Archive for the ‘Biashara 30’ category

We’re Off!

February 3rd, 2010

Biashara 30 has officially started. We look forward to some good times with a group of motivated and ambitious individuals.

What will we be doing? We’ll be doing something along these lines, “I think we need to pool all ideas together. Pick a couple of them that are achievable in the short run (I personally think projects that run for what seems to be infinitely tend to collapse mid-way as the objectives become hazy with time, commitment diminishes etc) and from here give members a chance to group themselves in teams of about 5 people. This should be left to the discretion of the members, so needless to say, we would need to meet sometime in the near future so guys can have a chance to meet the other members and see whom they click with and would work together well. From the ideas chosen each team will pick whichever project they like and start on task division.” (This was written by one of the B30 participants).

We’ll keep you posted on what we get up to. To everyone who applied, thank you.

Time’s Running Out

January 20th, 2010

This is just a quick update on the state of Biashara 30, season 2. The applications have been coming in and we have to say that we never imagined we would get so many. Thank you, everyone, for applying and/or showing interest. It means a whole lot to us. We want to assure all of you that we will give everyone a fair chance to ‘get in’ once we start sorting out the applications.

More than anything else, we are humbled. The quality of the applicants is simply unbelievable and you can just ‘feel’ everyone’s energy and determination. We are excited at the thought of working with you all and cannot wait to get this thing started!

To that end, if you still have not applied, please do so soon. We’ll be closing the application process in a few days and we don’t want anyone to miss out. B30 is about learning to do biashara online; learning by doing. Are you interested? Please apply. It is free and everyone qualifies to get in (but we’ll only work with a small number).

To those who have applied: thank you! Nickel Pro, who sponsor this website and, by extension B30, will be giving away free hosting to everyone who gets in. This is so that you can get your online biasharas up chap chap. Please be patient, we’ll send those acceptance emails out real soon.

Cheers!

Biashara 30

January 8th, 2010

Hello!

How is 2010 so far? Nice, eh? We feel that this should be the year in which you finally make it to where you have never been before. We would love it if you moved from success to success all through this year. As you well may know, Like Chapaa’s primary mission is to help as many people as we can achieve success, especially financially.

Therefore, we see it fit to announce that the 2nd edition of Biashara30 shall be starting early in the year, on February 2, 2010.

What is Biashara 30?
Well, Biashara 30 is a fun experiment, or project, in which a group of strangers come together to try and make it as online business people. If you have ever had thoughts of making money online, in whatever way, then B30 may be just what you need.

Currently, we have intentions on focusing this particular edition of B30 on the following:

  • Service businesses – where individuals or groups earn online by offering services (such as design, etc)
  • Product-based businesses – where you sell actual ’stuff’

While the above are what we are thinking of, they are not necessarily what we shall be doing in this B30 – that is entirely up to the participants.

Who Should join?
Biashara 30 is not for everyone. It is only for those who have a burning desire to see themselves succeed in business; it is for those who can be online everyday; it is for those who are not afraid to try new things; it is for those who want to earn or learn to earn online.

Above all, B30, is for those people who much prefer learning by doing. B30 will not solve all your problems, it is not a silver bullet or a solution to anything. It is a community of people trying to learn together by actually trying to do something.

If that is you, then we invite you to apply. We’ll have lots of fun learning by doing. Oh, and it is free.

Biashara 30 Confessions

November 4th, 2009

Does anyone else like that Usher song, Confessions? Well, I love it! And, keeping with the spirit of that song, here are our Biashara 30 confessions….

Some background
Well, we accepted a total of 17 applicants into the first edition of B30. We had received a total of 117 so we, randomly, decided to slash it down by a hundred. Why? We wanted a small group in hopes of forming a close knit community and team. In hindsight, we probably should have let in more people…more on that later.

Actually, not so much later. The reason of thinking that maybe we should have let in more people is because the attrition rate was so very high. You won’t believe it, but about 10 of the 17 that we let in didn’t even sign up or respond to our invitation in any way. Makes me wonder whether they were applying just for fun. And even then, not all of the remaining seven participated fully. We did achieve one thing though: at it’s height, the B30 team felt really “connected”.

A few disappointments…
However, we are, overall, disappointed with this edition of B30. Why? Because just two of the 17 managed to make money online (that we know of). We would have liked to have 17 out of 17! Also, we are disappointed to announce that we are closing the first edition of B30 today despite the program not being fully complete. This really is hard for us to do but as things stand, it is the best thing to do. We apologise for any inconveniences caused by this action.

Smiles
Okay, we’re done with the bad parts of B30. Now, the good. We are very proud of one of the participants, Ms Maria Maina who came in as a green newbie but now has an interesting freelance business as well as an ebook for sale. This is what we want and love to see and it makes us endlessly happy. We’re proud of you, Maria.

Another nice product of Biashara 30 is Kazi360 (don’t click it yet, it is not fully ready). Kazi360 is a Job Board for young professionals in Kenya. Whether you’re looking for a job, or hunting for top-notch talent, Kazi360’s simple but powerful tools are geared towards connecting Kenya’s brightest minds with the best Kenyan companies. It is a joint venture between Like Chapaa and others. While running B30, the need for such a site was very apparent and, as usual, we jumped at the opportunity. You shall be hearing more of this project, you can be sure of that.

Was this edition of B30 successful? Well, sadly, no. We did not achieve everything that we had hoped to achieve. :(

What could we have done better?
We’ve thought long and hard about what we could have done better, and here are our conclusions:

  • Kenya is still an offline country, we’re afraid. We realise that we should have had more face-to-face meetings.
  • We should have gone through the material faster. Though it was a lot and sometimes we felt that the pace could hinder the learning…
  • In relation to the above, we should not have spent so much time and effort in the “getting an online job” section of the B30 program. We don’t care much for jobs and we feel we needed to have spent more time on setting up an online business.
  • We also seriously need to find more and better ways of keeping attention and focus levels of the participants up.
  • Wambere (me) should have spent more time in the program. I sadly had other pressing matters to attend to. :(

What next?
So there you have it, all the gory details. So what next? First off, we’d LOVE to hear from you. Yes, you. What do you think of all this?

Anyone still willing to take part in the next Biashara 30?

Please discuss in the comments below.