 Welcome back to why in the morning, you know, when it's Tuesday, it's a good music and catching you informed, entertained at the same time as you also acquire information when it comes to business that you may venture into. In this particular session, we dive into an interview that looks at tour and travel and in studio, I am joined by K. Tansefai Kenya, the founder who is none other than Kevin Ovinno. Thank you very much, Kevin. Thank you for having me too. I appreciate. Kevin, so earlier on before we got here on set, we have a conversation of where you study your background. Tell us more about what you studied in school. Okay, so my name is Kevin from K. Tansefai. So I was born in Nairobi, raised up in Madara Slums. I go to study, went to high school, and then I joined the Masahimara University in Narok. Yeah, so Masahimara University, it's a university that is, I think it's less known. I see memes on Twitter what you're going to enjoy at it. They are modern facilities, great accommodation for students and also it's a nice place. What is your background when it comes to education that is? So in primary school, I started like I said in Madara, a place called Madara Community Outreach. Then high school, I went to Rambo Boys High School, which is in Siaya County, or Bondo. Then campus I pursued towards and travel management. Yeah, so it was my passion. I love traveling, so that's the course I went for because it's fitted with what I wanted to do in life also. Okay, so talk to us about K. Tansefai is Kenya. So how did it happen? How did you go about it? So how did it start? So K. Tansefai is Kenya is now four years and some months old. In October this year, we turned five. So we started in 2016. Yeah, so I graduated from Masahimara University in 2016, and I got employed for around three months. Then I quit to start K. Tansefai. So right now, it's four years and some months old, and we're still growing. So we mainly focus on domestic tourism because we think it's a niche that is less exploited and also that has a very good clientele. And also it's the most the fastest growing market in the tourism industry. And when you guys were starting off, what was your sort of kind of capital? Starting the business. Okay, so the business started from scratch because I started like on a, I did it as a personal business first as it began. So there was not so much capital that I had, but I leveraged on the use of social media to market my tours and travel. We do mostly events, especially during the weekends. So like you get every weekend we have a trip happening. Yeah, so from the little savings I had from campus, let's say around 50,000, I pumped it into the business, started marketing, like posting and sponsoring posts on Facebook, on Instagram, and also doing posters, doing t-shirts. Most of it went to marketing and also the business registration. Someone is watching us and they wonder, what if they don't have the money, like to just put it into the business, like in your situation. Is there a possibility that they can get into this business? What are a couple of ways they can do that? There's a lot of potential in the industry and you don't really need to have too much money to begin with. For example, right now, like I said, social media is giving guys a platform to showcase what they have. If you have a talent, if you have a business you want to do, all you need to do is put it out there and putting it out there is simply marketing it. How do you market it? If you are on social media, this is a quote that I picked from Johnson Maccazzi. He said that if you're on social media, you own a media house. So showcase what you have and start from somewhere. The moment you do your first trip or your first sale, you will have kicked off and start rolling. So showcase what you have. Someone who is interested in it will probably buy and then you start from there and you grow polo polo. How did you get your first client? First trip we did a day trip somewhere in Nyeri and I had only three clients. So I added a few of my friends to join us. We went, we were about six. So the clients were happy. They enjoyed the trip. The following trip we had 12 guys turning up and then slowly slowly we had 15, 20, 25 until when we were turning one year old, we had around a hundred guys turning up for a trip. So that's the progress. It started from like six to now we do trips every weekend and we have guys turning up. So when starting off, as you've said, we start with a small number and it grows with time. How do you build credibility when potential clients come to you? So for your business to be approved by clients, you know for tourism, what you sell is a promise. It's not like selling a shoe that someone can see and touch and feel. What you are selling in the tourism industry, it's a promise. I promise that when you join us for a trip, you're going to have fun. So my work or our work as catering safaris is to deliver that fun. If we fail to deliver that fun, then we fail in our promise. If we tell you we're going to take you to Naivasha for a three legs tour in one day and we go to Naivasha and we just get to Lake Naivasha, which is one lake, then we will have failed in delivering our promise. So when you market something, you tell someone you're going to do something or you're going to offer a service, just make sure you deliver that. If there's going to be photography, make sure it's there. If there's going to be food, make sure it's there and it's good food. If there's going to be swimming, if there's going to be whatever you promise, deliver. We're not like the government. For someone who is watching this and they want to get into this business, okay. The other thing, because I know there's a part whereby we see posters, we are going to curator, we are going to Ngong. And then there's the other aspect, the business aspect of it whereby you guys are sitting down with the owners of these places that you're taking us and striking a deal. Give us top three negotiation tips, skills. In generally, when striking a deal, when striking a deal for someone who's watching this and they want to get into this space. Yes. So negotiation skills number, the three top most is, okay, for my industry, number for the niche that I'm in is numbers. Yeah. When you have numbers, then you can simply negotiate your way through, through, maybe you want to take guys to a place and it's a villa. They're charging maybe 30,000 per night for one villa that sleeps 10. So you tell them, I'll be bringing you 15, 15 guys every weekend, you see, and you reduce for me the rate of the villa to around, let's say, 20,000. You know, that person will look into the bigger picture that he will be in business for three consecutive weeks. So he'll be able to reduce the cost for you because of that. Oh, you've been business for a long time. Yeah. They reduce on cost and he will actually make his money actually. Yes. He will make money like twice, rather than he gets one person who pays 30K in one day and then for the rest of the four weeks, he doesn't have business. So it's better. If you have numbers, it's easy to negotiate. Yeah. Number two is just honesty. Like, if you're given a deal and the other person also has an expectation, you live up to the expectation of that deal, whatever you guys discussed and agreed upon. Yeah. And the third negotiation skill is confidence. You know, if you're not confident, you're not going to go up there. You're not going to try out new things. You're not going to reach out or you're not even going to make that step of wanting to do something. So if someone realizes that you're confident in what you're doing or what you're saying, then they'll take you seriously and you can sit anywhere and tell anyone anything and they can agree with you if you're confident. Yeah. So those are the three most. Okay. So Alon, you mentioned that your niche is in the domestic tourism. Yes. What is the gap that you saw there that you actually fulfilled? Yeah. Domestic tourism has been ignored for quite a long time. Like, I think COVID opened the eyes of many guys because they're depending on the international tourism a lot, but the local market is there. Like throughout, you know, in the international market, there are seasons. There's a low season. There's high season. There's peak season. There are all that seasons, but for the domestic market, Kenyans are there throughout, whether it's raining, whether there is a sorry to say this, whether there's a bomb in Lamu, they will not stop going to Kisumu because maybe there was a terrorist attack in Lamu as compared to the international tourism where if something happens, it's very fragile. Something happens in Kenya, maybe they're going to Masaimara and there was an attack in Mombasa. They will fail to go. They will cancel. They will get all these travel advisories. But you know, for us Kenyans, we are here. We know that the situation on the ground. So Kenyans are there always and Kenyans travel a lot. Kenyans travel a lot. I can tell you in the last five years, I've been in the industry, Kenyans travel. So it's a gap that they need to travel and they want someone to assist them in coming up with packages and taking them for trips and making things work for them when they are in the trips. What are your packages? What packages do you offer and are they at an affordable price? Yes, yes. I think we're the most affordable company in Kenya because we do date from day trips. We do starting from 3000. From 3000, you can go to Naeversha, have lunch, do some boat riding activity, have photography. In all our trips, we have photography and also we have very nice food in our trips. So that is a day out in Naeversha. If you want to do an overnight from as low as 6k, you can go for a camping vacation or even accommodation from as low as 9000. So we normally do group trips. You know, when we do a group trip, the cost is shared amongst everyone. So it's become cheaper than if you travel alone, if you did self-drive, you will cater for the cost of fuel, energy, you get tired, and then also you'll pay for the accommodation with the high rates because for us as a group, we negotiate the rates and they get better rates. Okay. So I've seen this a couple of times that everyone is now venturing into train travel. There's so many people in this particular space. So how have you guys branded yourself to just be different? It's true that so many are venturing into the industry, which is a good thing, but the market also usually filters itself. As a time, those who are quacks, they'll simply be filtered out. But for us what we do is we maintain our quality standards. Like I just said, we deliver our promise. Each and every time, each and every trip is a special one for us. We just make sure that we deliver and at the end of the day, that client will retain them for the next trip. When it comes to the train travel space, it's quite easy. I have friends, right? I can just create a poster and they call it Netamboggi, Trinanda. So what would you say about that particular perception when it comes to this industry and for people who are looking for to get into this space or for someone who got into this space with that kind of mentality and things didn't go just as planned? Yeah. So like any other business, it may look easy, but it involves a lot of risks. That's number one. Number two, there's a lot of hard work to put in it. Like for us, we've been here for five years. So we've really worked hard to have a base, a clientele base, such that if we form a trip, we're sure that it's going to happen. You know, like you say, you call your mboggi there. When you tell them we are going to Naivasha, usually you're many, you're like 10. I'm a 15. I'm a, let's say 20. Then three weeks to the trip, you're seven. One day to the trip, Mkotua willy. But you see, for us now we come to solve that. Mkua willy, you wanted to go to Vasha. Your friends have not turned up. So we provide that solution. We give you a trip to Vasha. You join others. You meet new people and you get to interact with them and all that. And also there are a lot of things that we take care of. Like if you, if you did a self-try to Naivasha, by the time you're getting there, you'll be tired because of driving or even you don't know where to go, what to do. So for us, we have that knowledge. We know what to do. We know even some places that people don't know. Did you know that there's a lake called Lexonachi? No, I didn't know that. Yeah. You see, so if you go to Naivasha and it's just the normal Naivasha boat riding, maybe you go somewhere, night out and all that. But if we come in, we give you even more. We reveal to you things that you didn't know. Yeah. So that's where we fall in. Okay. Real quick, the process whereby you guys go out, you know, I don't know if it's to survey for new joints, destination hunts. So the process, what is the process like? And now before you actually now come up with a poster. Yes. So before you come up with a trip, normally as a tourism travel agent, number one, you need to ask the question, where? Where, what, when? Those three things are very important. Where you'll have to pick the location. It has to be accessible. If it's a hike, there has to be a route. There has to be a trail. And then when this one comes mostly in terms of weather, the weather has to be good for you to go. Like you can't go to water rafting in Sagana when the river is dry, you see. And then where, when, and what? What to do. Yeah. What to do. Yeah. So you have to find out the activities. So this is, we call it a pre-visit. It's very important for a successful trip. And you have to go through those three processes before a trip becomes successful. All right. So how can people find you across all the social media handles? We are on Facebook at Ketan Safari's Kenya. We are on Instagram at Ketan Safari's and also on Twitter at Ketan official. All right. Thank you very much, Kevin Ovino there. The founder of Ketan. Yes, Ketan Safari's. Yes. Thank you very much for creating time with us today. Thank you. All right. So we're talking about to and travel the business aspect of it. So make sure you don't tap that dial, it'll be right back. So at Y2F4Channel is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Lashira. So you can find me across all my social. Thank you. All right. So it's the time, our time frame. It's a really, look, time you may end up, nasi jaona. Just enjoy this conversation. So guys, we have come to the end of the show. So make sure you create time next Tuesday. The time frame is seven till 10 a.m. as usual, right here on entrepreneurship Tuesday. And remember at Y2F4Channel is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Lashira. Is where you can find me across all my social. Remember also, follow faith across all our social media handles. So next Tuesday, same time frame. Have a nice day. Enjoy the rest of you viewing right here on Y2F4Channel.