 Welcome to Enterpreneurship Tears, the right here on why in the morning I try to have a channel as you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Lashira, as you can find me across all my social in this particular session we dive into an interview that looks at the office supply sort of kind of business and in studio I am joined by George Sylvain Juer who is a professional accountant and also the co-founder of CityLink business solutions. Thank you very much George for creating time to be with us. Thank you very much George. One thing about you George is that your bio is one of like there's a lot that you do so platform being the co-founder of CityLink business solution what else does George Sylvain Juer deal with? Okay basically okay I'm a professional accountant I work as an account manager as an accountant to see what kind of advance can you remit it also I do also I do other kind of a business like I would own it from whereby I do some assignment like fancy credit special assignment also have my okay we have a lot of clients whereby I advise them financially I'm a finance analyst also so I advise them on where to invest and how to invest. Amazing so this particular conversation that you're going to have it's a bit of everything we're looking at investments we're looking at the accounts and also looking at the office supply business so you definitely guys back at home will agree with me that your background you have a very rich educational background so for someone who's watching this conversation and they want to get into the supply sort of kind of business what kind of educational background is on need? Okay somebody that's not in the kind of education background to be in this kind of a business the only one what you need to do is to do a due diligence in the market and you need to know where there's a gap okay many a times there's these guys who come to business but they don't they don't do what we call the due diligence in that market but it's a very important thing first you do you identify where there is a gap because you need to be unique in that business and what make you difference from the others is that uniqueness and that kind of a product which you are providing the cost of it how you're costing it is very much important so as a young person as a young guys who are about to new graduate maybe you come to come to the business and make something out of it they need first okay also you need to be very patient you need to be very patient you need to take on your capital what you have what you have and what you have what can be good to start with kind of a business you can be able to you can start with a very small capital even five thousand you can be able to start for the office supply even three thousand even one thousand you can start selling clothes small small the children's clothes with one thousand and from that one thousand what matters is your margins if you're making if you're buying maybe ten ten clothes from with one thousand and you will sell those clothes maybe you're making a margin of maybe twenty percent you can be very sure at the end of your sales you have already meant about about two hundred shillings you reinvest that two hundred you buy twelve clothes you resell I'm very sure you have grabbed maybe two thousand it also is also good to to be able to invest wherever you can own fast-moving items if you're not selling a lot of items it's good to invest to invest where you have very fast-moving like the children's clothes okay in the in the in the in the surprise of the office surprise is going to invest on the like stationery the fast-moving either they're printing papers the burners the notebooks by rules those items the items that are actually on high demand I demanded the offices yeah interesting I'm so much excited when it comes to this particular composition because it's a just a little bit of everything investment when it comes to accounts and now actually the business aspect of it so let's look at I'll take you back to still the investments there are a couple of investment opportunities that actually they're in the market space that young people can you know take advantage okay the if you have the okay it's not a must you have the finance background to invest in the derivative market all the forex exchange market is a very interesting thing if for instance they're like gambling but it's not gambling during the graph is only you need only to master the graphs means you only you predict it it will just come automatically it will go up or in a binary they would call the binary it was called the option market it was called the both of them they are derivative market they are very profitable also another another another fender you can the young guys they can be able to fender in is the daycare daycare if you okay if you have a house even if it's a rental house a young person young ladies you can be able to maybe you can start your daycare you don't need a route of money to start a daycare there's another opportunity you need to you can sell clothes that's another business opportunity you don't have to to have a kiosk for you to sell clothes you can sell them online as a young person just from graduate you come and you start your own business so many opportunities so many opportunities you just need to work the minimum capital required the minimum capital required you need two thousand to start a clothes selling business you need a phone you have a smartphone you can be able to post your shoes maybe clothes you can start a printing business you only need a printer in your house at comfort of your house at your bedroom and then you start out i remember i when i used to i know it's in the canvas who's have been canvas for most of my years who's have been i've been to canvas for four years there been another canvas for another several years and between another canvas for another several years so when i was in the first of my first four years in the canvas i used to do a business typing business and printing business i used to write for people business that's all my business then i used to make a lot of money from it I used to cooperate with my twin sister. I have a twin sister, so we used to do tutoring during because she was best in typing. So I would take the work and then I take it home for her to type. And by the following day I hand it over and I pay the money and then we share. So the basic point here is don't sit at home or go to the base and take mirror and then you say that the government is not over in the business opportunity. It's not over in job. Many, most of the guys, the young guys who are still in the school, they think that maybe after immediately after school you get a white collar job. They focus on that. They don't understand that currently in Kenya the statistics shows that about 60 percent they are in a payment rate is about around 60 percent. Very few guys are in print. So as a young person think of how you can make you can apply yourself and provide a payment to others. And it's very good actually we have in this conversation because most young people we are held bent to the aspect of capital. We need capital to start. And in most cases we never get like the enough capital because we will always create another excuse or just have a business plan that requires way more when it comes to capital. Basically okay the capital okay the capital you don't have to start with a hundred million. Don't have to start with even 10,000. There are some opportunity which are there which only need you. Like for instance I can give you an existing. You are you start your channel media. Like a media student what immediately comes from from the college or from the university. He can start his own business photographing. They think this is production about the photography. You can start taking people photos and you make something out of that. You don't need a lot of money to start that kind of a business. As an accountant as an accountant with this I can be able to tell you because I've been accountant for the last I've been late years. I've been a chief accountant for about six years. Now one thing I've come to note that the graduate is basically the education is not offering enough skills. When this graduate come out then they might be economically upright but in terms of work they are zero. So one thing they need to associate themselves with guys who are mentors. Who knows how these things are learned. For instance okay I can give my own story that when I cleared my CPA back in 2012 Racky Nav I would never term act so I was hired immediately in 2013 as an assistant accountant. I was zero but with passion with that passion and the desire to learn and invest my invest my in my in my economy. I've come to learn a lot of many things and I can be able to be there. I cannot come there myself now and by then I've advanced. I have a lot of grant a lot of revolvers. I receive calls after calls and when I get one grant I get many other more from that one grant. Because my job is it's fine. Okay so let's look at your company the city link business that we offer the office supply of products. So what exactly do you guys do in detail. Okay in details basically the city link business solution we started back in 2016 with a part number the name of Rukas there is also another accountant is also an auditor. So in this business okay we have okay we have two partners it is mostly it is with the marketing and the securing the tender the those tenders getting those kind of a business. On my side I deal with the side of the ensuring that we have enough capital to ensure once we get a tender we can I can be able to refinancing the tender. In some cases we have a problem whereby we get maybe you can get a tender for maybe 10 million and maybe I don't have that kind of okay I cannot be able to manage because once you walk to a bank there is no bank which is willing to give you that kind of a money to be able to finance that kind that kind of a business. Basically okay city link business it is with the small small tenders like ranging between 100,000 and 500,000 but it intends in the next maybe five years to begin with even more bigger tenders which are ranges maybe from one million to five million. Okay and for someone who's watching this conversation and they would like to get into this sort of business by the way you know they have a tender and they just want to be in that space of you know supplying products in offices so what is the best ways on how does one go about you know studying an office supply business? Okay one thing you need to do as a as if you're a business person you need first to ensure that to first look at that market stand the market look what is the that market need go to those offices try to ask what kind of a things like the bilopen, the pilling papers and that and that and that then you capitalize on that then you know what kind okay for instance the requirement you need to have okay for you to be able to supply you need to have money at hand because sometimes you only get a phone call from maybe your client he says that by noon you need maybe like 150 papers you need the 100 papers you need like 50 papers you need that you need to have that kind of a you need to have that kind of a range. Alright so and how does one like in this particular space of business how do they how do you come up with like looking at this the stock and stand like stand out in the market space because I'm so sure there are a couple of companies that do the same when it comes to office supply. Yeah it is it is a competition in the market everywhere there's a competition but how you broad yourself and the quality of your product and the costing of a product pricing of your product is very important so just do your due diligence try to find out how the others they are faring the market in terms of the pricing and in terms of the quality of those what they supply then you capitalize on the quality and the pricing you I'm very sure you will treat them by pricing because most of the tenders exposure to the government they are overpriced don't go to overpriced if it's a margin if for instance if you're okay buy it open it costs about 10 shillings don't go to say it is cost 80 shillings don't go to quote about 100 they just quote 20. And how does one go about you know estimating the the demand for an office good and run with opportunity because again in this particular space as you said earlier your clientele they will always go for the fair price yes basically okay first you need to have connection not that to a big connection but you need to be asking do you need to interact with people need to interact to your friends need to interact with the okay you walk into our office say introduce yourself say that you're wearing this and that and that and have a price list give your client the price the price list they always keep updating that price list because sometimes you might quote you might quote a price maybe come like for instance last year okay you find out you find that dollar at the moment dollar is 110 at the moment is one hundred and ten one hundred and eleven by then it was one hundred and five one hundred and four one hundred so it means that the product in the market they have been affected by that because most of the most of this product we import them from some okay from outside the country but we use the dollar to to import them so you need to be very careful when you are quoting and even the kind of a surprise you are doing all right and it comes to outsourcing the the products do you work as just a company or do you team up with other members yeah we team up because okay in a in a city in business origin we have we have wired professionals like the designer who designed the burners okay who designed okay anything that you need burners and what and what some company they ask for us to design for them maybe like rogues business card that one of course i'm not i'm not a graphic designer so there's no way i'm able to design so i have to ask somebody to design for me fine enough and as you said earlier all this is a very competitive space so how do you guys market yourself or promote yourself better better way to just stand out from other competitors okay it's okay they will stand out you started about the pricing and the quality okay we focus most most of our product we focus on the quality we ensure that the quality we supply is a very very competitive quality and those are pricing are a bit fairly priced not a not a price because even if most of the government when we apply tenders from most of the government office you'll risk secure those tenders if it's a on a fair on a fair ground we'll risk secure those tenders because our pricing are very much fairly our margin are not that big but but with small small okay don't don't go for for big margin just go for many tenders with small margin and you make money in time the person who is going for bigger margin okay so and what are some of the ways this is the place where you give us tips here what are some of the ways that you can actually identify uh what your potential and also existing client really want and go for that to make you stand out okay um most okay most most most of the needs of the this grant okay as i said when i was starting you need to interact with people you need to know you need to read a lot you need to do a lot of our observation you need to talk to your to talk you need to work in those offices you need to speak to your friends your family members and with that you'll be able to be able to gather a lot of information and with that information information is power you can be able to capitalize on it and you'll be able to identify the gaps maybe the requirement in that office maybe they need the all these needs and that and that if they need food anything they need that office and you can be able to be able to know where you can start maybe you go to the the the printing side you go to the general supply side and then you go to even okay financial advising side okay speaking about financial advice work up all of financial lessons that are very critical for anyone who wants to get into the supply sort of sort of sort of kind of business okay financial okay the financial bit of way to in a kind of a business one one thing you need to think of is the capital you need first to range to our range okay of the kind of a business you are going into into know the requirement of the capital in that kind of a business once you identify that you start now you've written the gaps in that kind in that kind of a business and with that you'll be free to and then the passion need to have a lot of passion and need to also to be very patient because at the start when you're studying a business I remember when I started the the audit firm I paint the office we paint the office for more than two years without even a single client walking in because most of the time I'm not in the office I'm working my partner is also working so there's normally the office so you only rely on the refunds and the on their friends at the chief accountant yes because you have a very you have a very rich background in account we like to find a one couple of ways or this will be like an opportunity for you judge to give an advice on when you're starting off a business what up of financial decision should one make to just make sure that you know the company stays afloat and you don't you just don't swindle all the profits okay one thing okay one thing you need to when you're starting any kind of ensure that you are compliance with the all the the tax rolls with the KRL ensure that you're compliance you are filing your taxes on time use that another thing which are maybe young people they are starting their business they are not considering that that bit of sign ensure that you have all the licensing bit of it if it requires the licensing like the audit firm require that you have your cpk your license with the by the ice park you have city council license and that and that kind of abuse then the other thing you need to you need to have a target market in the to have a target market where you're going like when you're providing it's different when you're providing the goods and when you're offering the services with the services it is as an asset to that business because it's that business when i'm not when i'm not in that okay if those are financial devices come from me and this i assembled i can't be able to assemble it they are to operate for me but it is it is idea invested basically all right so in the take us through like when comes to city link business what is your target market and also what is your niche what is the what problem are you serving okay then we can see that the city in business our target market is basically the circles and the banks we find a match in the ngl circles and the banks we meet a lot of time and the government the government department we get a lot of tenders from we get we have invested a lot in those kind of these those kind of a target market because it's easier because with the youth the youth they have what okay they have an advantage on the side of the government when you have that certificate you get you are given okay basically you get a lot of tender from the government yeah okay couple of let's look at your marketing strategy that you guys are up to it to just scale up your business i in 2021 okay 2021 2021 we are targeting there was a problem in 2020 whereby the the covid thing it means people to work from home so you see that that already has affected us a lot because in 2020 you cannot get a okay school it is very hard to get the tender for for free surprise who's guys so there's no more printing in the office there's no use of uh of uh pens so that the industry is all affected all the industry like in other industries were all affected so we are cannot shy away from that even as a city in business solution in 2021 we focused on a more pink that by the end of this year our turnover should be okay our our our target market should expand we should be able to expand the the our target market even to small small offices so that we can capture we can have widen our market because okay last year okay okay we got challenged because of our target market because most of the these are this government organization they are not in operation they are not even today there are some department which are not operating but uh if i operate with the private firms they are still in the operation and that's it will expand our target market by this by for the end of the year a couple of disadvantages that you're receiving this particular business the sum of the disadvantage that competition competition is too high most of the guys are fingering that market and also the important items from the from abroad they like the chinese guys chinese guys they front the market with a lot of cheaper things so if you buy a stock and you stock it in the office it is easier for maybe several months you might sell it at a loss in in due time because the Chinese okay guys here they want to argue it comes at a fair price yeah it comes not even at a fair price it's a cheap price it's a cheap price items because you don't want to make sometimes you make we go at a loss if you stock something like for instance we bought some items in january even to date you have not sold those items it means that the the pricing by then and now something very different you might decide even to throw them away at a at least you get back your capital all right and what's the vision looking like when it comes to the city link business solutions okay okay we we we look for and we look for and even to uh to to calling uh some other partners to merge with the other guys to diversify our business even to because since we are provisional we are provisional as i see in that i'm a finance i am with the finance side there's another guy who are doing the accounting bit of it there's a guy who are doing the graphic side so we are we need okay we can bring in somebody we can diversify we meet and then they pass by the the business even you can something else okay all right so george i'd like to for you to take this opportunity and give us a couple of tips let's say three tips when it comes to uh getting loans for a business what particular time should i go for alone okay go for alone go for alone if you are sure if you are sure of what you are going to do don't just go for alone and then you start thinking of what you are going to do with that money ensure that you are you have already had what you are going to do with that money there's there's the greatest advantage i can notice that you should be sure of what you're actually going to do with the money before you actually have it at hand exactly okay thank you very much george silvanje for creating time to be with us and talking about matters pertaining the office supply store kind of a business yeah all right so that is george silvanje who is a professional accountant and also the co-founder of ct link business so make sure stay tuned right here on why in the morning at y254 channel is where you can find us across all our social media platform remember the hashtag to use is hashtag entrepreneurship choose the art michela shira is where you can find me across all my social media handles and before i actually sent out and we you probably could give us your social media handles okay my okay my okay we only have a number okay we only have a number our first line number it is zero seven all right eight six three four four two two okay also okay you can you can use the other number is zero seven one two five two one seven four one there's my personal number so you can call me directly all right i can give you that there you have it you can actually call george silvanje or you can find us on the facebook you can find me on the facebook of george silvanje as george silvanje george silvanje and any question when it comes to matters pertaining accounting finance he's going to help you out so keep that conversation going remember try to five four channel is where you can find us across all our social media platform at y254 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