Lady’s touch

Some day we were coming from Naivasha with my wife and kids and we opted to use the Tigoni route, just to see area. Midway the lush and green tea farms, I noted that my wife was quite excited seeing them. When I asked her what she was thinking, she smiled and asked me whether I was seeing what she was seeing. And so I asked her what it was she was seeing. Her response was expected. She was of the idea that in our old age we could actually settle around there. Very serene, fresh air, nice landscapes and all. Then I remembered sometimes back when I had proposed to her that we could actually built a house in Syokimau and was amazed by her when she flatly refused. Of course I already had bought a plot there and I realized that if I insisted on building there, I may have ended up living alone…jokes aside.

It gets interesting when a customer of the male gender views a plot and insists that the wife will have to come and view it and give a seal of approval or even rejection. 90% of the time, it is never a deal. This is how powerful ladies can be. How about when a lady views first and then requests her man to have a look and approve or disapprove, 90% of the time it is a sale.

When selling houses it is even trickier. Infact due to the power of ladies, we are normally forced to design a house with them in mind. Think of a big kitchen with a lot of storage space, think of a large lounge with some dining space, think of that master bedroom which as big as a football field with very nice finishes…then you will win them ladies. How about those interior designs? It pays to get an interior design with a lady’s eye.

I keep statistics as a strategy to inform me more about my customers. The other day, I was doing some analysis on all the properties I ever sold. It dawned on me that 60% of the sales are to ladies. Quite telling. It is my considered view that it is an extremely important market segment in real estate. I don’t know what else we can deduce from the said statistics but that is for another day.

An interesting customer I came across was a lady who was just about to get married. She had very clear instructions to me that I must not disclose any info to her husband to be who happened to know me. Then I asked her why? She told me that if the man ever discovered that she had 700k in her account, the guy would insist that they do a bigger wedding that the one they had planned. Then she said that I should not delay in executing the transfer, otherwise the property will be classified as matrimonial….rather interesting and strange. Duniani kuna mambo.

Big lesson: It is extremely important to know your customers if you want to succeed in Business. Loyalty is built over time and by giving consistent attention to your clients. Every client meeting or conversation should end with words like: “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

In the next several posts we shall advise first time business owners. Chances of failure are higher than those of succeeding, but with proper education, you increase your chances in a big big way.

marty the guru, keep them coming

Yep, Mwalimu voted peaceful and was also in deep prayer for his motherland. He is back but trying to catch up on several issues and will definitely continue albeit later with his quest for knowledge searching and dissemination.

Mwalimu please do something.I am eagerly awaiting your incisive posts.

Not every bus goes to your home

Mwalimu has been rather busy but is now back. He had promised to advise first time business owners. He will start with basic concepts that are extremely important especially for first timers.

Back then when Mwalimu was newly employed, he had all manner of business ideas; stocks, wheat farming in Narok, maize farming at the Rift, rearing chicken and rabbits in his shags, he even thought matatus were lucrative. And so he wanted to bite as many and he actually did. And he was still employed as a systems programmer and that comes with long nights of coding. Luckily he was still single and searching. His typical week would be packed from the first to the last hour. Monday to Friday dedicated to his employer and the weekend would be dedicated to running around and with benefit of hindsight, the dude can now say that he was just running around like a headless chicken just like many first-time entrepreneurs do. He actually would dash to Narok and check on his wheat, then pass by Njoro to check on the maize, then pass by his shags to check on the chicken and rabbits. Then he would realize that the weekend was over before he could get an opportunity to meet his girlfriend…a frustrated girl who could rarely meet her sabuni ya roho… Mwalimu thought he was doing quite well in business until one day he collapsed on an afternoon and doctor told him to relax coz he was running too fast.

Mwalimu wanted to grab all opportunities and he never realized that the “opportunities” were wolves in sheep's clothing. He may have learned the hard way that juggling multiple ventures spread him thin and limited both his effectiveness and productivity. It actually dawned on him that all was not well when he made straight losses in two seasons of farming wheat. In between he had planted maize near Mau forest which had done so well till he got the shocker of his life when he went harvesting it only to find that half of it had been harvested the previous night. He attempted to recover his maize only to be frustrated by cops who favoured the local pastor cum shepherd who stole his maize; mind you we had assigned him the role of taking care of his crop.

After the aforementioned loss, the dude decided that he could only invest in businesses that needed the least of his time and minimal managerial issues. Now you know why he landed in real estate albeit confined to speculating with plots. Business only made sense to him when he decided to focus on one line and perfect it. You may want to know what he did with his chicken and rabbits. He got so mad with the guy who was in charge of them till he decided to donate the entire investment to his struggling brother back in the village.

What lesson can we learn from Mwalimu’s not so good start to investing? You can never jump at all opportunities available, if you do you will be like that proverbial hyena whose msamba pasukad. Just focus, focus and focus.

More lessons to come for first timers