many people. Like
there was a lady who intimated about being conned having paid for goods online
and it was somehow hard to convince her that we were legit and “gikmakamago”.
The few who trust us actually resort back to their initial ways because it is
not a traditional way most have been accustomed to. But like social media, most
will come to appreciate the contribution this industry offers because life is
not all that static. It’s flexibility is the reason why you can have faith that
whatever you buy, it will reach you and in a good condition and more so
warranted.
HASTA LA VISTA BABY
[Picture Source: My imagination from freepix images]
