In his Eighth State of the Nation Address on 30th Nov this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta submitted a report to the parliament recognizing Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as the lifeblood of Kenya’s economy yet a huge number of them are unlicensed. According to the 2017 Economic Survey, there are about 1.56 million licensed MSMEs and 5.85 million unlicensed similar businesses in Kenya. This means that less than 27 percent of all businesses in Kenya are registered. Out of these, 92.2 percent are micro-enterprises while only 7.1 percent and 0.7 percent are small and medium enterpri ..read more

Unemployment has been one of the main problems of Kenyan youth for many years. Add this to the dire effects of COVID-19 to the country’s economy worsening the situation for job seekers as many companies have been downsizing their workforce to stay afloat. However, there seem to be a crop of resilient youth trying to find their way into business to enable them earn something thanks to the new technology that enables them use internet to market and connect with their customers.  This is creating a large number of youth-run businesses mushrooming in different sectors and disrupting current ..read more

Most of the time when one starts up a business, they find themselves running almost every activity as everything becomes rolled up as one because their business is a one-man or one-woman show. This can be quite challenging given on a daily basis, there is plenty of work to be done within a very limited time making multitasking a hugely important skill to possess as an entrepreneur. Do not fret people have done it before and so can you. Not everybody is natural at this but the good news is that effective multitasking can be learned. In fact, the secret to multitasking is not in trying to do ev ..read more

Proper information on how to run businesses can avert the death of over 75 percent of Kenyan SMEs which do not survive barely five years after their inception. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) figures, only 10 percent of SMEs are able to stay afloat after ten years of their start something which has been majorly attributed to lack of the know-how in the running of the enterprises. “Most of these SMEs are started with unclear focus due to lack of training or mentorship on various issues such as how to identify markets and management of finances among others leading t ..read more

Do you run a small business that is constantly in debt?  You are not alone, even the most skilful entrepreneurs, due to natural disasters and pandemics, have found themselves in a similar situation to a point of thinking to avoid all forms of debt altogether.  However, debt itself is not a bad thing and it is necessary when you run a small business but how it is managed can eventually categorize it as either a bad or good debt. Therefore, as an entrepreneur, you need to gain some skills on how to manage your debts and save your small venture from collapse due to bad debts. In case yo ..read more

In Kenya, 2020 and 2021 have been challenging years that have witnessed a tremendous shift in businesses across all sectors. Some businesses have closed while others have been surviving the effects of COVID-19. In addition, many who have lost their jobs or are unemployed are looking for different methods for making a living outside formal employment. Jumping on new trends can sometimes be riskier than rewarding. However, here are some of the best emerging business ideas in Kenya through 2022 which are taking over the consumer market. Shelf Space Rentals Today, online vendors are increasing by ..read more

Since the beginning of this year, cooking oil has become a luxury for many broke and struggling Kenyans as the price of the commodity continues to go up as a result of a rally in edible oil cost globally. Customers now opt for salad oil that comes in barrels and is sub-divided into smaller quantities in many shops. The customers carry their containers for the quarter, half, a full litre of cooking oil they wish to buy. But even this is no longer affordable for many given most shops at the moment sell a litre of the salad oil at Sh200 averagely from Sh150 it used to be. Most hit with the price ..read more

They say you cannot start by becoming great but you can become great by starting. This is a mindset that has indeed built great business intrapreneurs the world over. Let us take, for instance, the business of supplying fast-moving goods such as cakes, mandazis, soft drinks, and bread among others from manufacturers which requires small capital to start. In fact, a product’s route to the market is one of the crucial factors every manufacturer considers in their quest to make sales by moving their goods closer to consumers.  Here is where you come in as a distributor by either becoming a ..read more

At the moment economy is bad almost for everyone following the dire effects of COVID-19 and the many loans that the country is servicing pushing up prices of most basic commodities. All these and other factors have rendered Kenyan pockets dry in need of support to pay school fees, improve businesses, and hospital bills being some of the hard situations that many find themselves in and in need of some quick money to sort you. However, banks that are the reliable chief lenders have their long processes that one must follow to acquire the money. And what if you have an outstanding loan that mayb ..read more

Many Kenyans continue to buy cars and our roads are becoming congested by day increasing chances of vehicle breakdowns due to wear and tear and collisions among others that constantly need the attention of a mechanic. It does not matter, car breakdowns can happen anywhere at any time and what if it happens at a place far away from a garage and during odd hours? This is where there is a niche market for a skilled and experienced mechanic who does not have a job and has been relying on one-off tasks at some garage or some call-ups to fix owners cars at their homes. In fact, if one was to take a ..read more