“This is 6th May 2020 at the peak of COVID and this place is my rural village called Anjalu.
Am sharing this to inspire or challenge somebody especially the youths and those whose businesses were affected by COVID. My good friend Bernadette Muyomi inspired me to share.
When COVID was announced my company lost big training contracts after the banning of gatherings.
Some of those were deals we had chased for long and would be a game-changer to setpace consultancy.
The only safe option left was to go to the village with my family to be safe and to manage the expenses.Am sure most of you opted for this. We had no other option.
Back in the village, I had to survive and it took me a week of meditation, prayers and reflection and finally, I thought of something!!
I need to pay my rent, loan, and bills despite the pandemic. I have a family, office, and house all that needs me and no sympathy or covid will change this. I thought of an action plan.
My village was having the govt connecting electricity and every home needed a kra pin, application forms and such for stima application and would all travel kilometres to get that. I saw the gap but had a challenge of stima and printer.
I thought of a solution:
I called my staff in Nai and asked him to open our office(which we had closed)and send the printer and papers and the following day I had them in my village.
Then the issue of power to run the printer? My brother Shadrack Baariu gave me his generator and the following day we were set.
Then the challenge of a room? Well, i took my chair and just sat outside in a shopping centre!! Wow! in 2 days we had a cyber and my beloved wife called it Jukab.
I kept my titles, degree, fame, suits down and sat in a shopping centre in my village to do the work.
Yes, the CEO himself. Of course, people laughed at me little did they know no single day ended without pocketing 3k!! Yes,i mean it.
KRA pin in the village is Ksh 300 and we served over 7 people per day then weka photocopies and such.
Fast forward, we run it until August and we had enough to buy more equipment, pay goodwill and do all partitions for our Jukab cyber in Nairobi.
Though we made some top up the whole concept and savings came from the village cyber!
LESSONS:
1. Every challenge presents an opportunity. Don’t look at the disaster side and look for the opportunity side.
2. Never wait for perfect conditions. Start with what you have and where you are. We had no stima, shop or equipment but did it anyway.
3.Do everything with a vision. The village concept has grown to be a cyber in the city and soon opening a second one in CBD.
4. Be deaf, be blind. Please ignore the sentence,”what will people say or think of me”. Just be yourself.no one will pay your bills
5. Keep your titles and entitlements aside and work like an illiterate. You can push mkokoteni with your degree, do it.
6. Jobs are created. Don’t wait for govt or companies to employ you. Create one
7. Trust in God. I can’t explain it further
8. Be flexible and move with time
9. Add your lesson
(Adapted from Hon Kaberia Bariu)
Meru Daily News is your one-stop trusted source for the latest News updates from Meru County, Tharaka Nithi and the larger Mt. Kenya region. Follow our Social Media Pages for real-time News Bytes.
