Cytonn Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of Cytonn Investments, held the Cytonn Entrepreneurs Hub Discussion Forum that brought together a panel of distinguished entrepreneurs to share their perspective of what it takes to start, run and grow a business. In attendance were over 100 budding entrepreneurs looking to learn from one another and the distinguished set of panellists.
(L-R) Bonney Tunya (moderator), Suzie Wokabi, Irene Wanjiku, Simon Kabu & Ben Kiruthi
The panel comprised of Simon Kabu - Founder and CEO of Bonfire Adventures; Suzie Wokabi - Founder and CEO of Suzie Beauty; Irene Wanjiku- Managing Director of REXE Roofing and Ben Kiruthi an award-winning, international and destination wedding photographer. The panel discussion was moderated by Bonney Tunya – CNBC Africa’s East Africa Anchor and a financial journalist.
Speaking during the forum, Cytonn’s Head of Legal and Company Secretary, Patricia Wanjama, welcomed the audience to the 3rd successive entrepreneurs’ discussion forum, promising an interactive and highly engaging session. Patricia also talked about the focus of Cytonn Foundation – Entrepreneurship, Financial Literacy and Training & Mentorship. “Cytonn eHub Discussion Forum is one of the activities geared towards engaging on the Entrepreneurship pillar for 2018. We shall also have Cytonn eHub Season 3 in Q3’2018 and Cytonn eHub Investors Forum in Q4’2018.”
Patricia Wanjama Head of Legal & Company Secretary officially opening the forum
Irene Wanjiku, Founder and CEO of Rexe Roofing, explained how she grew into the construction business because of her passion to provide alternative and beautiful roofing for residences, and insisted that credibility and business integrity are important when starting a business. She also explained on how maintaining business consistency is not easy. “Don’t just sit there hoping things will happen for you, you have to go out there. State your values at the beginning and set your targets before getting on with it.”
Ben Kiruthi, - an international award winning & destination wedding photographer, emphasized how most successful partnerships are run, particularly where the partners are family members. “Partnerships should be symbiotic, where you benefit each other and ultimately the business. Where your partner is also your spouse, it is good to define each persons role so that you don’t get into conflict. It is also important to separate work life from family. When you leave the office, you leave behind business and get back to being a dad, a mum, a husband or a wife.”
Members of the audience following the panel discussions
Suzie Wokabi of Suzie Beauty, shared on how she cracked the Kenyan make up industry, her challenges in the entrepreneurial journey and how she decided to start her own line of Kenyan beauty products. “My main challenge was putting together a business and running it since I’m mostly a creator. Getting business funding was also a bit of a challenge since we did a lot of pitching to investors. You have to be investor ready, getting your numbers right and audited accounts and your story ready with as much details and truth as possible.”
Simon Kabu, CEO of Bonfire Adventures advised the audience on how the key to success is mainly someone’s passion towards their business and further explained on his journey. “Our journey was not easy in the first year, we used to work up to 15 hours a day and only had one desk. Now we have over 200 employees and offices around the globe. In a successful venture, you should be your own customer, whatever you do let it be the real you. You should not expect everything on a silver platter, always plan your budget. Starting up is the most difficult stage since you have to look for trust and funding. We started by building trust first with our friends before other people.
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Audience of young entrepreneurs enjoy the day’s proceedings
Some of the questions from the audience to panellist included: How to handle clients professionally; How to balance client expectations and the needs of the employees; How to create a culture of execution while still maintaining the quality of service; How to get business finance and data, How to excite employees to buy into the culture; and How to prepare a business to be investor ready.
The Cytonn eHub Discussion Forum is the first activity of the year under Cytonn Foundation’s annual initiative, Cytonn eHub, which aims to promote and improve entrepreneurship in Kenya. The initiative themed ‘Start Sharp and Thrive’ is in its third year after inception and has four main activities; i) the Cytonn eHub Discussion Forum, ii) eHub Training programme; an intense 12-week training and mentorship programme for young and upcoming entrepreneurs that seek to enhance knowledge and capabilities on how to run and grow successful enterprises, iii) Cytonn eHub Investors Forum, which brings together a panel of distinguished entrepreneurs and investors with the agenda of having successful Cytonn eHub Training Programme graduates and budding entrepreneurs, drawn from different sectors, pitch their businesses and business ideas to investors with the goal of securing funding, and iv) Cytonn eHub Business Support, an initiative to ensure continued follow up and support for Cytonn eHub training programme participants.
