1 | KAYANA NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 0041
KAYANA NEWELETTER SERIES | ISSUE 004 | AUGUST 2020
200
KeS
INSIDE
PODCASTING 101
TIPS AND INSIGHTS!
WOMEN IN RETAIL SERIES
STORIES THAT INSPIRE
FUTURE ENTREPRENEURS
CREATING A COMMUNITY
OF WHOLENESS
Renee
Ngamau
COVER STORY
WHEN NEUTRAL IS
NOT ENOUGH
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EDITOR’S NOTE
RETAIL BUSINESS
IN KENYA
THE TEAM
Editor
Patricia Okelo
“As Kenya fights the COVID-19
pandemic, the disease is also altering
the retail landscape as more buyers
go online.The switch has, therefore,
seen many entrepreneurs come up
with online businesses to cash in on
the opportunity.
While some of the businesses which
were offline take their activities online,
existing online ones have scaled up
their operations.
From the sale of fresh produce to
clothes and shoes, cooked food, baby
items, mobile phones and alcoholic
drinks, the digital start-ups are
aggressively marketing their products
online where many Kenyans are
currently spending their time.
All one needs to do is make a call
or click a button and place their
orders and pay via mobile money or
on delivery of the product, which is
brought to one’s doorstep.”
During the Covid -9 pandemic Retail
businesses have been forced to
embrace ecommerce. Under these
challenging circumstances, more
organizations, businesses and
governments are shifting to online
platforms to deliver products and
services and continue operations,
while consumers are adopting new
online shopping behavior.
For many women in business online
sales has served as the first route
to market. Many women start their
businesses at home and as they
grow they build a lot for allied service
including delivery and online shops.
Covid-19 has accelerated many
businesses plans to go online,
including building online platforms,
online shops, and a general ability to
complete transactions online. Keeping
adequate stock, understanding your
fast selling goods, running online
promotions and partnering with like
minded brands will be come required
learning for all entrepreneurs.
We have seen the growth of global
Writers
Brenda Ndirangu
Grace Ngii
Ida Mwikali
Design
Dennis Miiru
Photographers
Kimachia Wamwiri
Digital Partners
Boresha Limited
Publisher
Willart Productions
brands
like
Amazon
during
this season
as more
and more
people look to the
platform as a window
to their customers.
Taking Businesses online will
accelerate the scale of growth.
Businesses need to be prepared to
respond to the opportunities AND
the challenges that come with this
accelerated growth.
The agile businesses are the ones
that will survive.
Patricia Okelo
Co - Founder | Kayana
Email event2@conferencinginabox.com to register
2020
Kenya’s unique expo catering for the
home-based business needs
Date
October
30th - 31th 2020
plenary + Expo*
4,000/-
Venue
Trademark Hotel, Limuru Road
The Village Market, Gigiri
*The plenary and expo can either be physical or virtual
Call 0771 457 255 or
Email info@kayana.org
3 | KAYANA NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 004
GLOBAL e-COMMERCE
OVERVIEW
GLOBAL OUTLOOK
AFRICA
KENYA
$5.7 billion
The value of Africa’s
business-to-consumer (B2C) market
in 2017.
Nigeria,
South Africa
and Kenya
account for more than
half of the online shoppers
in Africa in 2017.
Nigeria
is Africa’s larges B2C e-commerce
market in terms of both number of
shoppers and revenue.
$16.5 Billion
total value of e-commerce in Africa
reached in 2017. This is expected to
reach $29 billion by 2022.
$1.093 Billion
Projected revenue in the e-Commerce
market is projected to reach in 2020.
27%
of Kenyan Firms sold their
products online.
Top 10 lis of countries leaing in e-Commerce
1. US
2. China
3. UK
4. Japan
5. Germany
6. Canada
7. France
8. Italy
9. Spain
10. South
Korea
Global ranking of African countries leaing in e-Commerce
1. Mauritius (55)
2. Nigeria (75)
3. South Africa (77)
4 Tunisia (79)
5. Morocco (81)
6. Ghana (85)
7. Kenya (89)
8. Uganda (99)
9. Botswana (100)
10. Cameroon (101)
Kenya’s e-Commerce
is now esimated at
6% of all purchases
made in 2017.
$27 Trillion
The surge in e- commerce
sales as of 2017
1.3 Billion
people engaged
in online purchase
Business to business (B2B)
purchases accounted for
88% of all transactions
Business to consumer (B2B)
saw the mos growth, increasing
by 22% to reach $3.9 trillion in 2017
2020
SOURCES
Unctad.ord
http://www.inves.go.ke/global-e-commerce-sales-surged-29-trillion/
https://www.satisa.com/outlook/243/247/ecommerce/kenya#market-marketDriver
Kenya National Bureau of Statisics
https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/datahub/Kenya-online-shopping-demand
/3815418-4897528-1155igs/index.html
Communications Authority of Kenya
10
Mary starts to manufacture jams and
sauces from her home.
Mary purchases raw materials from the
market.
With the increase in output, Mary and
Esther become busy and eventually move
out to a new place. More workers are
employed and trained.
There is an increase in intake of raw
materials from the market.
The boda boda guy delivers the products
to the market/clients. The steady stream
of income supports his family.
She trains her domestic worker, Esther,
on how to create jams and sauces.
Esther gains a new skill.
A graphic designer makes and prints
labels, a new revenue source as a result
of the cottage business.
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Kayana is a community of female entrepreneurs
of abundance that come together to move their
businesses from ideation to start up. Typically the
businesses will be run from their homes or online,
and the founders are looking at the next step of
growth, but may not have the know-how or courage
to do so.
At Kayana we believe that:
• Women thrive when we share
• Women succeed when they are encouraged/
supported.
• Entrepreneurs need to share with their peers and
learn from each others’ experiences.
• Older business can Mentor/coach younger
businesses
We hope to create a nurturing environment that is
missing in the cut-throat business environment that
exists today. We also believe that as women gain
confidence in business, they will naturally step into
bolder roles of leadership in the communities within
which they operate, and beyond.
We are committed to SDG
5 – Gender Equality, therefore
we work towards ensuring
that opportunities available to
women in businesses will be
freely and easily accessed and
disseminated
Within this community, we hope to break the
traditional barriers: economic class, patronage,
or any other. We use technology as a key tool for
education of larger audiences.
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!!
The Benefits of your membership will
include:
• Access to our community which
includes; Masterclasses, Online
sessions: newsletters, podcasts and
the small circles of business (Candid
Conversations)
• Access to use of our space which
includes; Boardroom, Conference area
and break away area at a discounted
rate.
• The use of our training facilities,
Includes Projector, Sound, Flipchart
stand and sheets, a Kitchenette and
storage lockers at discounted rates
• Access to the podcast studio and
the informal meeting room also at
discounted rates
• Access to our growing network of
amazing business women of abundance
Our Annual Membership fee is
KES 10,000(+VAT) and Corporate
Membership is KES 25,000(+VAT).
THRIVING
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Everyone has a unique purpose. There is
a reason why you are here. There is also a
reason why you are who you are. Together
we will unlock who you are and your unique
purpose here on earth.
COVER STORY
WHEN NEUTRAL IS
NOT ENOUGH
RENEE
NGAMAU
Mary* is in a sales projection meeting with four other colleagues and her CEO. The
meeting which used to happen monthly, now happens every fortnight. COVID-19 and
the disruption to markets has necessitated a constant review of figures, strategy
and tactics. It is a new world. Made even more new by the fact that the meeting is
taking place while she works from the comfort of her kitchen, coffee in one hand,
pen in the other, children in the living room. Her CEO appears to be on a sofa,
presumably at his house, casually dressed. The alternate sounds of distant traffic,
children playing, washing machines whirling, and in the case of one colleague, his
Continues to the next page
* Note her real name
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wife’s voice, (he had warned that they may hear her
as she too is on a Zoom call), waft in and out of the
meeting, as microphones are activated and muted in
turn, as the discussion flows.
The numbers are not promising. Even with payment
terms and credit arrangements, clients are
struggling to pay for the firm’s services. Mary and
her colleagues have already taken a 50% paycut on
their basic pay. Their sales related commissions are
nearly non-existent, and in this new normal, where
the food and fuel prices appear not to be sensitive
to the plight of consumers. Even with cutbacks to
bare necessities, it is clear to Mary that she needs
to supplement her income. Mary is not alone. The
COVID crisis looked at first like a passing cloud. Not
any more. And with each day that goes by, more
and more traditional businesses are taking huge
hits, or shutting down, unable to cope or transform
themselves with the times.
There is never a good time to start a business but
some times are considered worse than others.
Conventional wisdom will tell you to start business
when the economy is great and people have
spending money. But these are not conventional
times. In this new normal, one thing is clear. The
wisdom of the past “normal” will only serve us so
much, in engaging a future in which global fashion
brands are struggling to keep shops open, local
malls and office complexes are filled with ghosts of
footfall past. If ever there continued to exist some
hope that one could peg their financial security on
employment, that hope has surely now been dealt a
death blow. The reality is that, as many businesses
shrink, reliance on stable salaries will be foolhardy.
Starting a business however can be very daunting
indeed more so with reduced resources, in an
uncertain reality with ever shifting variables, in
addition to the gender specific and other demands
on women’s time. It is no wonder then that women
though very creative, will often shy away from
business or, where they do start businesses, keep
them smaller and grow slowly in comparison with
their male counterparts.
Copious research has gone into understanding
the way women do business. A few unique things
stand out. Women are cautious by nature. Generally,
they will plan more, and will take less risk than their
male counterparts in starting a business. Women
are more collaborative than competitive, although
they are the latter too. According to 2019 World
Bank Report, Profiting From Parity, Unlocking the
Potential of Women’s Businesses in Africa, women
“show less willingness to compete” and that female
entrepreneurs’ business networks are mostly
comprised of other women. We talk more openly
and seek solutions to our own challenges, learning
through other people’s experiences. In the over two
years of teaching, moderating and coaching women
in business specifically, a number of trends have
become clear. Within the entrepreneurial space,
women led businesses grow steadily, cautiously and
face more legal, financial, capital injection hurdles
than men faced businesses experience in general.
However, women are conscientious borrowers. They
are less likely to default on loans. They embrace
technology and efficiency faster and are more
open minded to new ideas which will allow them to
balance their business and other roles.
While ordinarily, business training is all about the
business, studies have shown that where training
programs addressed the real life challenges
experienced by the business person as well as the
business, women entrepreneurs reported larger
impact on business performance than where
training focused only on the business. referencing
the above World Bank report not only are the training
programs more effective, they have been found
to result in increased profits over the long term,
for those who undertake them. So how should
business courses for women be conducted? It is
vital to understand the psychology of women, the
context within which their business operates and
the competing and often conflicting demands of
THERE IS NEVER A GOOD TIME
TO START A BUSINESS BUT
SOME TIMES ARE CONSIDERED
WORSE THAN OTHERS.
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women’s time. These are vital in comprehending how
women build businesses and therefore supporting
women to build businesses.
The style of training and delivery of the content is
important too. Women learn through collaboration,
teamwork, mutual support and within a safe space where
they feel free to speak and training programs should
factor this. The fifteen-week SuperCircles For Women
in Business© training by ReneeSense is specifically
tailored for women. Factoring not just the nuts and
bolts of business planning, strategy, execution, review,
growth and expansion but also addressing the realities
of how women learn AND the demands on women’s
time and energy. Through the SuperCircles For Women
In Business©, groups of women commit to supporting
one another within a structured format, as they build
their businesses. For women like Mary seeking to enter
into the business world, her success and growth as an
entrepreneur may well rise or fall on the training she
receives, how easily she is able to assimilate, engage and
grow her business from that kitchen table top to a thriving
business, in the context of her life, but also, and perhaps
equally so, the support around her.
For more on the SuperCircles For Women In Business©
training curriculum and details on how to join, please visit
www.reneesense.com
REGISTRATION
SALES@RENEESENSE.COM / +254 102736398
15 Weeks Virtual
Coaching Sessions
FROM AUGUST 27TH - 3RD DEC, 2020
REGISTRATION DEADLINE 26TH AUGUST 2020
AMOUNT SHS 5,000/-* MPESA PAYBILL 152650 ACCOUNT SUPERCIRCLE
*INCLUDES: COACHING FEE, CANDID HANDBOOK,
NOTEBOOK & DELIVERY