 We'll be talking more about this, but be sure to interact with us on our social media and those that are on the WhiteFive 4 channel on Twitter, WhiteFive 4 and the school channel on Instagram, and WhiteFive 4 on Facebook, Karibusana, Sharon Degwa. Thank you so much. How are you today? I'm fine. And yes, your camera is number four. So I'd like to give people a chance to just introduce themselves just in case I miss anything. So just look them straight into their eyes and talk to them. Okay, so my name is Sharon Degwa and I'm a mother of two kids. My background is in agricultural economics, but right now I'm focusing on nutrition for kids and my children are the inspiration behind that all. So basically I founded Nature's Bowl and what we do at Nature's Bowl is we support mums to raise healthy kids. Currently we are doing that through a range of nutritious porridge flour mixes. This porridge flour mixes can also be used by adults. So that's what I'm focusing on right now. Alright, so you help mums to do what again? I help mums to raise healthy kids to do nutrition. Alright, so let me just talk to my mum for a bit. Yes, you're being helped to raise a healthy kid here. So today she's come to marry and give and I'm about to taste some of the best and nutritious porridge right here from the two five wall. Alright, let me serve you some as well. Thank you. So yeah, I've been training in a background in agricultural economics. Yes. So this was not the inspiration to start this business? No, this was not it. What were you doing after graduating? So after graduating I found a job working in the NGO sector. I was working in an organization called Pico Eastern Africa and what we worked on there. Basically we were focusing on agricultural development and organizational development. And so as a program officer I was supporting different projects that would help uplift organizations and rural institutions in order for them to perform their work better. Alright, so you've always been working in the food industry? You're passionate about feeding the nation? Yeah, basically the food agricultural chain. So I started at the bottom of the chain and now I'm working towards the manufacturing side. Towards the manufacturing side. Alright, so coming from a place where you're trying to support local farmers with very minimal knowledge and modern ways of doing agriculture and moving into manufacturing. How has it been? It has been a learning journey because actually this was a new field for me. So I learnt a lot through interacting with experts in the food sector. Interacting with people who have done food science and working with pediatricians who know a lot about nutrition based when it comes to children. And also I went through a training course in nutrition at AMREF and that has supported me to be able to understand my clients needs and what babies actually need to have. So what I'm getting from you knowledge is very important. It is very important. As much as you had training in agricultural economics, you had to focus on this particular thing. Yeah, I had to focus on this and also a lot of interaction, talking to experts really helps. Talking to my potential customers, mothers, they also have a lot to input on what they feel is good for their kids. So it's important to also talk to our customers as business people. Alright, so people don't know where your inspiration to start this came from. Alright, just plain to picture for them. How do you end up creating nutritious baby food? Okay, so I'll give a background story to how I ended up here. So when I became a first time mother was quite excited to begin reining. But then a few weeks down the line things took a downturn because my baby and I were constantly in hospital for issues such as constipation. And when I went to hospital everything pointed towards the kinds of foods that I was feeding my baby. And therefore of course I felt quite low and I felt inadequate as a mother. This happens to a lot of mothers by the way. It happens to a lot of mothers. And so when I got my second born about one and a half years later, I was quite prepared. I had done my research, I had looked into... You said this time I'm getting it right. Yeah, this time I'm not going to let this baby down, I'm going to work on it. And so I did my research and by the time my baby came I had developed a range of flaws. And actually my mother in law is the one who supported me in developing this. Because she would come to vivid me from the rural areas with different types of flaws. And would mix and experiment. And so this time round I was lucky I had things that worked for me. And I would cook this porridge and all these foods and post them on social media and my friends would express interest and new customers, people who had not known before. And then I realized that these are actually a need for this. And now I'm working towards fulfilling that need for mums. Alright, so you figured there's a need for this. What was the next step YouTube? From mixing it with mother in law at home to now going out there and getting it packaged and now you can actually sell it. And you're actually selling it for sure. So because my intention is actually to go big and to build an empire that can make impact to mums all across Africa I decided to take the next big step and just look at how I can get this accredited and satisfied by the government. So I approached Cubs and they sent me for training in food production at an institution point. So many trainings involved. Yeah, you have to learn all these things. So they sent me for training in food production at the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute. So this is a government institution and they support small scale manufacturers by giving them the knowledge and the machinery in order for them to be able to process their products. So I went there for training and now I normally do my production there. This exists in Nairobi? Yeah, it does. In South Sea. So they incubate manufacturers or start-ups that are involved in manufacturing and they help them with equipment. With equipment and they also help you to be able to develop the product because there are some standards that are required for certain food products in Kenya and you get them at Cubs. So Cubs collaborates with Kirdi and they help small manufacturers, upcoming manufacturers to be able to produce something of a high standard just as a big manufacturer would be able to. Alright, so processing goes down here. Research goes down here as well. Yes. Processing and research. Alright, this is the first time I'm hearing about this thing. Alright, so how did you get to know about such things? Cubs led you to this place? Yes, basically it's about my hunger to grow bigger. So because of my hunger I would take each step and look at how I can go to the next level. So through this I would research and find out that if I need to do this, if I need to go into supermarkets I have to go through this process first. So when I go to Cubs for instance they would tell me you have to go back for training. So it was basically a back and forth. You take two steps forward, you have to go back for training, you move forward again, you have to go for another training. Ya, it's been a long journey but it has been worth it because those trainings support me to be able to provide the best for our customers. Have you ever got to a point where you said to help with this I'm just going to mix flap for my children? No, no, no. In my kind of personality, I'm a person who does not give up. I cannot give up. So when I am focused on doing something I do it. Is this a treat you'd ask entrepreneurs to have? Ya, definitely every entrepreneur has to have this treat because there are so many hurdles along the way. Hiddles in terms of say finances, if you don't have finances you have to find an alternative way of doing what you needed to do maybe in a smaller scale. So there are so many hurdles along the way and if you want to give up then... Entrepreneurship is not for you. Alright, I'm really enjoying my porridge here right now. So we should have to interact with us. Oh, cheers. So we should have to interact with us at WhiteFive4 on Twitter, WhiteFive4 on Instagram and WhiteFive4 on Facebook. Sharon Dago is in the studio with us and she is the CEO of Nature's Bow. And you specialize in nutritious foods for children or for kids. So WhiteFive4 on Instagram, WhiteFive4 on Twitter WhiteFive4 on Twitter and WhiteFive4 on Facebook. Hashtag is entrepreneurship Tuesday. Up to this point, you have come up with your four... Yes, I have four different product changes and the reason why we have this is because we are looking to bring fun back in porridge. So we feel that it's not fair for a child to be subjected to the same porridge for years and years. So we have... But the needs that are different. Yeah, the needs are also different. At every age bracket. And the digestion capability is different. So, when I began thinking about this business, at first I had about 10 different types of flowers. And I would just mix them and test them and share them with my customers for testing. But at the end of it all I realized that these four are the ones that I really needed out there. And so I narrowed down from the number that I started with to four. But in future maybe we can get back to... Maybe other products, it doesn't have to be flowers because my main goal is to make sure that we support mums to raise healthy kids through food. So it does not have to be flowers. Maybe in future we'll do something else that is... So mums can think of other things. And then nature's ball will sort out the nutrition aspect of raising a kid. Amazing. So what is amaran in the West League? Okay, so I'll explain to you in the local term terere. You know terere? Terere. Terere vegetable. So the terere plant has some seeds in it. So those seeds are what is called amaran. That's what is called amaranthia. So what is the nutritious value? Amaranthia is rich in protein. It's a very strong plant protein. And proteins for kids is quite important because it helps in the development of their bodies. So as we've seen... Tough some grow. It helps them to grow. So we've seen that in the past mums have really focused on giving their kids carbohydrates because maybe they don't have the information that protein is really important. So at nature's ball besides helping mums by providing them the right types of products we also give them information on the kinds of foods that their kids need. And so the amaranthia flies really rich in protein. All right. So when it comes to food production and say food that is sold to the public. It's the people who do it in mass that dominate the market. It's the corporate that produce all kinds of unga around here from wheat to maize flour. Getting into this, I'm pretty sure you were kind of scared of them. Yeah, at first I was. But I realized that there's a market for everyone. And the reason why people buy something from person A and not person B is not really about the product but there's an additional value. It could be the customer service. It could be you as a person how you're handling that customer. It's just basically how that customer fails. So I used to be. So additional value. Additional value. What more is the customer getting from you? We are working on experiential marketing where our customers really get to interact with us and we work with them through the journey. We are not throwing a product in their lap and going or putting it on a shelf and asking them, okay, go pick that and bye bye. You want to know who you are, what your challenges are, how can we support you through this? Is there anything else that Nature's Bowl can do for you to help you to raise a healthier baby? So it's just additional value. So you get feedback from your clients as well? We do because we focus a lot on social media that's how we communicate with our customers and that's how we sell. So we get a lot of feedback from them and we also interact with them on WhatsApp and we also interact on calls. So this feedback helps you know where to improve and what works for what kinds of babies and everything else? Definitely. The most important part is for us to know our clients. It's important for us to know them. What is your biggest client base? Describe them for demographic. Right now I'm working with individual mums. I have a customer base of about 300 mothers and I'm looking to grow that. So one way through which we will do that is through promoting an e-commerce platform where mums can also come and buy. So that means that mums all over Kenya and across Africa can actually buy products. And it can be delivered? Yes, it can be delivered. Alright, the fun produce, the raw materials, they produce locally? Yeah, they're locally produced materials. The reason why we are going this way is because we want to give a mother what her mother or her grandmother would give her back in the village. We are not looking at fancy new ingredients from maybe some other country and importing and doing that. So what your mum was raised on? You're taking it back? What you were raised on by your mum is what we are giving you. What your mother would send you from Sia would send you from Sia. That's what we are giving our mums here in the urban areas quite easily. But now we have done quite a lot of research and product development and improvement to make sure that it's of a better quality. Because the knowledge back then was not as sophisticated as it is now. So right now you know the ratios. We know the ratios and we know we also pre-cook our products. That's something that is not done maybe in the rural areas. And we know that pre-cooking adds value and helps baby to be able to digest it quite easily. Very important. So you also want to carry on with the culture? Of course, yeah. Back in the olden days people used to live, people were healthy and used to live long. It's because probably of the kinds of lifestyle that they had and the foods that they ate. So we are working on promoting that food and our tagline for nature's bowl is stachrite. So we are looking at supporting mums to stachrite from the beginning and instill healthy eating behaviors in their kids just from the start. Out of all these things you've told me I can tell you've got every aspect of selling a product from the branding. You have a tagline there the packaging is nice. You're moving like a big corporate just going up the ladder right now. How have you learnt all these things? Okay. You might see me now right now and think that I know everything or I just know everything. And it took time for me to understand this. What has helped me is interacting with specialists. Like for instance as I told you when I was developing this I was in communication and in partnership with some nutritionists and food scientists something else that has helped me to be able to develop my brand is working with institutions that provide business mentorship. So they've been able to help me to develop my business model. So doing business as usual the way we have done it in the past is not sustainable but now I've been able to understand that I need to build systems and I need to build a team through which I can grow an empire. So being in incubation programs that are focused on new businesses has been able to help me to identify the path that I need to take. Alright so in summary, don't give up. Don't give up. Be hungry for information and have something unique that you want to do. Alright the big question that is coming, my director tells me you've said you're working with mums. Yes. You know what I'm about to ask. Where are the dads? Where are the dads? The dads are also involved by the way and let me tell you how I've seen it in my business, how the dads are involved. When I interact with the mums the dads are the ones who are being sent to go and pick the flower. But we have some dads who are also on our customers and we educate them also and support them in order for them to be able to know what's good for their children. So the dads are also part of our program. So even your forums and your WhatsApp groups the dads are invited? Yes. As long as they can tolerate how much women talk. Please share with them your social media channels and how they can get a hold of your land and how they can get to order and how they can just get some tips from you being somebody with experience. Your camera is number 4. So in order for you to be able to reach nature's bowl and to be able to get education about how to feed your kids in a healthy manner and also to be able to access our products please follow us at nature's bowl ke on all social media handles that's Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and then if you want to make a direct order our number is 0721 839604 and then we also have a website you can find us at nature's bowl.range.co.ke Thank you very much for coming through to Wai in the morning. Thank you too. Your last remarks to the mums were watching and the dads. The dads that are involved. So our last remark from nature's bowl to them is that you're not alone you don't have to be alone. The people who have gone through what you're about to go through you don't have to suffer alone. Follow us and we'll be able to support you in order to enjoy the motherhood journey. It can be pleasant. The motherhood journey can be pleasant? Yes. Alright, thank you very much for coming. We appreciate you so much. Keep doing what you're doing and I'm looking forward to seeing nature's bowl at the Nairobi Stock Exchange. You will. Alright. We've come to the end of this segment. We still have a lot lined up for you on this particular entrepreneurship Tuesday. Don't go anywhere. Don't touch that down.