Smart hustle: Let's do business the African way
Antony Njagi, 34, is a businessman and an author of three entrepreneurship books that focus on the African context. He believes many businesses have failed because they were premised on wrong entrepreneurial contexts. In his opinion, everybody has what it takes to be an entrepreneur, but only if they understand the art of doing it the African way.
1. Tell us more about your business.
I currently run a computer sales, services and solutions company known as Altocom Ltd, in Nairobi and Kisii town.
I have previously sold second hand clothes (mitumba), ran a barber shop, a printing business as well as a ladies’ shoe parlour.
I started the full-time business after leaving Egerton University 11 years ago with a bachelor’s degree in business management (banking and finance option).
2. Did you run a business in university?
Not really, I had a job instead. While still on campus, I sold insurance policies for CFC Life (Now Heritage) for a period of 18 months.
My average monthly pay was Sh1,000, which the company would pay in form of Safaricom scratch cards. I also worked for Ecobank Kenya for a period of three months, not long after leaving university.
I can say I picked lessons from these exposures and decided that employment is not for me. It’s from the savings of the latter job that I launched my first mitumba business.
3.What has business taught you that employment didn’t?
Business has taught me more firmly that you earn because you’re productive, not because you’re active.
You earn because you produced profitable results, not just because you showed up. In employment, you’re not your own master, have a work schedule, deadlines and targets to meet. You can’t grow more in employment than you can in business.
4.You write entrepreneurship books. What are some of the mistakes that people make in business?
One of the greatest misconceptions is that one needs a lot of money to start a business. This has kept off many potential movers and shakers from venturing into the field.
Another common blunder is people investing in things they do not understand, just because they were told that there’s money there.
Letting other people take charge of your young business is another costly mistake, especially during the weaning stages.
Thankfully, these are matters that I have addressed exhaustively, especially in my first book, What Kenyan Entrepreneurs Never Tell You, as well as in the third title, Thriving Entrepreneurs.
5.You also talk about doing business the African way, what does that mean?
In Africa, the government regulations are much more lenient. So it’s easier to start a business here than, say, in the United States, where one cannot wake up one day and start hawking socks or mandazi and coffee.
In most African countries, one can initiate a business with nearly zero capital and get business compliance with time.
Our culture is also beneficial in that Africans generally live communally, so an entrepreneur can easily leverage that.
In What Kenyan Entrepreneurs Never Tell You, I’ve given an example of a young man who used to buy milk on a two-week credit line from my mother and other village women, and sell it in cash to shops. He ended up with a very big entreprise.
6.Are your books self-published?
By and large, yes. I have written three books on entrepreneurship. Apart from the two I have mentioned, there’s the The Street-Smart Entrepreneur.
Amazon has a platform known as Kindle Self-Publishing. In it, an author posts the fully done work, then they (Amazon) do the layout and related stuff. If there are quality issues, the draft is sent back to the author for corrections.
The arrangement with these online entities is still referred to as self-publishing since the author does the bulk of the work, including market research, editing, marketing – where I pay for ads on Amazon – and product pricing.
The same applies with local publishers. As such, apart from minor quality assurance details, the publishers are basically ‘printers’.
7. What are the challenges in self-publishing?
It’s time consuming. It’s resource intensive. It needs an eye for detail and ears that are ready to listen to correction. But it’s deeply rewarding and it’s the fastest path to having a manu-script to holding your own book.
8.How do you market your work?
I use social media, word of mouth and referrals to market my work. I would say the market is amazing despite the claims that Kenya is a literary desert where a majority don’t read!
If the reviews I get are anything to go buy, I see myself ditching computers for books in the near future.
9.What would you tell those wishing to leave employment for business?
I would advise them to start testing the business waters while still under the cover of a regular salary. It would make sense for one to begin investing while they’re still in employment, and quit like six months when their side business is sustainable or profitable.
Startups may require financial injections to keep them going and this would not be possible for an employee starting from scratch, or with the little earning.
10.When not in business or writing books, what keeps you busy?
I’m a minister, chiefly preaching the gospel of Jesus in universities and colleges, as an associate of Fellowship of Christian Unions (Focus). I’m also involved in facilitating entrepreneurship training from time to time. And of course, I’m always deliberate about spending as much time as possible with my family.
