Mr Planner

January 7, 2010 by 6 Comments

Alibaba is an interesting website. You can use it to find manufacturers and/or suppliers of almost any product imaginable. If you wish to start a retail shop, Alibaba is likely to be very useful to you. Go on and try it and see for yourself!

Do you remember drop shipping from the other day? Alibaba is one place in which you can find lots and lots of Drop shippers. What does this mean? This means that, using Alibaba, one can quickly start an online shop. Just find a supplier (drop shipper) for what you want to sell and start selling it.

Now, here’s an idea: generally speaking, it would be more profitable to start an online shop with the target market not being in Kenya. An online shop that aims to sell to Americans or Europeans is generally, usually, more profitable than one targeting Kenyans in Kenya. Because internet penetration here is still low. Now, the problem with selling to Americans or Europeans is that if you are a Kenyan in Kenya then you probably know little about foreign markets and customers. You could start your little shop and go months without a single customer.

What can you do? Well, you can hire successful and proven eBay sellers. The idea is to structure a deal with them where they sell on your behalf. Theoretically, they already know how to sell on eBay and they should be able to sell your product better and faster than you. All you have to do is make sure that at the end of the day, you make your money somehow.

Now think about it. You have used a drop shipper and an eBay retailer to sell goods to customers you know nothing about. You are making money because you had the audacity to set the whole thing up. The whole ‘system’ only works when everyone makes money and is happy. Looks like something that we should try in Biashara 30, eh?

Can it work? I have no idea! Why don’t you try it?

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Drop Shipping For Kenyans

January 4, 2010 by 8 Comments

“Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. As in all retail businesses, the retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price.” (Wikipedia)

What this usually means is that one can start an online shop without actually having any physical inventory – whenever you make a sale, you give the delivery details to the wholesaler or manufacturer who then does the shipping and delivery. The customers are usually clueless as to who actually shipped the goods. If your customers can live with a small delay between when they place an order and when they receive the goods, then drop shipping will probably be of great benefit to you. You will greatly reduce all inventory-related costs.

Can it work in Kenya?
Drop shipping probably can work in Kenya especially for online shops. Theoretically, all one has to do is locate a reputable drop shipper, and they are in business! However, one has to take into account that online shopping is still not big in Kenya.

In the pure form of drop shipping, the manufacturer/wholesaler ships the goods directly to the buyers. This is the defining feature and main advantage of drop shipping. But what if you are selling flash disks in Nairobi from a Chinese manufacturer? Letting the manufacturer handle the shipping of individual flash disks may turn out to be quite a hassle. Because of this, some retailers opt to have the goods shipped to them so that they can distribute them more easier to customers. But if you do this, you start incurring inventory-related costs.

It seems that the best type of goods to deal with are those in which it is usual for the customer to place an order and then wait a while for delivery. This would give the retailer time to place an order with the wholesaler/manufacturer who then sends the goods to the retailer/customer. What types of goods are these? Furniture, maybe?

Selling Outside Kenya
Things get easier if you are selling to people not in Kenya and, preferably, in the West. Such people are more used to buying online. As a testament to this, did you know that a good number of people who sell on eBay use drop shipping? Why can’t you be one of them? You can start today!

The thing to remember is that you are dealing with people living in far off countries and so you have to make sure that you understand the market. For instance, if you are in Kenya selling to Americans, an American shop will probably find it much easier to understand, access and serve the American market. You have to try do something about this fact.

In conclusion, drop shipping can work, even in Kenya. But, as with everything else, it is not easy.

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Smart Ways To Make Money Online With Nil Investment

December 14, 2009 by 17 Comments

The fiber optic Internet is here with us, the Internet charges have dropped dramatically and the prices of computers too have plummeted to due to zero rating. With opportunities beckoning on our doors I don’t see why you should continue complaining that there are no jobs. With almost nil investment you can now make some money online. If you love freedom, that personal freedom to do what you love and enjoy, that comes with working without a fixed schedule or geographic location, then you are welcome to join the lucrative world of making money online with minimal investment. Even if you’re not looking to work full-time at home, the Internet offers a viable source of money which can help to supplement your regular income and improve your life style.

Today I will explore several ways in which you can make some money online. My ideas involve making real cash not points or credits or some funny rewards, they don’t require you to have your own Web domain or ask you money or have your own products or any hard-selling. Hapana. So let’s start.

Be an Online Freelancer
The easiest way to make some real bucks comes through online freelancing or contracted work. Take advantage of your skills and expertise .What do you love? Are you good in web design? Are you a good writer? Whatever your skill is put it to good use as an online freelancer. Perhaps the best place to start is getafreelancer or Elance or Guru or demand studios. No money is needed to subscribe and the registration is fairly simple. Take your time in each website and read the processes involved and make some bucks while you can. You gotta start somewhere.

Be an Affiliate
If this is the first time you are hearing this word then you have been sleeping. Affiliate marketing is one of the most lucrative ways to make passive income while you sleep and do the things you love .Young people all over the world have become millionaires and rich overnight without products of their own or any investment. Talk of Joel Comm., Russell Branson, Michael Sweeney, the king of the online marketing Rich Schfren and the John Reese-famed for making a million bucks online in 24 hours!

Anyway, affiliate marketing works like this: You sign up as an affiliate with a merchant and then promote a specific product or service and whenever a referred user makes a purchase based on your recommendations you earn some commission. If you’ve got an interest in weight loss as an example, you can make money promoting weight loss products. In terms of fashion wear, you can earn commissions by recommending friends to clothing websites with affiliate programs. Sounds fun?

The amount of money you make depends on what you are selling. Done correctly, affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful ways to make money from the web.

The best place to start is Clickbank which has over 200,000 affiliates and over 2 million affiliates’ products. Clickbank is one of the most popular affiliate networks 1)because it deals with digital or downloadable products and 2)because of its platform which makes it easier to select. Commisionjunction or cj as its commonly known is the largest network but deals with physical inventory.

Other popular affiliate networks include Amazon, Paydotcom.com similar to click bank and owned by PayPal, moreniche of which I am member (it’s so cool) and linkshare.com. There are thousands of affiliate networks and probably the best place to find the best affiliate programs is at www.associateprograms.com. Did I mention that www.africapoint.com (based in Kenya) has an affiliate program worth checking out?

Sell Your Stuff Online
Do you have pictures or do you have old stuff that you no longer need, do you love artworks or have some crafts? The Internet provides the best platform to sell your stuff. We all know eBay which provides an avenue to sell your used (new) products to people all over the world. In fact you don’t need to own any product to make money on eBay. (See drop shopping, below).

Those pictures you have may be worth some bucks. Check out citizen journalism websites like www.spymedia.com and www.citizenimage.com which will pay for your images. You can also try using www.shutterstock.com, the most established and lucrative micro-stock photography website.

Are you good in web design, content writing or graphics? , If you are, then you can sell your work at places like www.sitepoint.com or even Clickbank, warriorforum, or digitalpoint.com.

For craftworks, the best place to sell your works is www.etsy.com

Be a Dropper Shopper
This almost like affiliate marketing although it involves arbitrage (here you act as a broker).

It’s a method whereby you deal with offline retailers or exporters in other countries, or buy from one seller and sell to another.

Simply put let’s take the case of eBay. Using eBay’s pulse (sort of market research platform) you find that the most popular fashion item is skinny jeans. Next we research who are the sellers of skinny jeans – we assume our seller (the cheapest) is located in china. You contact the seller who gives you a deal of a certain % of sales (you can also get an affiliate code).Then you head straight back to eBay and find who is selling skinny jeans (in this case he is the buyer).

Armed with your information, you propose the deal to him that you can supply cheap quality skinny jeans and that you can handle shipping charges as a way to sweeten the deal. Deal done. Your supplier in china dropships (ships it directly to the eBay seller that you found) the product and remits your cut in good faith.

Otherwise with affiliate code you can simply open an eBay store and start selling skinny jeans. The seller (our guy in china) handles the shipping (drop ships-takes the product to the buyer’s doorsteps) and handles customer care issues.

Hope you get the idea .It is rather simple. Perhaps I should send you to salehoo, the world’s biggest drop shipping platform where there are thousands of cheap wholesalers located everywhere. Some of the prices offered by the drop shoppers seem outrageous but the commissions are quite handsome. Plus I find this idea of dropshipping so much applicable right here in Kenya. What do you think? Is this not what brokers do at wakulima market?

Some more hot money making ideas coming up in the next post. Keep reading.

To your success,
Kihato Mwangi

About me
I am simple young man who earns and spend most of my time online making some bucks and hunting for opportunities. I am also an entrepreneur (my firm handles life coaching, Internet marketing and how to be financially independent) and a small business consultant who is always eager to help Kenyans to be financially independent by making smart choices.

Filed Under: Make Money, Small Business Tagged With: , , ,

How To Get Out Of Debt

December 11, 2009 by 1 Comment

Q: My query was is there a way i can get back to my finacial freedom after i took a loan with Barclays bank and currently paying through the nose with the big interest.also this has lead me to bad credit and i am always in a debit account so getting a top up is impossible.please advise. thanks

As I see it, there is no set path to come out of debt, everyone’s case is different. They key is proper financial management. If one has good money managing habits, they can theoretically get out of debt with ease.

There are two paths here:

  1. Income + Borrowing + Spending both = DEBT
  2. Income + Saving + Investment = WEALTH

Unfortunately, many many people follow the fist path. It is not fair to blame them though – we are only human and our wants can sometimes take control of our emotions and end up in us making wrong financial/money decisions….

So how does one go about getting out of debt? Here’s one plan. Kindly note that it is not the only way and there may be better methods out there.

First, take a piece of paper and list down all your sources of income (things that put money in your pocket every month). Next, list all your expenses (things that take money out of your pocket), including what you need to pay every month to service your loan(s).

If the total income is higher than the expenses, that’s super! Otherwise, you are in the red and things will only get worse unless you take control now. But how? First, do not get any further into debt!

Next, You MUST reduce your expenses (or increase your income!) so that you can comfortably pay your bills every month without accumulating more debt. Try your best and cut down on everything that is not an absolute necessity – make sure that you only pay what you absolutely MUST pay. If you can move somewhere where the rent is cheaper, do so; if you can cut down on your monthly bills, do so; if you spend money on anything that you don’t need to survive, stop that. Cut down your expenses brutally.

Doing this will make you able to service your loan. If, after you reduce your expenses, you find that your income is now higher than your expenses, put the surplus into paying off your debt. In fact, pour any spare money into the repayment of the debt. Think of the debt as a drain on your money – if you pay it off, you will have money to spend on other things. Put all your disposable income into paying off the debt until it is gone. If you have a savings account with money – consider using it to pay off your debt. Think of it this way: why earn 1 – 5% interest on your savings account when you have a loan that you pay at 18%? Use your savings to reduce the debt.

If you have more than one debt/loan that you need to pay, then you need to list them down and compare them. Which has the highest interest rate? Pay that one off first. You can do this: pay the minimum amount on the other debts/loans while focusing the rest of your money on the one with higher interest. Once you finish it off, move to the next highest interest rate debt/loan. Keep doing this until you pay off all your debt.

And when it is gone, then follow path two – which leads to wealth.

Basically, do as much as possible to acquire Assets while avoiding Liabilities. We can define assets as things that put money into your pocket and Liabilities as things that take money out of your pocket. For example, unless your are a taxi driver, buying a car is, in effect, buying a liability . Imagine that – who ever goes out of her way to buy a liability?

Income + Saving + Investment = WEALTH

Photo courtesy of alancleaver_2000.

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Rich Dad, Poor Dad Part 2

November 2, 2009 by 7 Comments

We have looked at an introduction to Robert Kiyosaki’s ideas on welath in Rich Dad, Poor Dad part 1. Today, we’re going to look at the cashflow quadrant where Mr Kiyosaki talks about four different ways on how you can get rich.

Watch the video:

What do you think?

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Make Money By Receiving Text Messages – In Kenya

October 5, 2009 by 19 Comments

I recently came across an interesting Kenyan site: Jumuika. Why is the site so interesting? They will pay you for each sms that you receive from them. Imagine that! I could read text messages all day and all night….

The idea behind it is simple to grasp – all the text messages that they send to you are advertisements. Given the popularity of text messaging in Kenya, I think it is an amazing idea and, in my view, the company should have no trouble turning this idea into a success.

So, I’ve registered with Jumuika and I’m eagerly awaiting my first text message, and chumz. I shall keep you updated, dear readers, on how I find the service to be.

One thing I really like about Jumuika is that you can send 10 free SMS messages a day from your Jumuika account. Nice, eh? It may be too late for them to be as popular for free SMS as Sasanet once was, but its something. 🙂

However, their system is rather slow/buggy. I registered my account quite a while ago and I’m yet to receive my activation link/code. Hopefully they’ll iron this out soon. Jumuika feels like it can be a success.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Make Money, Tips Hacking and Reviews

Forex Trading In Kenya – An Introduction

October 2, 2009 by 143 Comments


Forex or foreign exchange or simply FX, are terms used to represent the many world currencies being traded in the market. There is no single central forex market in Kenya, or the world. The foreign exchange market is more like an over the counter market and trading typically happens between two people/companies directly. You can trade currencies over the phone, or through the Internet from the world over. Some of the main forex trading centers are New York, London, Frankfurt, Sydney, and Tokyo. Due to these worldwide located hubs, the forex market pretty much trades around the clock.

What is Forex Trading?
Forex trading in Kenya or anywhere else in the world, is the buying and selling of a combination of two currencies simultaneously. This combination of trading currencies is known as ‘cross.’ For example: you can buy the Euro and sell the US dollar or you can buy Japanese yen and sell the GB pound or any other combinations. However, there are some currencies that are traded more often than others. These combinations of currencies, “crosses”, are known as ‘majors’ and include EURUSD (Euro-USD), USDJPY (USD-Yen), and GBPUSD (Pound-USD).

Another thing to remember when trading foreign exchange is that the forex market’s maximum volume of trade is known as the ‘spot market’. This is because the various trades get settled on an immediate or “on-the-spot” basis here. Typically, immediate means 2 banking days.

So How Do You Make Money?
Well, you make money by trading: buying low and selling high. One of the simplest ways to do this is by ‘forward outrights’.

Forward Outrights – simply put, this is a contract to buy an agreed amount of a certain currency at a future date and at a fixed price. For example, you could agree to buy $1,000 next month at Kshs 76 per dollar. When next month comes, if the dollar has risen to, say, Kshs 78 per dollar, then you can buy 1,000 dollars at 76 and selling them at 78, making Kshs 2 per dollar. It’s a gamble but can pay off quite well.

In the past, foreign exchange trading required huge amounts of money to start and was only for the “big boys”. However in the 1980s the rules were changed, and now even individuals can trade forex profitably and fairly easily. One major improvement is margin accounts.Basically, having a 100:1 margin account means that you can control $100,000 using only $1,000 of your own money. That said, ofrex trading is not always a smple affair. Every aspiring forex trader has to educate himself in order to make goos investment decisions. Once started, the trading is not difficult. But it is risky.

Why Trade Forex?
The advantages of trading forex and making money online are many. Some of these are:

  1. Around the clock trading – You can trade from Sunday evening 20:00 GMT to Friday evening 22:00 GMT.
  2. Higher Liquidity – You will always find buyers and sellers to trade FX with. The high market liquidity helps in stabilizing the price and narrow down the spreads.
  3. No commissions – Most forex trade is done without commission. This is one of the main reasons for foreign exchange trading being such as wonderful online money making choice for people in Kenya or the US.

How to Start Trading FX
To start trading, all you need a FX account with funds to buy forex and a PC with a good speed Internet connection. For beginners, we recommend sharpening your trading skills by opening a demo account with a good FX trading company. The account is free and allows you to ‘play’ with your funds to learn the trade. You can get a free practice account here or here.

In order to minimize your risks and maximize your gains, research extensively on the subject and use proper trading tools only. Do not hesitate to ask us for more information. Good luck. 🙂

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