 out there and what you can find us across all social media handles welcome back to why in the morning and if it's Tuesday is the hashtag entrepreneurship Tuesday my name is Michelle Ashira in this session we are about to have a very interesting conversation on and we are touching on how branding drives real business because at the end of the day we are speaking on profit margins when it comes to your business and how to go back on the drawing board if things are not going well for you creating awareness for your brand as well since today I'm joined with I'm joined with James Ongati who is the co-founder of liquid branding thank you very much James for creating time to be with us thank you too I'm pleasure to be with my old mind to be on Saturday all the way from count zero zero one I'm from kaka mega but for the household part of it I'm from count zero zero one I know mentioned the perspective of you running the liquid branding business take us through a brief background of who James is where he grew up and what he pursued back in campus Ongati James is a young village village man from kaka mega who grew up and was bred in kaka mega then of course I went to university in 2011 my first time coming to Nairobi don't mind about that I did the abatulas in business of information technology unfortunately I never finished I only did one year okay then issues happened family issues which forced us to to stop my education for for for family well-being and with that in mind we had to move from kaka mega now to settle in busia so of course now settling in busia things changed because when I was in kaka mega we had everything at our disposal of course my dad was well up to sustainers but I went back to the drawing board of now how we're going to pick up our life and that's when the hustling part came in I would like I would do a few things to sustain myself I would not sit home but I came back to Nairobi to find out what can I do I didn't start with the branding but I used to do manual jobs here and there I can just mention a few I've been a parker at APZ companies within easily easily not not easily just at TRM not TRM within Mbakasi for some time out of it I met new friends whom used to chat away way out it never ended there out of it I got employment with the zakim international now with zakim international at least I was able to do something best on the on IT the best thing with it is we were being accommodated along the Mombasa Nairobi highway so no paying rent no nothing so there was cash flow out of zakim international I had a chance to that's where the branding started at a hotel in maria khani it was a funny story we were being served breakfast with the waiters so they came they came in of course dressed in the hotel uniforms I made fun of it like hey you guys you look like for one kids they laughed about it before they were looking like for one kids so then they were like which colors are the uniform it was red white and some mix of maru in there okay yeah so they were like they challenged me do you think you can provide something better for us I being the go-getter that I am I took the chance not knowing where I can get uniforms for them google was my friend I said a little bit where can I get one or two things these accompanying international area called a mantos enterprises I contacted them from their website I picked a particular polo shirt I told them can you just replicate for me these type of polo and for the logo put this name it's called shalma hotel they did for me a sample I don't know them they sent it over to Mombasa I delivered to my client they liked it I sold that polo at 1700 and right away they give me an order for they were 15 polo shirts and how much are you like spending it comes to I had spent on purchasing I had being a sample they had charged me a thousand shillings for sample that's the t-shirt plus the branding because they stitch from scratch so what was the profit margin the profit margin of course now was 500 shillings because now when you exclude 200 shillings for parcel fee I had my 500 shillings yeah so the idea came up from like okay fine I said doing research about now packaging it as a business because my contract was almost ending so I got at them corporate masters because that's what I wanted to do like okay I had done my research I saw what people are doing out there and I'm like why can't I specialize on the corporate side because with corporate side we might be having maybe orders maybe monthly orders that's my perspective now like I need to generate income out of it okay yeah that was way back in 2016 2016 wow okay that's been a journey so far what made you all listen to your story like you before even liquid branding was even born you even tried different companies working from different companies and just the leap of faith that you took all the way from home to coming to Nairobi what made you so consistent and not fearing the you know the fear of them known per se uh what made me to really be a go-getter is uh I fear poverty and as I told you when you were in Kakamega we were well off I could get anything I need at any time now when you went to Boussia things went to zero so my main goal was can I bring my family to where we were or much better having mind we're only a family of two I and my elder sister so the driving force was I having my family at a better position that's why I had told them no I can't sit here let me move out and find a way all right there we have 2016 liquid branding was born so so far what would you say is there like the importance of branding for a business branding for a business uh because someone can just decide to find out you know I'll start my business yeah the the key the key is there is the people who are doing key energy and they're still they're still making it which is okay but what makes you stand out maybe you can look at me as a person you can see what I'm wearing it sells me out before you ask me my name you'll see what I'm wearing you're like hey where do you get that t-shirt that sells me so from my own I'm able to sell what I wear if I try to sell that idea to someone else it works I'll give you a good example in 2017 now during the campaigns after people learn that I'm doing branding or the printing part there's one politician who approached me that's from home it was during the last days of campaigns to election it was like you did I see you're doing one or two things is there something you can do for me so I'll package something for him there are no more banners years but of course they were outstanding enough we did for banners and up to date he still remembers you made my name to be known everywhere it was literally none of them all right speaking about in that's in that's particular story machine you're approaching and just making them known to maybe his target people even in a broader way how can one if you're running any sort of business be it in product or service how can they create awareness through branding probably you can take us through elements of branding I'll talk of elements of branding on the marketing side yes how our business going to package itself of course having a good logo makes you stand out out of the logo now we go to personal or the personal wear what are you wearing on your day to day basis to work are you doing the corporate way like you are doing a suit from down to from hair to toe or are you doing branded shirts or something now I most of the time I do advise my clients before you talk about what you do the visual aspect matters a lot and we talk about the visual aspects that's when branded uniforms come in are you doing a branded shirt Monday to Friday are you having a poll on your friday on a friday if you are doing your kali are you putting on a branded overall or something even the dust coats it makes you stand out so the visual aspect it markets you they're not you just as the business owner you can as well gift your your customers it sells you out it's a form of free marketing yes so you're going to spend on your own wear but you are marketing out freely fantastic yes we got to sales cycle and you'll agree with me especially the marketing aspect trap a brand that is well known they don't really struggle when it comes to sales because I easily identify with maybe liquid branding so when I come to liquid branding I'm not this is the credibility aspect of it because I'm aware about your brand so when it comes to how does one like build a strong brand to that level that will increase sales a strong brand that increase sales of course consistency matters are you delivering what you promise that really matters are you engaging with your clients that matters because in as much as my name might be there but I'm not delivering what the customers need then I'll be faced out so timely delivery being specific when you're delivering really matters a lot it keeps your float yes and when it comes to to branded I believe also for anyone I always feel that it's all falls back to perceived value because if you tell me that this particular shirt that you have designed and added graphics that it's going to sell for this particular person someone as another person another company sells it at a particular price I feel that it always boils down to perception so when it comes to creating a niche for yourself in the market how do you go about it probably because two tips as well I'll be a good example I do support other businesses which are selling brands they have segmented their markets we have guys who like no let's have an example like this town we have the moya venue side and have the river road side you can have a shirt selling at 2000 on moya venue the same shirt you can get at 500 in river road right so your target market here matters a lot then whatever I'm going to sell to you at a thousand might not be the same thing I'm going to sell someone else at 500 shillings so quality matters but for my case I decided to do to levelize the ground in such a way that I'm able to capture both ends how am I doing that I'm working on quality but still are maintaining the same price if you check on my website I've maintained the prices of shirts all the way from 2016 up to date his price have increased but I've maintained mine for a reason I haven't changed my quality it's still the same but if you come to me and tell me no I don't want that higher quality I leave something lower to it still I'll find something for you so we get the balance yes I'll take us to the product that we have on on set and what you guys do as liquid branding in terms of you know the merchandise that we have okay maybe just before I check you through this something just to clarify on the branding part of the printing part okay of two type of clientele I got the individual clients and the corporate clients within individual clients I mean you are getting your t-shirt for the weekend you're getting a hoodie for the weekend and all that then for the corporate clients now here they're coming in like they need corporate shopping corporate polo shirts and all that and what I'm having here is I got this t-shirt it's an Ankara inspired print okay yes it's not stitched with Ankara but sankara inspired print oh like I got printed yeah that's printed it's not stitched it's not fabric okay we have those who are doing of course stitched fabrics but I got clients who don't like the stitch ones they're like no can you do something maybe which is not stitched so I had to go these are in fact a new product okay and we are launching this month oh fantastic and you are like it to be to have it oh oh my goodness thank you yes I appreciate all right and then now we have done here there's still this is part of individual individual worlds for the weekend okay these are just customized prints to your own preference not like a client can come to intelligent yes now what normally happens here is what they want of course I normally do my own designs which I sell out to people but then there are those who come out with their own wardings or their own customized writings now what we do is of course we do a design for them they choose now if you come to me with their own design you own that design I can never sell it to someone else to avoid duplication that you may not wear a shirt today you're meeting someone I don't like the kenya uniform part of it yes so this is an inspired design just someone she had whatever she she needed then it's written voice of voice of voice of faith oh it sounds like a choir or something no she's a voice of faith oh yeah yes then being the month of love we have something here these are glitter prints oh yes maybe you can have a feel of them oh the texture the techno the texture of the print oh yeah you can like yeah does it fade doesn't oh okay quality guaranteed all right yes then some other inspired prints which have come up of late is using images on prints like these are normal prints let's go and let's go but if you can confirm when they let's go it is somehow like a desert then you go to let God you know the environment changes to green or something oh yeah it's all go green yes so instead of just having one writing like just in the same color I'm trying to come up with images that I can use in writings okay yeah then now away from the t-shirts you also do customs teaching of sweatpants hoodies and all that and we can have a now these are current inspired as well is it fabricated now this fabricated now okay this tailored now as well as compared to the other one yes so you can find that you can have this one with a matching snooty as well and a matching t-shirt for the same so like you can have a white t-shirt but with this type of anchor on it now you mean like the white t-shirt exactly exactly yes so that's what I'm having on such of course the mug and then the mug if you read max max we bought the we got normal marks you have magic marks the magic mark is by it can have an image when you pour in hot water it's able to change now you can able to do the color of fantastic so how can a brand just position itself in a way that it retains or acquires loyalty among its customer base because I believe you deal with a lot of potential clients I also want to believe that also clients who go and come back as well like what do you do just to retain clientele what I do to retain my clientele is I always try to be innovative over time like if I did for you something today I may share the same item with you tomorrow so I keep engaging them I do tailor tailor made designs for individual clients that keeps them keeps them coming because if they see there's something new they're like oh I need to come back so I try to diversify if I did for your shirt today I can try out and sell to you maybe Apollo next time so different items at different times yes then what keeps my clients coming is timely delivery and quality yes okay okay so it's all measured in the customer level on the customers most customer service yes so as we wind up what are some of the most common mistakes made by brands with you know weak reputation in terms of marketing as well from where you're seated over like I'm so sure you've engaged with other different brands that show some current work with so what would be your your take on that a major sitback on them is the copy paste aspect we fail to think that's one we like to to recreate something which someone has done instead of doing it from scratch yes so those type of shortcuts push people back all right work up a financial lesson that you have learnt in your business so far lessons she's a financial stroke investment advisor and you're talking about matters on investing and everything and as young people and how you can actually tap into opportunities out there so that's why I would really like to find out in your business couple of financial lessons that you have learned along the way let me probably let's go through top three not really in business but just as an individual of course being a youth we have the yellow aspect we live we live life one so it's a mistake we have gone through and but we I do appreciate it shaped me in one way or another that's one then to not prioritizing aspects you need to do yes you might have money but don't have a budget for it definitely money not budget for it doesn't make any sense yeah that's number two number three I'll say spending on things you don't need which which normally happens yeah you might just yeah that's impulse buying you can have money as maybe 10,000 right now there you see something which interest you on you check it only to realize at the end of the day oh I was to do something else but yeah so those are my top three four why fantastic we are so much glad that you created time to be with us and taking us through different aspects of branding so I look for you to take this moment for viewers who are watching and they want to keep the conversation going and I want to look for you as well where they where they can find you on social media if you have a contact you can uh equally share camera is coming for okay love thank you so much why 254 for host me today it's a much a pleasure from liquid branding you can find us on social media handles on facebook as liquid branding limited on instagram and on tiktok as well we do a variety of brands that's from both corporate and personal printing we do t-shirts we do hoodies we do gift items like diaries notebooks and all that but majorly what we focus on is your customer satisfaction we are able to tailor made solutions meant for you to give you the market advantage to other competitors you can check us anytime uh on facebook uh on my or other on whatsapp my number being 0707 063 696 liquid branding is physically located in mombasa town where we have a satellite office in europe as well and deliveries are done controlled and all over the world welcome on board let's make a difference on how you position yourself in the market all right thank you very much uh jimson getty who is the co-founder of liquid branding thank you very much for creating time and also for this amazing uh shot thank you think he's printed what it's an unencouraged and unencouraged print okay thank you very much uh that is uh jimson getty co-founder liquid branding we're looking at how branding drives a real business growth i hope you've learned a couple of tips when it comes to branding and also how to position you all business and creating awareness for it as well we've come to the end of the program remember 10 from is usually from 7 to 10 and this is particularly for why in the morning we do this uh on when is the monday to friday so create time to be with us every single monday to friday 7 10 7 to 10 am i try to find four channels so you can find us across all our social media handles at michelle ashera so you can find me across all my social and ram google so for now i'll beat you goodbye