 Welcome back to the hashtag entrepreneurship Tuesday on why in the morning I tried to fit for channel as you can find us across all our social media platform. At Misha Lashire is where you can reach out to me and in this particular session we have another interview and it's all about matters pertaining to and travel so not forgetting the tourism in Kenya is the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue following agriculture so joining me in studio I have a team of two from listen to this Mufasa tour and travels they'll be telling us more about that name we have Joseph Wakamba who is the CEO and then we also have a Lewis Muga who is the confa who is also co-founder to Mufasa tour and travel thank you very much gentlemen for creating time to be with us thank you Lewis is very much composed you look dashing by the way thank you very much how are you guys you're fine thank you all right so starting us off yeah I would like to find out who is Lewis Muga before before before before Mufasa tour and travel happened Lewis is a humble person gone in Kishinyaga studied finance well that's my hometown by the way we'll interact later studied finance yeah then now Mufasa happened okay what about you Joseph I studied real estate in the University of Nairobi so I'm an economics person but decided to venture into the tourism industry because it was a passion that I was in me and is what I love to do all the time all right and when did that happen I started Mufasa back in way the year 2013 I was still in university so is when I started engaging my classmates into going for trips and yeah and it started from there but before that I used to love traveling my parents to take me around I've traveled to so many destinations so when I got into the tourism industry it was not a very big deal to maneuver my way around traveling so I could advise clients how to travel to different destinations and that's why I brought my friend on board I told him because we are young people and we are still young so is the time we have to make the move before we become adults so that's when we started all this yeah and now it's a very big thing and it's working well for us yeah since 2013 right okay so Lewis at what point did you feel or rather be confident that you know go and jump into the wagon of starting a journey and travel of just be part of the Mufasa journey I used to see my friend here traveling all the time and I asked him how come he always traveling in school what are you doing so that's what he met up told me this is what I do he was dealing with Chinese back then so that is when we decided let's push it to another level all right so for my viewers in dad might have a little bit of a clue an idea of the name Mufasa you know but it's not in our place it is not our story absolutely not so I'll do you guys the orders it was your story so how did you guys come up with the with the name and and why so Mufasa I was a very when I was young katoona was my I used to like watching cartoons and all this and my dad brought me a CD because I had asked for I had told him to bring me a cartoon CD that I could watch so coincidentally brought me the Lion King CD so from that day I think I just got very interested in the name character Mufasa so how he plays the character role in the movie how he ended up dying so it became very motivating to me and also when I came up with the name I think that's the name that came to my head the first thing and then being Mufasa is your your the boss the king yeah the king so everyone follows what you say and what you do okay they are correct the two and travel company uh uh do you guys have employees in the fias so what's what's the number of the team that you guys have on board yeah we currently have seven employees yes all right and during this time of the pandemic you know how much is going on especially into the hospitality industry uh how has the business been failed us actually the industry this is the second heat the second worst heat we're just talking about Lewis and the my question is what did you study in school that has actually helped or propelled the Mufasa trend travel one way or the other as I said earlier I did finance okay and I think you don't think you'd run a business without looking at your finance absolutely yes absolutely so that is a major point for me yes okay and uh back to you uh Joseph and you started this company from way back in 2013 and looking back uh from where you started till right now what are some of the things that you from where you started looking back some of the achievements and you see back you'll be like wow no I don't regret doing this some of the achievements that we have achieved uh since 2013 is you have been able to collaborate with many many organizations and uh which have become successful you have collaborated with international farms local farms also they've also taken out initiatives to do trips to very many locations that so many other companies that have not done so I count those as achievements on nine because uh they have been successful and uh there are things that people can look and say wow yeah there's there's so many travel companies uh in Kenya what makes Mufasa travel different it's a customer service because that's what brings back a customer because the client will learn to enjoy what the service they got on the previous trip or holiday vacation and such yeah I don't want to take you back just to 2013 yes we're starting up we're starting the company what was your initial capital and how did you raise the funds to start the business okay I started with a capital of about 20 to 30 thousand shillings uh that was I was in about I was in my second second I was in my third year in the University of Nairobi and uh I planned a small trip for my friends to visit a location that I had mentioned to them so one I had I needed to show them that it's something that I'm willing to do so at first I I couldn't first even charge them I had to give them a highlight of how it is so this was I had to remove money from my own pocket then I take them out and then so that they can see how my idea is and then after we did the first one the second one then the third one on and on it became my it yeah but in terms of capital trust and travel doesn't have a specific kind of uh amount of capital but as little as you can and helps you to keep your to start yeah today I can say money came back but with time you come on spending a lot of money but with time it comes to come back because the more you advertise the more you take people to different places the money keeps on coming back yeah ladies for someone who is watching this and they will not to be uh to start up uh to interval company and they don't have the amount uh then just started off with what will be your advice when it comes to raising funds you definitely have a support group of your friends who will hold your hand as he said he had to remove money from his pocket right but they are also friends who are willing to pay for that trip anakwambia lemini takam na hi toki dogo kidogo so that we go to that destination of choice so it's not as hard I would say just need loyal friends your family as well they'll help you out so international flights kicked off kicked off on first of all and uh some kinds of travel to see family other business uh some of them just vacation and uh I have a couple of friends who oppose us this question why does one need a travel agent when it comes to if you guys have one do you yes okay what does one need a travel agent when it comes to booking maybe hotels or even flights uh so this is how we look at it with their friends like uh it's quite cheaper if I'm going to book for myself or maybe on our hotel uh for hotel or even maybe the flight so why do I need a flight why do I need a travel agent okay the advice I believe many people many people when they check uh when they book for themselves they find it cheap I can say it's cheap to book for yourself everything but uh in terms of convenience it's a struggle because uh if you're booking your flight sometimes uh flights are very they're they're subject to availability you need that person who if anything comes up you need to call this person is responsible for that flight this person is responsible for the destination you're going to when it comes to the hotel booking need a travel agent who keeps on checking whether the rooms are available for you which type of room you'll take which type of food they'll serve you so the good thing about the travel agent is that they bring all things all these things together so for you it's just to pay and enjoy the service that you have paid for so instead of you booking that for instance if you book for yourself a flight every day you have to keep on checking whether the flight is still out if you book for yourself a hotel maybe in Dubai maybe in Mombasa maybe in Masaimara you have to keep on checking whether the room is still there if you book for yourself a transport you have to always check whether the transport is there this is a lot of hassle for a common person maybe uh you're working you have to keep on checking have a family you need to check back when a family is home so you're adding to yourself a burden which someone who has studied the profession can make it very easy for you because if you pay me the money for going to Dubai i'll handle the ticket i'll handle the visa i'll handle the hotel i'll handle your activities in Dubai so for you just to come and pay and for you just relax and the travel agent advice is you maybe now in times of covid there are places which are very hit hardly because of the spread of the coronavirus i would advise you if you are going to a specific destination not to go because there is something that you may not find fit for you in that specific place we have some hotels which in the internet they are very good they are very good pictures but in terms of service it's out i cannot recommend so the good thing about a travel agent they advise you advise which goes along with because you save a lot of money if something bad happens to you and you never booked a travel agent you have no one to come back to but through a travel agent you can come back and tell me just if no this hotel was this way and this way so my next client i'll advise and not go to a specific place so a travel agent looks indeed all rounded so they got your back correct but it's so many of my clients mostly when they are going to many destinations i tell them this hotel looks very good on the internet but based on our previous clients who booked stay there they were not happy because either in terms of food maybe in terms of the convenience from the airport from the destination so a travel agent makes your life very easy yeah and also gets you discounts maybe when the hotel has discounts yeah correct louis uh is your question answered very much answered totally now i know i have uh my friends will watch this on youtube right try to find for channel now you have your answer why you need a travel agent uh going back to you louis let's check out the packages that move faster to travel after us yes yeah so we have holiday vacations we have uh two weeks for like that we want to hear that we have the holiday vacations like that's if you wanna go to the the coast that's what you call the vacations now if you wanna go to the bush that's what we call the safaris or that's how the nandresdians call them yeah we do flights international packages and you also do the nandresdians foreigners yes so what is available right now we uh i know we can go to mombasa that i'm so sure okay so there is moving so people can now go to mombasa okay saimana all these open air spaces are open now okay nice so how do you market this particular business through our social media platforms uh through our facebook page through our twitter handles through our instagram pages unfortunately uh yesterday someone tried to help through our instagram page so at the moment it's not live but we are trying to help through our way through it so if you want to check you can check us through our facebook page move faster travels twitter handles move faster travels also and you'll find all these packages there and they are very affordable yeah and what we put there is what is there is nothing that is false if you want to make a clarification just give us a call all right so situation we order something and then it comes no we don't order one then give you water all right so in the year 2019 what would you uh say uh the average number of clients you guys got to handle this 2019 2019 nothing much has happened 2019 on average they can say we took about it was around 5000 to 6000 guests the whole year yeah that was the average number that we got in the whole of 2019 yeah what some of the challenges that you guys face first of all some clients were not understanding I said I want to cancel and I want a full refund you get now you said now we usually have terms and conditions as well to secure us as as a company as well so if you cancel you just have to like go through the cancellation policy yes which we want to share with you have you guys planned uh probably for any two and you got surprises a lot when if yes like to your last story yeah sometimes we have so many challenges we book flights and then maybe what you had told the guests then something happened you know the world the currency fluctuation sometimes is a challenge so maybe what you are told a client going to Dubai maybe is about 70 000 then tomorrow something happens in the stock exchange and the dollar changes so the flights is affected so it increases so once it increases you can't go back to the client and tell them to add money you have just to go with what you had provided so it's yourself to maneuver through your through way through it to see how best you can handle the situation yeah but it happens a lot mostly for the flights because of changing the currency and it affects a lot but we try ourselves our best to maneuver our way through it yeah but in come to hotels we normally have like the rates we have with the hotels so it's normally safe for that yeah uh with the pandemic the global pandemic which is really hit there to tourism industry very hard what's the future of twin travels most COVID-19 well we are living in the minimum what will be the future like when it comes to twin travel I can say if you are in the year 2010 2008 when we had the clashes uh if you had maneuvered your way through that I think this one also you'll also be able to maneuver through it because this is also a very big challenge because traveling has become a very big challenge to many people and it has fear because many people don't want to travel to destinations maybe you're marketing and we want to tell our guests that these destinations are very safe we have gone through like last week we were in Masaimara we checked all the hotels we checked all the protocols whether they have been observed whether they have licenses and I can confirm that these destinations are very safe and the places that we are advertising means that they are safe a place that we're not advertising means that the place is very risky for guests to go now though we normally advise the clients when they come to book yeah uh looking back and also including the challenges that you guys have faced do you have any regrets personally I have no regrets in doing this but just keep pushing myself I know we can do better every day it's a new day for new opportunities that arise I'm sure we'll go to better heights okay Leo we say okay what's the project what's the company project what's the future of Mufasa to and travel uh I don't want to give you a specific template but yeah what's the vision like yeah you know when you have a company you have to have objectives and uh our goal is in the next five years we don't want it to become a very short time goal and to become a long time goal in the next like five years we want to be the lead uh one of the the best in Africa not only in Kenya but the best in Africa yeah providing the best services yeah uh what's your advice to young people who are watching this and they want to start a business it could be in different uh industry I could be in two and troubles what would be your advice for someone who wants to start a business okay businesses are worried and uh I would advise the people in our generation the young generation nothing is easy everything comes through hard work you have to put determination resilience consistency in everything that you're doing so don't give up no matter how small the business is you just start the first thing you should do when you're starting a business is to kick off once you start no matter if you don't have an office whether it's mobile just start with the one client you have the two give them the best service service the moment you give someone good service the person who always comes back yeah you have something to do now? yeah I'd say passion because without passion I don't think you can do anything you normally get problems but if you come to the office you'll find us laughing laugh it off and because you know we'll still get through it because it's not the end yes sounds like that was uh that was a common days problem going on I probably could give out your social media handles on how people can reach out to you for the conversation or even being part of Mufasa Club and travel okay if you want to come get us you can get us through our instagram page though it's not live but it'll be live by the end of the day again you can contact us through our emails info at Mufasa Club and Travels.com you can get our contacts also on our website our website has all the details that you may require so all those platforms you can be able to get us all right thank you very much gentlemen for creating time to be with us thank you I think now we're ready to travel I'll just call my friends the air space is open yeah yeah space is open anyone can travel anywhere but we'll advise all right yeah okay guys remember back at home you can follow us across our social media platform that is at Y2Papo channel at michela shiro so you can find me if you don't touch that doubt be coming up with another interview for now enjoy good music and then we'll be right back