 Hi, my name is Yohad Isimmanuel and as Dan has said, Yohakim has said that we are about 500 tweets and we need like 2000 tweets so we need 1500 so I want us to get to those 1500 in an instant, we want to bomb Twitter so I want everybody to take out their phones, just take out your phone if you have a Twitter. My topic is not about this is Mombasa or this is anywhere, I'm actually going to talk about running a digital agency in Kenya, a web design, WordPress web design agency in Kenya. So that's what I'm going to talk, I'm not going to take you through how you can start an agency actually, it will be so practically so easy and how you can offer your services as a web developer or anything to do with WordPress because WordPress does a lot of stuff which you can do. So when you think about running, running we are Kenyans, we run, so when I say I'm running a WordPress agency actually I'm in the process of going through the agency and running, that's why it plays the picture there and we are actually known to be great runners. So I'm going to cover you as a person, if you want to run an agency, it starts with you, you have to be the person who comes up say hi, I want to do this, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of the life. So I'm going to talk also about the technical requirements and I'll also talk about the legal requirements and the human resource if you need that because this is an agency, it's not a one man show and I'm going to talk also about the financial resources about money, everything is about money, nobody should lie to you about anything and then the customer relations and the opportunities in WordPress that you can offer to people as an agent because WordPress actually allows to do a lot of stuff online and this one we are going to do. So you as a, I want to talk about the status of WordPress in Kenya, don't look at that graph, I just placed there to cover the spaces, I needed to have 10 slides and they were 9, so I added something there just to be like 10. But what is the status of WordPress, web design in Kenya specifically WordPress web design? If you go and look type on Google web designers in Kenya, I'm happy that number, like we are number 3 there or number 4 there, but there are so many people offering this. But let me tell you, they are not even enough, they are yet to be enough, so you can't say that this agency thing, there are so many developers out there, I can't mention that field. The way you see mama kibanda and a open a kibanda, somebody opens something next, the same will happen to the internet. There's still room for you and for your agency so that we need you to be up there so this out. I have experienced with this, I've been working on this since 2015 and I'll tell you I've been online and I've looked at other countries. The one you can say there's no space for becoming a web developer is India. India is like everybody there is a web designer. And they'll send you emails on messages, hey we do a web design, if you have a website they say hey we do a website design, we have this and this, there are so many. It's like everybody went to school to study web design, so it's so populated out there, but in Kenya actually there's space. We need more, even if all of us if we can start at this web design agency, I'm sure you'll be getting clients if you just do research. And I'm going to show you how you can do it right, it's not the right way but how you can do it right. And it's based on my experience on how I did it and how we are running the agency. So you as a person, you need to be motivated, let me tell you, it's called entrepreneurship. You are going to there not as a developer, not as a designer, not as a blogger, but as an entrepreneur. If you are somebody who sits down and checks, hi, people are driving Mercedes Benz out there, why am I not driving that? That's just one motivation for you to do that. People are going to trips, people are coming to Mumbai, people are going to Nairobi, people are going everywhere. Why should I not do that? You need a motivation, you need to be motivated number one and then you also to be a learner. Most speakers have talked here that the world of technology is evolving day in, day out. The person who came from university yesterday holding a degree in computer engineering or computer science akifika inje anapata tiyame soma is still relevant to the current world. And that's the hardest route. Most of the teachers will teach you things about 25, nowadays I hear people are learning about Microsoft Office. Who needs that anyway? People, there are things you are taught in school, school is just to prepare you to think and do all the things, but it won't help you in your life. So onapata, I'm a graduate, I'm going to this door, I do C++, I do Java, I do this and this. Nobody will employ you because there are things like Python, there are things like PHP, there are things like HTML, now somebody is talking about Internet of Things. You have never heard that in this class. I have employed people who come to, they have a CV that I've done this, I've done this and that, but they are irrelevant because I tell them, do you know what press? No, we just covered it as a topic in the university. Now we wonder how does this person, no, no WordPress and they say WordPress powers like 80%, is it 30% of the Internet, all the website out there is the largest. I'm sure anybody has encountered WordPress anywhere, even if you are never, you are not a developer or anything, you have encountered WordPress, that's a fact. So the skills you get to the school, you need to open up and think about the future of technology, where is it going? And that's how I started in 2014. I used to work at an NGO in Nairobi, we used to rehabilitate street children. So when we rehabilitate, we used to go to all the corners, these corners are Nairobi, kuna muduru wa wapi wapi, nimengia. Nimengia, wuna chikwadis kids, we take them to rehabilitation, we take them to school. And then after, I did that for five years, I'm an old guy. So I used to ask myself, what do you like? I like technology. And when I was in the NGO, I used to manage the database for that organization and bring all that. And then I came out, it was like around 2014, you know the NGOs, they have programs, this is Naisha, Nika Yuliza, what do you like to do next? What anything, so there was an option to start developing these apps, so non-ankwa computer, these mobile phone apps because the mother called Kujulikana. And I asked myself, what should I do? I said, let me go to the web, because the web is something that's open and it's progressing kabisa. So I built a blog, that's my first thing I remember. I built a blog, I don't know what it was about, but about jobs, I used to go to another blog, copy content, put on a blog. But I'm not getting any traffic, I was just, I realized I like to build. I could build, look at it tomorrow, it's not looking good, remove it, look at it next day, even without even putting content. So somebody introduced me to WordPress and I've never gone back to the blogger.com, I used to blog on blogger.com. So my first project, it was a voluntary work, I was on Twitter, I'm a big weekend on Twitter, I have like 8,000 followers. So I was on Twitter and then I saw a lady, somebody should volunteer to build a blog for me. I went, I said I can volunteer because I was not working, I was not spending anything. So my computer, my skills and the water I've learned online and I was actually guessing most of the things in WordPress. I was just learning WordPress as building the blog. So I built the blog. This client last year she gave me a job to do the same blog. Now it was a paid job. And you see it was just something that I volunteered, I didn't have to ask for payment because I was still learning. So you need to be a learner. Learning can be anywhere, can be online, can be offline, can be anywhere. And then you need to be inquisitive. You need to ask questions. Why is this website looking pretty? What have they used? How did they start that? Ask people, ask online questions. There are websites online where you can get questions and you can get answers. There's a community called Quara, very good for questions and you, you get solutions and then you have to be talkative on there. Because when you're going to be an entrepreneur, you have to talk to people, you have to talk to clients. If you're going to start an agency, you're going to talk to your employees, you're going to talk to your customers, you're going to talk to business, other business guys, you need to collaborate. So you need to be somebody who talks. Now somebody is a king. Most developers there have that problem. I know. I know. He used to come daily and here for computer care, he does his stuff and a talk at the end, in the evening. And a month goes down, he asks, who is this guy sitting next to you? He doesn't know. So you need to have those kinds of skills as yourself. There are so many entrepreneurial traits out there, I'm not going to talk about them. Some of them you need to have ethical considerations, all that, all that. I'm not going to go through that. And then the technical requirement for running an agency. Let's say this is an agency. It's not about you running as a one man show. Because I've realized 98% of people say we are web developers and designers. They do that as individuals or freelancers. Okona clans 30, but we are doing it as a on. I'm talking about building an agency. Building an agency meaning you're going to employ someone. You're going to improve the lives of somebody else out there. It's not just about you, it's about building the country also. So you need to brand yourself actually. You need to have a logo. It's so important. You need to have a website. You need to have social media presence. On Twitter, all of them got them. There's a website called Noem. N-O-E, Noem. Noem, it's about you just put your brand lesson about leka and you click. It will tell you all the social media profiles you're not on. So you can go and create accounts there. But you might not use them, but make sure you're on Facebook. Make sure you're on Twitter. Make sure you're on Instagram nowadays. And then there's Google Plus, but those are additional. But the main one Twitter, Facebook and Instagram these days for developer, designer or creator. You create things to post there and anybody can see. And then you should know HTML and CSS. This is just basic. I think it's a must cause WordPress is built with PHP, HTML and CSS. Most of it. And JavaScripts, some places, not every places, but some places. So you need to know how to change the layout of websites. If you are given a free theme, there are so many, there are like 500,000 themes on the WordPress repo. You can take any of them. You can customize to what the client looks like. The colors, everything that you need. You don't need to go and buy a professional theme or do anything. So it's better you learn HTML and CSS. And this thing can take you a week to learn. I learned a lot about this on the job. Let me tell you to be honest. But there's this website just called academy.com. I don't know if it's existing these days. You just go there and you can learn HTML and how to do DUs, all that, all that. So those are some of the technical requirements. There are many. I'm not going to them. Maybe you can ask a question and I'll try to answer that later on. And then the legal requirements. I'll say it here. Most of us do web development or web design as individuals. But if you need to run an agency, you need to know the legal requirements. Number one, you need to register a company. Company is expensive. About 20,000 to register a company. So the best thing you can do is take 1,000, go to a citizen platform, register a business name. You are allowed to do business with that. Register a business name. If you have money, register a company. You can register a company as your sole owner. You as a person. So let's say in Kaki Tambo you need to add directors. You need to have those. Just register a business name as a person. Put a place. I don't know if Swahili Port allows that. You can put Swahili Port as your address of work. You can put somewhere where you work. They'll give you a certificate. After that, after you pay, it's about 1,000. Because the first one you'll pay is about 150. Name, search, reservation. And then 802 to complete. And then after that, go and apply for a care pin. It's important. Mostly single businesses, you can use your own care pin. But I'll advise, make it separate. So you have the business candle. You as a person candle. So the business has its own pin. It has a business registration. And you, you have your own pin. You have a business registration. You cannot fill a carrier, touch it. You won't be fined 20,000 a day one. And then get a bank account. That's so important running an agency. Now we are familiarizing. A bank account. It's now it's you as a person. Get a bank account. Because you have to separate your money from your business. And then you have to pay and then the next month you are still hustling for job. So you need to, this is money for business. What you can just get and your self a salary from that business. So at the end of the month, it's your business. It's everything but it's just about discipline. And then you need to have a lipa name. So if you have a business name, go to any supermarket shop, get a lipa name person. Because nowadays people can pay you easily with lipa name person. And then apply for VAT. There was a speaker here who talked about large projects. These companies, they won't give you work unless you have these legal requirements. So you won't get these big jobs unless you have this. And we can look in the UKO, they'll ask you, hey, give us a pin. They'll go and check. So they'll check. But I'll advise you take this VAT later on after you've done like 5 or 6 projects. So you are now seeing that this thing is going on because VAT is every month you have to file a return. And most you can file even near return. But we'll kiss a how? 10,000. You'll have to pay a car. And then you can get a business permit but it's not really necessary unless you have a job in where you are doing that kanjo. They come and ask for you the county council. But you can avoid all that by using places like this. You come here, just say however, I'm a member of Swahili Port and I run my agency from this place. So in case you get a job you can also direct your clients to come and visit you here. And then I use the desk keep something. The human resource, the people you need. I'm a developer and builder website. But in case you want to grow you'll also need an administrator. Somebody will be in communication with their clients and running operations. This is now growing when you are growing developers if you need one or two accountant, marketer, software. But the best thing I place software last is you can run your agency as an individual so you have software. You have software that does accounting and data. You have software that posts on social media because you can post one tweet in the Facebook, it goes everywhere. So you can reduce the overheads and reduce the costs when you have all this. And then the financial requirements how do you get this money to register this business? Bootstrapping, most people do it funding and they know bootstrapping is where you get the money from your friends or the youth fund. How many have applied for this youth fund thing? We usually hear about it. Youth fund, nobody. Yeah. So it doesn't work from the small research I've done here nobody has ever found one. On the Avenger funds because these are startups and now there's this money these guys are putting in the startup when these people are putting in the kind of shock tanks launch then this guy will ask you if I'm an investor I want to see how it will make money from you how much will this agency you are creating will it make money that it can return to me? So you need to be good with your numbers you need to come to me it's just about convincing them that actually your business will make more money. So we say in Mombasa 5,000 businesses startups I want to be creating websites for these 5,000 businesses and this amount of money you are going to make Convin this guy he'll give you money to do that but that's another field I'm not going to talk about so when you are an agency you have to be prepared to do everything but you can't do everything that's just a coach I came up with it in the morning be prepared to do everything running an agency you are the admin you are the accountant you are the designer now it's about you you are everything but it will reach a point when you get 5 or 6 clients you can't follow up on these clients all of them so that's why I say you bring up these people you bring somebody to help you and most of them if it's your friend because you might see something that they can bring to the company that's how you grow you don't need to have thousands of money to employ these people but be sure every month you'll be paying somebody 20,000 that means you'll have to be working hard to make sure you are getting projects monthly and there are projects out there after you've done yourself you have branded yourself when you start approaching guys out there the money will come when they send you an email saying hey thank you for contacting us we will do this and this we will do our website it will not find me if this person opens that email and then they open I'll say hey so also open your email at this amount time I'll wait 2 days I'll send them an email hey if they don't respond I'll tell them hey so you opened my email yesterday they'll be surprised how did you know I opened your email so they'll know us we are professional so this is my personal gmail but what I use for the website it's called sales at nabaleka.com so from this one you can see all the projects they come nabaleka website like today there's one new project website by Isaac Saw also he requested the website that they need to be done so that is the the benefit of being CEO so he said they need a hotel website this is their number and this is their email the service is web design they have a small hotel with 10 rooms so they need they need somebody to design for them so it's for me to go back there and contact this Isaac guy and tell them hey thank you for contacting us we are this and this these are packages and this is how you can do your website it's called automation I'm not there I'm not doing anything so SEO it's free you just have to optimize your website because now I can tell you one thing nobody has optimized for the term WordPress designers in Kenya and people are looking for this kind of guys directly most people have optimized for web design in Kenya web design in Nairobi web design in Mombasa you see so when you go to type those how clients are getting so they get the first two, three people and this is free free clients that you are not even working so much for them so this is how the SEO process works I think my power is going to be off the client contacts you you engage them you develop their website you deliver and you ask for referral because referrals they work magic when a client brings somebody else that hey I know a guy I know a guy who created a website for this company who can do this and this and this that's how how a nice process works the other process is you have to do work you have to market out there you have to create a Facebook account they want to say marketing social media if you have money you can pay for adverts have you ever seen website design adverts on your Facebook timeline there are not so many there are few because most people do there the SEO part there are so few that hey we are good web designers and we do this you can even call go and look for a list I have some guy from UG he's a friend of mine usually calls people from morning to evening tell them hey I do website design and I do this and do this but that means you have to credit you have enough you can also email email like the way Indians do but that's spamming email like 10,000 people because you can buy email list or you can use their software to extract emails from websites in Kenya so that you can list you can email send like blasts but that is expensive and very few people return actually they just click spam and it goes to spam and then you can land a client possibly if you need that to be there that's the way so my only trick is just to work smart not hard and I think I've given you the requirements because as I began I said