 Welcome back to Entrepreneurship Tuesday on Why in the Morning special thanks to Alex Carranger for that insightful interview in the field of media. But right now we are about to take it a notch higher with Tech Talk. Tech Talk is just a segment that we'll be talking about Tech or focusing on somebody who has built a business that is related or in technology. Our guest of the day is Nelson Armstrong who is the CEO and founder of an M-group which is based in N'Kuru, Karebusana. Thank you for having me. Alright, so your camera is number four. I have a drill. I always like to tell people help yourself, introduce yourself, show off, floor scabisa. Well my name is Nelson Armstrong, the CEO and founder of NM Group Limited. We are a company that is based in N'Kuru but you're not localized in N'Kuru. At Tech Company we work for all clients in all countries. We are limited. We have clients in the US, we have clients in South Africa, in Dubai but Kenya being our main. It's a company that started in 2012 out of passion. It's something that I've really brought it from down to... Strictly out of passion. Wasn't being broke? No, it's not. You were not motivated by... It was a passion you had. Being broke is part of the push. But it's out of passion. I really am in love with computers and we are the new generation that's taking over. Yes, so NM Group we specialize in digital marketing. We do web development and web design. Those are two different things. And another thing that we also do is consultations. Yes, we do consultations. Yes. Out of all these things you've listed, which one brings the most money? Which one is your Pogba? Your Pogba? Well, our core is web development. Web development and software development. Alright, web development and software development. Yes. Why did you choose N'Kuru? Because many multinationals will come to the country. They'll focus in Nairobi. Chances are very high. They might consider Kampala. It turns out they'll come to Nairobi because it's a capital of East Africa. Nairobi is still the capital of Kenya, but you chose a different town. I'd like to know more about this. Well, this is what I can say. Sometimes if you want to know how much you can take as an individual, you've got the desert. If you can survive there, you can basically survive in the harshest environment. And for many people who have survived the environment in N'Kuru, they are very successful entrepreneurs. Big corporates, big companies which have started in N'Kuru, they're still here up to today. And you took your time to study? Yes. The corporates that came before you? Yes. The guys who paved the way for you? Yes. Alright, we won't mention names as of now, but what are some of the attributes that you give to their survival? What are some of the reasons you think they have survived? Because they started in N'Kuru and they experienced this and that. Number one, the consumer in N'Kuru is very different. They are very reserved. They take their time. And also there's that mentality that everything good comes from Nairobi. If you want new clothes, you go too easily. If you want to be taken a photo, you come to Nairobi. So we wanted to change that perception to create opportunities because if you're going to grow this country, you have to make sure that every town has something to offer. And in N'Kuru, we are there to offer the same service that instead of you coming to Nairobi, you can still have the same bespoke service in N'Kuru. Do you have a case where you have clients coming from Nairobi to N'Kuru because you're given the best product? We have. This is a testimony? Yes, a testimony. We have so many clients who have come to N'Kuru. The last client we had was yesterday. He came all the way from Homa Bay. He said, if I find that you have a true office in N'Kuru, then you're giving you the job because everything else is okay. But I just want to see how it comes. You're doing this in N'Kuru. You're doing all these good things. It's a question I'm getting from many of my clients. I fell in Nairobi. Why don't you move to Nairobi? What about those employees that I'm employing there? Nairobi is so competitive and we're also competing from there. And you drive is that for this country to develop, each and every corner has to develop. That is the way to take this country to the next step. Wonderful. 254channel on Twitter, 254channel on Instagram, 254channel on Facebook, Nelson, CEO and founder of NM Group, an IT company based in N'Kuru, is in studio with us. You've used your comments and your questions. I've invited, hashtag is one morning, hashtag is entrepreneurship Tuesday. So, moving on swiftly. What is your background in education? How did you find yourself here? Number one, I've done network engineering myself. But it's not something that I'm doing anymore. Well, I do it sometimes when consulted to some of my friends. That was not for clients. But my background is in IT. I started to love IT. I think when I finished class eight, I went to my cousin's place. They had a computer, Pentium One, I think it was a Pentium One, very old machine. And they just taught me how to put a CD and put earphones and play music. And you're happy. I couldn't believe that I can hear songs from the computer. And from there, I knew that this is where I want to venture into. And when I went to high school, I found that there are these computer studies. And that's where I grew the passion. My high school teacher also did a great job in inspiring us, especially in programming. Yes, and that's where, from there, I never looked back. I've had so many people ask me, this field is so much flooded. But when you're real swimmer, you don't worry. When you're a real swimmer, you don't worry. So I saw something like app development in your portfolio. This is something that you do for clients. So app development. Who do you develop apps for? Individuals or corporates? Who is coming for these kind of things? We do for individuals, we do for corporates. So there's these apps like Uber. We have Taxify. Yes. Well, I'm not going to mention some of them because of disclosure agreements, but we do basically development for code for them. We develop the code and we launch those products. We also do softwares for companies. Let's say a hotel needs an ERP system. So some of the companies you've mentioned are multinationals. Yes. So when they're introducing the app into the Kenyan market, they'll need a Kenyan to tailor it to fit the Kenyan market. Well, there are some companies which consult, they tell you to do market testing. They tell you to do user testing. So there are companies which will do that locally because they're developing the product for the local market. So we've had such clients who tell us to test products for them. How is the testing process like? You tell me, download the app and use it and give us feedback or how do you go about it? No, we call it usability. How is the client interacting with it? Yes. And how easy is it to use? Because nowadays people don't want complicated things that put your name, email, ID, or grandfather's name. People don't want that. They want one, two, three steps and they're done. So we are looking at that. And how easy is it on cross-platforms, like maybe small devices, light devices? How much bundle does it consume? Because nowadays we are conscious of it. Bundle is an issue. So such things is what we're looking at. All right. So when it comes to app development and app testing, you cover all these things. All right. Let's talk about web design and the other one. Software or digital marketing. Web design and website design. Development. Website development. What is the difference? The design is actually the scripting. You script, you make iterations of how the website is going to look. It's like a picture. You take a picture and that is design. This is how the picture is going to look. So this is how the software is going to look on my screen. Yes. And then the development is giving it that ability to deliver what you've pictured. Okay. So design is how is it going to look? Yes. How is the interface going to look like? Let me explain it this way. Design is maybe when you want to build a house, look for an architect. They draw for your house. They don't build it. So the people who are going to give that house their life. The contractors and the civil engineers. Yes. So designers, architects. Yes. Developers are the civil engineers. Yes, they are. Better save. Thank you very much for that. And these are services that you offer as well. Yes, we do. All right. So your clients, do you have individual clients or corporate clients? Which one is on that? Which side of the highway? The higher side is the corporate clients. Corporate clients. Yes. Because so many people are like, I'm a good coder. I've made so many apps. I've come up with a lot of things. But I don't know how to get it to give it to consumers. Well, I don't know if you believe it. But for us, we get it through referrals more than marketing. Marketing is very little. We actually cannot market. We cannot take the amount of work that we get. We cannot do marketing. Yes. So referrals is what amount? Yes, what of mouth. And also these clients that you work for, trying to give them the best that we can do. All right. And through that, we get referrals. So your marketing, which is the best form of marketing, is doing a good job for the clients that you have. Yes. And then they're going to talk about you. Yes. Wonderful. Make them follow us. All right. That is amazing. All right. As we move on, the eight guys that you have, is there any that you started with? Yes. Coming up, yeah. My secretary, I know she's watching Diana. We started way back when she was in form three. My company did not start as a result of studying. It was out of passion. What I'm doing right now is self-taught. I've learned how to code at night. I've gone through the process from being paid 200 shillings to work for somebody. Yes. I've gone through the process. So I have those who we've started with, especially my secretary. She's been there through thick and thin. She's been there through thick and thin. Yes, she believed. Yes, she believed. Have you had faces since 2012 till date? Have you had faces where you felt like we are going to shut down? Yes. And I don't know how I'm going to tell this to the people? Yes. When we had election, you see, there's nobody who wants to do our websites. There's nobody who wants you to do their marketing. So it was very hard. It was very hard to get business. Yes, for actually almost eight months, we didn't have single business. I remember we went for the first election, the second election, and then there was campaigns before the elections, and it's always a heated time. So political stability is very important. Very important, yes. How many elections have you lived through as a business? I think I can say two elections. Two elections? Yes. All right, so from your experience with elections in Kenya, is there anything you're going to do differently in the next elections? I think we need to elect leaders who have youths at heart. We've had, you see, when they're campaigning most of the time, they say we want to do policies for youths, but they do nothing. So they don't create business environments. That's what I say. The politicians, they don't give us money as youths. What they just need to create is the business environment. And for us, we'll thrive. All we need is a business environment. We need a field to play soccer and we're going to play. Yes. A good business environment and good policies. Because right now, to start a business for a young person is not easy. You have to pay this, pay that. It's not easy. All right. Yes. Thank you very much for the words of wisdom. What are you going to do different during the period of the next election as a business? Because people are anticipating this. We've already started hearing about the conversations about 2022. And we cannot bury your heads in the sun. So as a business, what are you guys going to do differently? Because you know, this eight months, things might be tough. Yes. I think we'll look outside, not just focusing on Kenya. We are looking at other emerging markets like South Africa and also our neighboring countries. The one that we beat at Afghan. Exactly. They can't beat us. We are the best. You're looking at other markets. So when this market is volatile, you can move to other markets. Yes. So that is a strategy. That's the strategy. Wise words right there. Yes. All right. So I'd like to know the business environment. Since we're talking about the business environment, as somebody in the IT field, what are some of the challenges you're facing? Oh, my God. There's a lot. Number one, line sizes. We have so many line sizes that are required. Number two, like if you want some, there's some machines, special machines that you might want to use here in Kenya. The tax is so high. And not only that, it takes a lot of time for you to move them in the country. So the other thing that I've faced, and one of the persons I think mentioned in the interview, is employees. I want to say this categorically like you said. There is no lack of jobs in Kenya. There is lack of will. People who don't want to start from scratch. They don't want to do their dirty jobs. Everybody wants to start in 100,000. It's impossible. Which is never going to happen. Jobs are there. And what we require is the will now. We have jobs. In my company, we have jobs. But somebody comes from university. They say we've done computer science. And they've done maybe a program, HTML4. A program that's about seven years old. So it's not current in the market. So they cannot be employed. Not unless you take them. Through training. Which becomes costly. And when you train them, the problem is not training. When you train them, they just go to do their jobs. They go and do other things. They leave you. Will is very important. Yes, will. Jitume. All right. So have you ever had a situation where somebody comes to you and tells you, I can offer you this service and you never knew about this. And it's the most brilliant thing you've heard of. Yes. In the tech industry, you can't say you know everything. Things are popping up every night. People are serious coding. They're doing. So I've seen those. Somebody comes and tells you an idea. Never thought about it. And yes. Beautiful thing. Yes. All right. From the challenges, what are some of the things we can do better? Licenses. To reduce licenses. Licenses. Let's make it easier for youths to start their businesses and run them. Yes. Number two, our schools should, let's say our universities, should teach what is current. Like right now, maybe I don't know if the university is teaching app development. So by the time they're teaching it, the technology has already moved to something else. So when you bring your graduates, you're telling them now you can code in Pascal and all those outdated things. They can never work. It's a machine language. And COBOL. All right. Yes. So we need to update our curriculum every single day. Yes. That is something we need to do. Yes. For this country to move forward. Yes. And that is the only cry. Also to empower colleges to bring forth young people. You see, there are people who, maybe they didn't score that A, but they have that skill. They have a talent to grow that talent. Because they were forced to do biology and Swahili and things they were not interested in. Yes. Kegugumizi and all that. All right. Thank you very much. So how can people get a hold of your services? Via social media, through our website, also through our phone numbers. Give it all to them. The camera is number four. Our website is www.nmgroup.co.ke. On social media, on Facebook, we are an NM group limited on Instagram, NM group, KE. And you can find me on my Twitter handle at meso.nely. Thank you very much. Yes. Your last remarks to the viewers right now, the people who are watching us and most of them are youths and most of them, some of them are artists, some of them are graduates with no job, some of them are going to work after this. We're not doing that, we're not doing that daily. It's a very diverse audience. So just talk to them one way. This is what I want to tell you as a young person, keep doing it. When you start is not easy. There is nobody who got it easy. But just keep on working perseverance, put in the hours and trust God, you're going to break through on the other side. I want to tell you this, that real swimmers are in the deep, not at the beach. So get yourself from the beach, dive into the deep. Get yourselves out of the beach and dive into the deep. That is the word I'll leave you with from the CEO and founder of NM Group, an IT company based in the crew. You can find them on social media. It goes by the name Nelson. So I go by the name of Bymosis or it's by one of the social media platform. Joy Mushashir is coming up next with another amazing interview. So don't go anywhere, don't take that down.