Hi there! Have you looked at the calendar lately? Yeah, we’re almost done with this year. Gosh, is it just me or did it go by really fast? Yet, a lot has happened this year…. we launched this blog. I bet some of you do not know what, exactly, led us to launch Like Chapaa. Well, here it is:

It was a hot and dusty day on the streets of Nairobi. I had the day off work so I was just walking about in town, running some errands. In that particular month, I was really really ‘tight’ financially. You know what I mean? Yes, it was bad. While walking, my mind was just going round and round thinking about how to ease my financial woes. Then, while at ‘The’ jobless corner (you know, opposite the Nairobi Hilton?), I was just struck by this fact: I knew so much about the net, and I was even helping some people with their sites but I was not really using this knowledge to benefit myself. This just struck me and I kept thinking about it a long time. I was determined to do something. But what?

A few months later, Wambere was going through a rough patch of her own. She needed a substantial amount of money and when she told me, we realised that at the rate we were going, we would never get that kind of money. Ever. It just made me angry. I was tired of being broke. I was tired of depending on my salary and taking crap at work. I was tired of not being able to get what I want. Tired and angry.

Then we read a little bit of heaven from Naomi Dunford titled, “Why we’re broke and how to fix it.” That blog post just talked to me. It got me thinking that I do have the power to control my own destiny, I’ve had the power all along. See, everyone can be an entrepreneur. Everyone. You don’t need to be all serious with fancy offices and crisp blue suits – just do your thing your own way and at your own pace. That’s what we did – in the most quiet manner and at the unlikeliest time (when we were both busier with life, work and school than we could ever imagine), Wambere and I launched something we could call our own.

It was almost as easy going as a hobby at first – we didn’t have 5 year plans or anything of the sort. We just knew what we wanted to do and where we wanted to get to. We worked at it, little by little and day by day. Every time we did something and found out that it actually worked we were more surprised than anyone else. And here we are – it may not be the biggest or best blog but its ours. And we’re having fun, doing stuff that we are actually interested in and…we make money too.

If you ask me, I’d say that the three things about Like Chapaa that we are really proud of are: Biashara30, our own little SEO success and you. Yes, you. See, if it weren’t for people like you, we wouldn’t be here today. Thank you, dear readers for caring enough to read what we write. God bless you!

This is one of those end-of-year posts so surely it wouldn’t be complete without some sort of list. It’s tradition, you see. :p So here are the top articles of 2009 on this website as measure by the number of pageviews. In case you joined us later on in the year, help yourself to some of our earlier work:

1. How To Make Money Online In Kenya
2. How To Receive Payments Online
3. Receiving Online Payments In Kenya
4. How to Start A Business With 3000 Or Less
5. Do You Also Want To Be A Successful Freelancer? [Interview]
6. ‘White People Stole My Car’
7. Online Data Entry Jobs?
8. How To Make 30,000 A Month Online
9. Six of the Best Banks For Startups In Kenya
10. Simple Business Registration In Kenya

So that’s a wrap, 2010 here we come! Have a wonderful new year, everybody. We’ll be going places – and you’re coming with us!

What do you want to do in 2010?