Local e Business?

by kellie on February 8, 2010

Over the last couple of years, we have seen a steady increase in the number of ventures claiming to be businesses based on the web (e businesses). Everytime I attend yet another local techies conference (as an impostor since I’m not a techie), I have high hopes that someone will present a revolutionary, well executed business concept.

I’m not faulting all web based concepts, we all know Ushahidi as one of the best executed ideas in this planet and for a good cause. However, there are two things our local ventures lack and for as long as these aren’t present, we will continue to cry that no one funds technology businesses in Kenya till the kingdom come. Because believe me, even if we presented some of our business ideas to the Silicon Valley venture capitalists pre tech burst in the US, they wouldn’t touch them. [click to continue…]

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Woes Of A Dream Carrier

by kellie on December 16, 2009

I hit the send button and sigh deeply.

That’s me emailing the members of an investment club I’ve chaired for the last 3 years (and still continue to chair despite having resigned over a year ago). [click to continue…]

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Of Excellence

December 14, 2009

We all want to be extraordinary in what we do, but the fact of the matter is few will be truly legendary.

There’s a price to pay for excellence, sacrifices to be made,pain to be borne, blood sweat and tears. My favourite writer Sunny Bindra looks at Michael Jackson’s work ethic and his pursuit for excellence [...]

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Got Issues?

December 8, 2009

There’s one thing that this site and The Rookie Manager have in common:
We detest bad customer experience.
While here at Rookie we just rant and discourage customers from ever using the services of the offending companies, Mark Kaigwa and the team at Gotissuez.com take it a step further:

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Zain! Oh Zain!

December 7, 2009

I’m not an authority on matters marketing, but this last Saturday I discovered the biggest reason why Zain is a distant second to Safaricom at the moment. Poor marketing.
The typical customer doesn’t know half the services Zain has, and in my opinion if you’re selling a retail product, you should sing about it till your [...]

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Personal Finance – From A Techie’s Mouth

November 24, 2009

After the last few posts on personal finances, one of my readers approached me on the side bar and accused me of being conventional, and as such, wasn’t helping him. I was giving information that we all knew, but I needed to break it down into steps that he could act and work on, and [...]

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Moonlighter? Get A Virtual Office

November 20, 2009

Most professionals in Nairobi have side jobs.

The most desirable situation would be where our jobs provide for all our needs, but finances and  one’s career strategy may force them to take up a moonlighting gig.
There’s another group of professionals that are just starting out, and work from home as they build up revenues so they [...]

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Saving Vs Investing

November 3, 2009

One of my loyal readers asked this question on the previous post.
Saving vs investing. Which is more prudent?

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The B Word

October 23, 2009

Most people associate a budget with a restricted lifestyle, no fun, and generally figures which most people have an aversion for.
Sadly though, for your personal finances to make sense, you’ve got to have a plan of how you will spend your money once it’s earned. This doesn’t have to be some fancy Excel or Quickbooks [...]

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Personal Finance 101

October 21, 2009

Every so often (for most of us at mid month when our cash is out) we will look at our personal finances and wonder, ‘where does it all go?’. We do our annual tax returns, look at the money we took home as net pay, and we can’t account for most of it, and we [...]

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