Family Bank Goodies

November 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

In partnership with KDN, Family Bank is set to offer free Wifi within a radius of one kilometer of each of the bank’s branches. The bank has quite a number of branches. 😀

So now you can add Family Bank to your list of where you can get Wifi in Nairobi. :p Apart from increasing it’s brand awareness, how else will Family Bank benefit from this? I’m not sure…However, you and I shall benefit immensely!

More to that, the bank shall also be offering financing to those who are interested in setting up internet and data related businesses. Are you an entrepreneur? Looking for financing?

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Small Business Tagged With: , ,

Social Media Explained

November 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Interview by KTN’s Larry Madowo with Mark Kaigwa and Kahenya Kamunyu. Watch and share 🙂

Filed Under: Internet Culture Tagged With:

Biashara 30 Confessions

November 4, 2009 by 32 Comments

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.

Filed Under: Biashara 30 Tagged With:

Google Alerts – A Free Research Assistant

October 28, 2009 by 2 Comments

What if you could keep track on news/information on whatever you are interested in? What if you could receive updates whenever new information regardng your subject of choice was mentioned anywhere on the internet? Would you like that? Well, then you will love Google Alerts.

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. This means that whenever any website mentions your topic of interest, you get a Google Alert. For instance, if you want to keep track of news/information on Safaricom, simply type “safaricom” as your search term on the Google Alerts home page and you will receive information on all new Google search results that mention Safaricom.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

  • Monitoring a developing news story
  • Online reputation management
  • Keeping current on a competitor or industry
  • Getting the latest on a celebrity or event
  • Keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

Google Alerts will automatically and reliably deliver your updates. It’s like having a research assistant!

Filed Under: Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With:

The Worst Thing About Doing Business In Kenya

October 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment

As you all may know, the Like Chapaa team is also involved with Nickel Pro where we do a whole bunch of stuff ranging from simple web design to online marketing. Like chapaa and Nickel Pro are only a few months old but in that time we’ve managed to take them from just ideas in our minds to reality.

For me, this has been my first brave plunge into the choppy waters of doing business in Kenya. It’s been a wild, but very fun, ride and I have learnt a whole lot. Trust me, the best way to learn about business is to actually do business. (And it’s not hard to start one.) I unreservedly advise all of you, dear readers, to go out there and start your own businesses and see for yourself.

Of course doing business is no bed of roses. It’s always up and down and it really tests one’s resolve. One thing that I absolutely detest about doing business in Kenya is the fact that almost everyone doesn’t want to pay you. You meet a nice gentleman-type and you do some good work for him but then when t comes to paying, he just doesn’t want to. He gives all sorts of excuses and does everything to delay you. Yet, he has already gotten what he promised to pay for. Why is this?

Why do we have to chase after our hard earned money so much? Aaaargh!

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With:

You Need To Know About Online Reputation Management

October 13, 2009 by 5 Comments

Guess what? Everyone’s a critic these days. Of course this has always been true but, these days, every one of these critics can probably go online and write their thoughts on facebook, twitter or even their own blog. Why should you care?

Suppose you own a nice little restaurant and one day, I have lunch there. I don’t like the food and/or service and so immediately after (or even during) lunch I write on my facebook “I hate Restaurant X, the food smells”. Suddenly all of my facebook friends know that you serve smelly food at your place. They’ll maybe tell their friends who will then tell their friends, and the whole thing could grow into quite a movement against your restaurant. And you probably don’t even sell smelly food.

Before the internet, it was very difficult for a single person to spread news to large groups of people but now one can do it in five minutes. As the internet grows in importance in our lives here in Kenya, business owners should be wary of the dangers that it brings. It could take just one blog post or status update to cost you hundreds of potential customers. This is why online reputation management is important.

Online reputation management is the deliberate act of making sure that what people find when they look for you or your business online is favorable to you. Wikipedia defines it as, “the practice of consistent research and analysis of one’s personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online media.”

When you Google your name or that of your business. Do you like what you find on the first page of results? When you Google my name, the first page of Google displays articles that I’ve written, and links to other places that I hang out online. This is by no means an accident, I consistently try to influence what others find when they look for me. What about you, or your business?

Many companies in Kenya may get a big surprise at what people are saying about them online. For example, at Like Chapaa we’ve talked about quite a number of Kenyan companies but only a handful have even noticed that we talked about them. What else are they missing?

Filed Under: Internet Culture Tagged With:

How To Be Successful

October 12, 2009 by 4 Comments

About two months ago, we started a little project to try and work with some of our readers and try help them earn their very first Shilling online. Of course this program is Biashara 30. Well, B30 is now coming to a close and I want to take this opportunity to share the biggest lesson that I learn over the duration fo B30.

First, let me digress. B30 was fairly successful. We only let in 10 people and, unfortunately, some of the people we let in did not find time to participate in B30. The rest were very active, and the B30 training website bears witness to this. By far, the star of B30 was Maria Maina. She came to B30 being a big newbie on the internet but as I write she is launching an ebook shop whose first offering is an ebook that was written by Maria herself. In addition, she is a raging success at online freelancing.

How did she do it? In her own words, “Don’t flake out and everything you do will achieve some success.”

I agree with Maina. If you want to do something, and succeed at it then you have to do it, and do it well. You have to put in the energy, focus and do the work. There is no shortcut, really.

Going back to B30, Maria stood out from the rest – she actually really did everything that we talked about, and flooded our inboxes with questions. What about the rest of the B30 participants? No one put as much effort as Maria……likewise, no one is enjoying the success that Maria is enjoying.

If you want to do something, and succeed at doing it then you simply must work at it. Find time and work at it; and work at it again, and again until you accomplish your goals.

N/B: If you’re looking to get into the next B30 then be warned….everything that you achieve is absolutely up to you and to the amount of time and effort that you put into the project.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , ,