 Y2 54 Channel za ukawe and this is why in the morning your favorite breakfast show as you know it's entrepreneurship Tuesday and it's about time we let you know how to make money or how to maximise the opportunities around your environment to enable you to be sustainable and to enable you to sustain yourself in future so today our first guest of entrepreneurship Tuesday or by the way if you do want to participate in the conversation you can find us on twitter at Y2 54 channel the hashtag is Hashtag is why in the morning. Hashtag entrepreneurship Tuesday on Facebook at Y to five for on Instagram at Y to five for underscore channel. And in case you miss any of the valuable insight here on YouTube find us at Y to five for channel. With me in studio today, I have a queen, I have the CEO and founder of Trans Solution Services, and she's here to let you know how you can eliminate communication barriers to enable you to maximize the opportunities, whether in this country or abroad. Imanuela Aboa kindly say good morning to the Y to five for family. Good morning viewers and listeners, and good morning Hilda. Thank you for having me on your show. Now it's about time you let us know why the interest in translating different languages, in training young people to be able to speak or interpret, and what was the importance, where did your passion for this delve from? Thank you for the question Hilda. Trans Solution Services really is a company that aims at transforming the lives of young people. Our vision as a company is to build the current and the next generation of African leaders and create opportunities for them. And like you've mentioned it rightfully, we do so through translation and interpretation and of course training and coaching. The translation and interpretation, we currently provide linguistic services in over 20 international languages. How many languages? 20 international languages. We proud ourselves of that. And the major aim really was to break communication barrier, to give the opportunities to young entrepreneurs to expand their businesses abroad, without really thinking about the barriers of language or culture. That's exactly the expertise that we bring into when it comes to translation and interpretation, maximizing global opportunities. And as far as the training and coaching is concerned, we basically started to equip young people with various skills to make them competitive in the workplace and of course in the businesses. The translation and interpretation, I started because I'm bilingual myself, I speak French and English. So it was a way of making money at the beginning. French and English? Yes, yes, yes. Alright, so let me understand, are you Kenyan by nationality or are you from elsewhere? I'm half Iroian half Senegalese, but I've been living in Kenya since 2002, so it's been 16 years now. My kids are born here, so I guess I am Kenyan by force. Okay, Kenyan by force. Alright, no problem, no problem. Anyhow, I'd like to understand, let's get to know this you a little bit. We'd like to understand your background. Where did you go to school? Did you train for this? Do you need any training? And if at all I'm interested in linguistics and what have you, what do I need to know? Okay, I was born and raised in Cordiva, like I said, from... Cordiva? Yes, Cordiva, or Ivory Coast. I came to Kenya in 2002. I studied business administration from Edith Kwan University in Australia. Then I pursued a master's in business administration now for Marymount, California University. So my background is mostly in business, sales, marketing, PR and all. I started having an interest in translation and interpretation because of the opportunity that I saw in it. In back in 2011 when I established my organization, there were quite a number of international NGOs coming to establish themselves in Kenya. And the language was still a barrier. And prior to starting it officially because now the University of Nairobi provides translation interpretation as a course. But at that time there was no university that was providing such services. And I did not have the financial resources really to enroll in a school and pursue that. So I find myself a mentor, someone who has been in the linguistic industry for over 20 years. Oh, you found yourself a mentor? Yes, I find myself a mentor. He's been around for over 20 years, working for international organizations such as the UN. So I went and knocked at his door and I asked him to train me. Okay, so when you went there you said I would like to be trained. What questions did your mentor ask you? What questions did they have for you? Why did they accept? Tell us, take us through the process of convincing a mentor to take you up. I knew where I was based so I made an appointment and went to see him, pretending to be a client. Pretending to be a client, exactly. And so we met up and now I disclose my true intention. And he laughed and he told me I don't have time for that. He gave me a university in Sweden where he himself studied before becoming a translator. I said what, I don't have the resources. So what do I do now because I want to pursue that career. Then he asked me my intention and of course at that time I can make sure it was mostly based on finances. He tested me, he gave me a document and he asked me to translate. I did. Wait, so he actually put you through a test? Yes, right then I translated and he said this is pathetic. I'm sorry. My spirit was broken. And I said well that's exactly why I need your help. And he closed his laptop and he said what I have another meeting. I said well you'll see me again here tomorrow and the day after. Because I know you are the best and I want to work with the best. He smiled and he told me okay come tomorrow at 8 and that's how we started. Wow, so you actually did push. Please don't let rejection hold you back. No you shouldn't. You can see a lot of pushing here indeed. Okay, so let's talk about some of the, when it comes to translation and interpretation. There's always the issue of people's dialects, accents, languages, street language and what have you. How do you train or how do you overcome such? Because that is still some sort of, because even in Kenya the Swahili that Kenyan speak is not the same Swahili that is purported to be our national language. So how do you deal with that? What training do you give when it comes to handling that? Okay, first of all we do not give any training on translation and interpretation. Our training is based on self awareness, development and entrepreneurship skills. Translation and interpretation we already work with qualified individuals. Why? Because we are not a school and we feel that University of Nairobi already does such an amazing job. Then we would not want to come in and spoil that. So when it comes to dialect and all we learn, we've learned that many, similar what can have different meanings. So most of the time when we work with organization we also ask them if they have a directory of what. Because let's say for example I take a word in French pre, pre is price. In certain English countries it could be awards. So there are different terminologies. So what we always inquire when we start off an assignment is to request the client if they already have a dictionary so that we do not mix a word. Then we try to understand as well the context of the organization. Translation and interpretation is all about the context of the language. So when we do then it becomes much easier. Okay, interesting. Can I ask you if you've had an experience where you wanted to take advantage of a certain deal or a certain business opportunity but you were unable because of that. Because of inability to communicate. Have you ever had such an experience? Myself no but we've had clients. A recent one really happened last year when one of our clients wanted to get into China and the language was a barrier and he felt that he was being taken advantage of. So he came to us. His partners as well were not clear and there were no reflection of what he was sharing. He could tell you know even if you don't understand the language you can't tell when someone is lying to you or creating certain things. So they came to us and we've been able now. We were able to go to China with them and to be able to provide the services. And indeed like in the contract when we realized what they told him and what was in the contract completely different. Interesting. So the client was actually saved or rescued from a bad deal. Bited solution services. Okay. Alright. Thank you very much. We now acknowledge. Aside from I'm glad that you mentioned that this is important that people also don't take advantage of you. What other benefits are there that from being able to speak different languages? What other benefits can you tell the young people at home? Can you enjoy aside from being saved from conniving people? Okay. Well there are many advantages. Let's see from a workplace environment. Let's say that you are working for a company. It exposes you basically because when you work either for an NGO or for the private sector. Nowadays because we live in such a global world you are able to get promoted or get assignment outside your country of origin because of the fact that you can speak various type of languages. So that brings opportunities. And as an entrepreneur really it's all about your businesses basically because there are no barriers. So you can enjoy the opportunity that comes with working abroad, with establishing your business abroad. And I guess that is all we want basically to make money and bringing coming up with money really means having a different mindset and taking advantage like I said of global opportunities. Okay. It's interesting now we understand at home. I hope you're paying attention because class is in session over here. Yes, I hope you're paying attention. You can be able even if you get promoted or you get posted to a different work environment in a different zone. You can be able to go because you can be able to communicate and you'll be the best candidate for that job. And of course as well as a translator and interpreter. They pay well. The industry pay quite well as well. Oh for real? Yes, as a business. It's a huge opportunity in terms of your financial resources. So what do we call an interpreter translator? Transloprano. Transloprano is out there. All right. It's about how we talk about some of the challenges that you have faced in establishing your own company. Most young people when they establish a company there are a lot of pitfalls. There are a lot of failures that have happened. Some companies collapse, some don't. So we'd like to understand what are some of the challenges that you have faced or some of the lessons that you have learned when it comes to crisis management. To sustain for all those years you have been in operation. Stating off was quite easy to be honest. Like I said I wanted to make money. And I did not have the resources but I had a computer. So that's how I started my company. Using my computer data and I started advertising the company as a translation and interpretation service. Now it's been eight years since the establishment of the company. Some of the challenges that we faced, really when it comes to translation and interpretation specifically, is finding qualified consultant or qualified linguistic to assist or to work with. Qualified consultant. Exactly. You see when you speak a certain language. When someone come for an interview you can definitely tell well you're not qualified enough. You are not able to speak properly and all. But at the beginning when I had Chinese translators, in-gen translators. But I could not really confirm the quality of the expertise and all because I could not understand the language. So we've had challenges as we start off. Because now I will take a leap of faith and hire an individual. Provide them to a client and then the client will come back with feedback complaining about the quality of translation or the quality of the interpretation. But with time now we've been able to put a good foundation. So now we work only with people that we've added. And people who have been able to help the company grow. So that was a challenge really to not being able to understand all the languages that we currently provide. Another challenge was resources to be honest. We want to make it in Kenya or anywhere around the world. Really you need money. You need to build a good company. You need to build a good marketing strategy. So you need money for everything. And that was difficult at the beginning. It was really difficult because I did not have the resources. So to be able to cut down my cost, I found a job. So really I went back into employment and the resources that I would get would be back into my company. So I used to reinvest into my own company to be able to continue my work. So as much as you were working, you were using your income to facilitate your side hustle to enable you to leave and stand on your own. Exactly. I hope you're paying attention. For me I needed to be realistic. I did not want to take loans. I fear loans a lot. As much as now they are good debts but for me as a foreigner I knew it would be very difficult to get a good loan in Kenya. I do not know why because they ask for so many information and they want to ensure that you repay the loan on time. And before and as I never know when you will be leaving the country. So I saw it already as a detriment in my business. So I needed to really focus on my own income throughout and that is what I have been doing until I made a name for myself. Another challenge really was my vision. I always advise entrepreneurs. If you want to start a business just start off. Do not try to have everything perfect before you start off your business because nothing is ever perfect. What you find yourself in is reinventing yourself every single day as you progress because now you begin to understand your custom better. You begin to understand the industry you are in better. The challenges that are there so you reinvest yourself as time goes by. So there is nothing like being ready? No. Just start off. Throw yourself exactly and then you'll be able to get that clear picture as time goes. So we've had to reinvent ourselves quite a number of times. And that was also a challenge because every time you reinvent yourself you need to be passionate about what you do. You need to be convinced about what you do because your staff need to be aware of the confidence that you have to build the map as well. So having that idea of waking up every morning even when you don't make money to keep pushing your organization was still a challenge for us. Alright. Interesting. Speaking of challenges, Afani is asking when we have different global trades and technologies is definitely changing and we have apps that can translate for us what people are saying and what have you. How has that affected your particular company? It hasn't in any way. Why? When we think about apps we think about the Google Translate and so forth. Google Translate is the major app that people use for translation. And we've had clients actually when they come to us and we bring a quotation, they find us a bit expensive. So they decide either to use Google Translate or use other cheaper options. But they always come back to us to rectify the mistake. Why? Because like I said earlier when it comes to translation and all you need to understand the context. Google Translate is not human. So they don't have a mindset to understand the context of the wording that you are putting, of the sentence it. So you still need the human touch to be able to translate accurately. So for now we don't feel the competition from those applications. So let's talk about crisis management when it comes to businesses. Most young people when they are trying to set up they don't really think about what happens if something goes wrong. So I'd like to understand do you have any particular documents that you go by when it comes to dealing with a crisis in your company? Whether it's financial or what is it? Do you have any plan when it comes to crisis management? Yes we do but this is a document that we created recently. This should not be a barrier in starting a business really. You start off and then you realize wow I need governance structure in place. So crisis management come into it for half of the training because also some of our target market are young people. So it means child protection. So all this came about about what? Four years ago and yet we've been in existence for eight years. So as time went by then now we began to see the importance of that because crisis management is quite important. Thank God we've never really experienced anything out of the ordinary and I guess because we've been working with individuals to help us put this document and adequate document and they've also trained our staff to be able to respond adequately to various crisis. Interesting. For the people who are watching at home, if they wanted to access you, where can they find you? We are located on Third Gong Avenue. The building is called Upper Hill Garden and the office is E03. They can also contact us using our mobile phones. So currently the mobile phones are 0722 87 01 49 or 0721 75 93 67. We are also on our social media platform on Facebook at Transolution Services. LinkedIn, Transolution Services and Instagram as Transync Company. I hope they can hear that because my accent I can even feel it when I speak. It's okay. When they will be able to see all. Alright, interesting. So when it comes to global trends and it comes to support from government and what have you, what more can the government do to support people in your line of work when it comes to linguistics? Are there any challenges that you have faced that the government can do something about? Hilda, I think I am from a different sort of school. I don't believe that the government should do everything. And that is even why, the reason why I put up my company. I think the role of a government is to create a platform where such, where policies are made. So policies are made to ensure that we have a good business environment, that we are able to market our different organizations. That business environment is what I am talking about. How is the ease of doing business? In Kenya, I feel that there has been so much improvement. Yeah, lots actually. When I started in 2011, first I registered my company as a sole proprietorship. Then eventually when we grew, I changed it to a limited company. When I started, they used to request so many information and it will take us about 4, 5, 6 months. I remember my first certificate to get your, it was ridiculous. Those are the things I am talking about. But nowadays, no. Nowadays you can do it, you get your certificate within weeks. Yes, actually like 2 weeks. Yeah, and you can register on your mobile phone, things have changed. The Kenyan government has done so much to improve the ease of business and that's why every year, I don't know what is the current statistic, but every single year was bank normally provide information regarding various African countries and the ease of doing business. Kenya has been improving for the past 3 years. So congratulations to the Kenyan government. Good Kenyan government, there you have it props for you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Yes, you have been speaking to Imanuela Abua. She is the founder and CEO of Translution Services. Make sure you do check out if you want to be global. If you want to maximise the opportunities in case you get promoted and you want to travel and go to another country. In fact, there's a specific segment today on entrepreneurship Tuesday on tour and travel. I'm so glad you came because now wow, it has just come, it has just blended in very nicely. Make sure you do catch up with Imanuela and Barimo. It's coming up next with our next interview. My name is Hilda Wadidi. Please do not go anywhere.