 Fantastic and a warm welcome to why in the morning you're still watching hashtag why in the morning right here with me Brian Sakua and still remember you can still chime in using our hashtag which is why in the morning and we had asked your question a little bit earlier on before that we asked how much do you spend in a day and on what exactly keep your feedback coming by the way with the reading your feedback at the tail end of this broadcast at 1-2-5-4 channel is our social media platforms remember on Instagram there's an underscore and mine is at Brian Sakua 101 now on our segment entrepreneurship Tuesday today we are talking about car dealership how do you venture into it and if you if you are planning maybe to buy a car out there what are some of the policies the government has put in place that regulate the industry and maybe if you want to maybe partner with someone who is in the space we've got you right about now and joining me right now on set is a guy you'll you'll be interested to know us the show goes on he goes by the name Khalif Cairo and good morning to you bro thank you so much for joining us today thank you I'm privileged to be on this show yeah it's a blessing and I just like it to introduce yourself and maybe tell us what you do because I understand you're in the car dealership business and it's such an interesting field and it's massive as well my name is Khalif Cairo I'm the co-founder imports back arrow which is leading luxury car dealership in Kenya and essentially what we do is we help people buy and sell luxury cars and that also entails importation and maintenance after sale support that kind of stuff interesting interesting you spoke of importation because it's it's like one of the major parts in that business because half of the cars actually having in our country are from overseas yes and just in case somebody who is watching this show right now and they want to venture into that business like how do they go about and where do they start well I normally advise people before you go into any business you need to you need to have a passion for that particular field okay because passion is what keeps you going when your business is not making money and you know entrepreneurship if you ask me it's a journey of sorts and at times things are not typically well cut so first of all you need you need to have a passion for vehicles you need to actually enjoy doing the job and I normally tell people money should not be your primary concern initially you should first do it as a hobby or for fun and then once you feel like I understand this industry very well then you can now go to the serious aspect of it which includes understanding your target market knowing what products you can be able to push and basically just trying now to make money yeah yeah interesting you mentioned the aspect of money and before we come back to money yeah I basically love to know how you venture into car dealership how you got started what did you start how is the journey which year did you begin to venture into that business as well I started off at when when I was 18 been dealing cars since I was 18 right after I finished my high school I happened to get a job at a showroom in in Lovington actually Tamak and just in New York I wanted to sell cars always had a passion for cars yeah so these guys actually gave me a job surprisingly everybody was shocked and then I'm the showroom was called ocean crossovers so I work for those guys for like that was in valley arcade just right next to the Kenya Human Rights Commission opposite yeah so I started off there land the trade build some networks and I and after some time I left I left ocean cross and they went freelance yeah and then fast forward some many years of those some five years later I partnered up with a friend and we we founded Imports Bekero yeah yeah and I want us to come back to money because when you mentioned that you begin with first of all passion and hobby yeah but later on things started opening up yes yes your business is now like one of the biggest in in the car dealership industry yeah what what where did all that come from because I believe you said you employed first yeah as an attendant yes yeah how did that happen okay first of all as I've mentioned you you really need to be disciplined in anything you're doing because I normally tell guys if you want to go into big business even the richest guys on earth they have to get financed someone has to finance you you need to get an investor or a partner who has who has the financial muscle and in most cases what determines whether you get investors or even a bank loan is how disciplined are you can you be trusted with money can people work with you you know those are those are some of the aspects and then for me I also credit God for playing a very huge role in my life you know just keeping me in line keeping me in check ensuring that we play by the rules yeah just be a good boy and then things tend to open up by the way and once you passionate and you understand a certain field very well there's so many people there's so many firms that will want to invest in you as a young person you just need to get your stuff right yeah yeah I understand you have quite a number of stuff at your place and what is the criteria may be used to select the professionally to come to to come on board to work at your car dealership company well our company does not have in terms of our academics that is we don't have a clear cut standard that I'd say that maybe you need to have a certain degree in a certain field what we look for because I'm not in charge of the hiring process we have a whole team it's a whole company is another director and there's there's a department that normally handles the hiring but if you're getting hired at Imports Bequero we are probably looking at how passionate are you and how knowledgeable are you with cars there are things you can't really quantify and even even the confidence because you know if you're selling luxury cars it's all about personal selling you need to be able to convince a client to pat with their head and money on an expensive car so we look at how good these are candidates presentation skills how how well vast are you with the vehicles and if you're not vast with vehicles because some even the guys I work with some of them are not well vast with vehicles how passionate are you about learning yeah yeah do you have that extra drive you know yeah so you come as an open canvas and yeah that's possibly means that you can take the person to a learning process you can learn about your business and you have a website where maybe yes people can read about it as we continue the conversation yes you can head over to importsbequero.com okay yeah you can check out our website we normally list all the cars over there okay yeah interesting and then let's talk about money do you feel as an entrepreneur as a car dealer that you must have a good and we had mentioned that earlier how how much are you trustable when with the small list that you've been given how is your relationship with money is money attracted to you do you attract money that's quite an interesting question yeah I think we have a good relationship with money yeah I mean well it all depends on how you present yourself okay if you I'm a fan believer that if you struggle to look for money you'll never find it please explain please explain just do your thing that's what I tell people just do your thing yeah be good at whatever you're doing let money not be the primary objective you know money comes and goes they're going to make money they're going to score billions in a lottery but five years down the line the guy is broke or something but if you if you get it by by passion you get it by discipline and you have an objective that is not money but the money just finds you because you'll become so good at your craft that people will pay huge money just to just be a part of your brand yeah you understand yeah but that doesn't come if you put emphasis on the money you just need to first work on yourself work on your brand I I still don't believe I'm at the money level I'd want to be yeah but you see my focus at the moment is not getting the money just becoming the best in the country or the best in Africa or maybe the best in the world and then after that once you solve a few problems in the industry the money just rolls in automatically yeah yeah absolutely interesting and we can't have this conversation without talking about the pandemic the COVID-19 pandemic yes I'm interested to know what happened when the pandemic struck like just take us to that experience of how it shaped your company and even personally yourself as an individual and how it is right now I'd say we are almost heading to the post pandemic we are almost in the recovery period yes yeah so please take us to that experience actually we started our office we actually founded imports in 2017 but you never had an office we used to mostly operate on a Facebook page it was very funny those days but we finally got an address we actually set up the company properly formally with all the documentation and an address in 2020 January and then once we paid the deposits for the office the pandemic came for me I'd say the pandemic was a blessing in this case wow yeah how because because a lot of people affected businesses shut down employees employers sent employees home they cut down on the number of staff there was the issue of pay cuts please how is it a blessing to you because it's interesting right because it helped us to think outside the box wow okay at that particular moment you remember the country was shut down and we the industry the kind industry guys had to think about how we were going to do our marketing because before then we really had to rely on insta purchases where a guy has to see a showroom by the road and then walks in comes and selects a car but you see now the pandemic changed that guys couldn't move and we had to go heavy on on Instagram personally I started spending more time learning how to make reels learning how to post content on Instagram and I believe it's partly that the pandemic is one of the reasons why we have such a good presence online because we had to think outside the box to get clients so does that shift yes from the traditional way of doing your things in a company to digital yeah but on the flip side because also there's also the negative aspect of the pandemic shipping costs have gone up which is which is putting a lot of pressure on car dealers in Kenya in the world and then we also experience in a brand new car shortage globally which is pushing prices of the used cars up because if guys can get brand new cars they never they'll never replace the cars they're driving which means we get limited vehicles in the market yeah so there's also there's the issue of inflation inflation yeah as the as the economy is a start to research remember government spent a lot of money during the pandemic on welfare so there's too much money in circulation which causes inflation then there's the shipping crisis that's currently going on and then there's the vehicle shortage but on on the good side we learned how to make content which is a good thing yeah it is a good thing because everybody everybody right now wants to at least see something on you yeah and I love the fact that you're also using tiktok and you to be massively picking up and yes yes yes interesting and also talk about how the crisis part you mentioned inflation and the residing in the economy yes how has that affected also your business in terms of even importation of some of the of the machines that you've got at your yard well currently the dollar is trading at around on paper if you ask the central bank they'll tell you 118 but in real sense if you come to the ground guys are even quoting as high as 122 123 take note before the pandemic the dollar used to exchange at around a hundred shillings yeah so that's that's quite a marginal increase yeah and it's it's the fact that there's so much pressure on the ceiling and not just the ceiling even other currencies around the world yeah it makes it harder to purchase the cars because you see the cars are bought in dollars when we are transacting let's say with a dealer in Singapore we tend to transact even they don't even prefer their local currency they prefer transaction with the dollar is that is that reason as to why maybe they prefer the dollar well you know that the dollar is king everywhere I think I've never really understood why even in Japan they don't prefer they and they'll insist on you paying with the dollar yeah so I've never I've never really thought about why they insist on that but I think probably people find the dollar to be a more stable currency yeah and well-backed so the fact that the dollar is very expensive means that the prices of cars have really gone up yeah really really shut up yeah and speaking of that there's a way I think it could be a last year maybe but one the president issued a ban on importation of even second-hand cars although those those are those are low that was implemented and it kind of shook your industry yes how did that go and how did you survive and how was experience from your side as well yeah it was around 2018 or 2019 yeah I think that's in my opinion if you ask me the regime has done an excellent job on roads and whatnot but I think trying to ban used cars in Kenya has to be my lowest point of this but of this particular government I mean for for once I felt like we had people making policies and they didn't understand what what the market really wanted so at that particular point I almost felt like giving up honestly I was almost deciding you know maybe I should switch to doing something else but after a bit of pressure I think they decided to reconsider the CS was moon at a time yes yes yes yes yes moon yeah and then they they did we we had to compromise so recently if you check the news cabs has banned the importation of some of some prime movers and some trucks yeah so those are some of the compromises we we we had to we had to come to with the government because you see even in the most advanced of countries even countries like like Dubai countries like the US even the UK and Singapore yeah even Singapore you you can still import a used car you see you you can't force people to buy new cars it is it is the pocket of people that forces them to buy at the vehicle they want you I can't pass a law if it was the president and tell guys look everybody should buy Mercedes tomorrow it doesn't make sense it goes against the concept of our free economy the least the government can do is is actually empower us because used car dealers pay a lot of taxes in this country we employ a lot of people yeah so when when when then the government tries to fight you it's very demoralizing to any young person yeah yeah and and and how do you import cars especially maybe for person who is watching back at home and they want to just know if I want to maybe even partner with Calif Cairo imports by car or the name of your business how do I start to like go down in that direction maybe even in terms of the legal aspect of it yeah okay well first of all you need you need to have the right contacts on the other side and then I'm it depends you see their cars their cars that are easier to import like for instance the smaller vehicles they're pretty straightforward you know just buy get the invoice send the payment outside and wait for the car to be shipped gets to Mombasa pick your car it's very it's quite straightforward but with but with a with with high-end cars there's more work involved because if you're dealing with a with an expensive asset more checks need to be done you need to be more careful you need to know who you're buying from because some of these some of these cars have very expensive repairs so the advantage dealing with imports back arrow is we have a presence in all the major exporting countries we have people in Japan we have we have people in in Singapore we have a partnership with one of the leading dealerships in the UK so the fact that we have us we have such an extensive global networks means that if you deal with us chances are on 99% chances that we'll get the a very good car and in the event that are vehicle is shipped with a defect we normally cover the cost of the repairs yeah so there's the process just come to our office give us your specifications we will give you a quote yeah pay a deposit which is typically 60% of the buying price of the total landing cost of the vehicle including taxes we start the process the vehicle gets to Mombasa we pay the taxes and we hand over the vehicle to you wow yeah which is amazing yeah and I think on that note we are just about to take a short break but when we come back he'll be telling us what are some of the latest trends and even in technology and in an advancement even in the gearboxing of the cast the body chassis if you're back at home and maybe you want to buy a Porsche or you want to buy an Audi he's gonna be telling us that and even some of the cars in his yard so stick around for that remember hashtag is still why in the morning at Brian Sako 101 is my handle on social media platforms your handle at Impots Bakero alright when you come back we're gonna be delving into that stick around and welcome back once again you're still watching why in the morning right here on Y254 channel and still on the conversation today on entrepreneurship Tuesday we are talking about car dealership literally the automobile industry and whatnot and as we had said earlier on I just want us to actually understand and know if just in case you want to buy a first-class car or like they call it first-class concierge cars how much do you need to have to maybe get yourself a car from Impots Bakero and maybe what are some of the latest cars in his yard and thank you so much for sticking around so please just tell us what is the cheapest car in your yard like just how much does it cost and maybe what model and brand and also tell us the most expensive brand that you've got we the cheapest what's the cheapest we already had a BMW that was going for 800 a 320i e90 model MW yeah you know you know the thing with luxury cars is they don't really command much resell value which is a good thing to any person who's who's interested in getting a used luxury car he thinks just to ensure that you have the support and you know you're buying from a trusted dealer yeah we there's a there's a 320 that's going for around 800 which is a good deal for luxury car and it's in it's still in good condition yeah the most expensive we had a 2020 Range Rover SVR carbon was going for 35 million Kenyan shillings it's still there you still have it no it's already been sold yeah which which are the latest brand from you mentioned Range Rover you mentioned BMW we also stock in our 2020 Porsche Cayenne yeah 2020 Porsche Cayenne we have a 2016 2017 Range Rover Sport we have three Mercedes S-Class 2016 yeah and we also have the only BMW 435 Grand Coupe in Kenya yeah so we import actually stocks we we have an affinity to stock in rare cars a car that you can't find just anywhere else yeah interesting and we can't we can't do this without talking about even the advancement you've talked of the 2020 Porsche is it the Porsche car yeah yeah this is your Porsche Porsche talk a little bit about the gearboxing and even the adaptability on the road what are some of the advantages of even having a Porsche Cayenne and some of these runs well you know this there's a there's a misconception that most of these cars can't handle Kenyan road actually they can they are well German cars are well engineered any European cars those guys know how to make their cars it's only that at times they require they require good make they just require good maintenance but it does not mean that they cannot handle bad roads they're actually very good at handling all the bad roads some of the technological advance advancement we are seeing is the fact that cars are becoming more like phones if you if you go into a 2020 car you notice a lot of touch screens you notice a lot of user-friendly software interfaces you also notice that some can drive themselves and they adapt to your phone very well their technologies like the like it's called the Apple CarPlay the Android Auto that make it quite easy to to to sync your phone with a vehicle and even navigate through drive yeah navigate you able to access your emails from the vehicles infotainment system and what else are we seeing a lot of manufacturers are also switching to electric cars so as we as we go on probably in the next 10 years very few manufacturers will be making petrol cars or diesel cars the world is going electric that's the major trend right now if you look at the most expensive car car manufacturing brands in the world right now you'll find companies like Tesla yeah which didn't even exist 25 years ago but now with the advent of electronic cars they're some of the most expensive brands on earth yeah I understand also your I was just coming through your social media and I've seen you fly a lot yeah you're into aviation yeah yeah flying flying is one of is one of my other passions okay I tell you guys if I if I if I didn't end up as a as a cadilla maybe I'd be flying commercially yeah that will have been the other the other thing I'd have done yeah it's always been my passion since I was a very very small boy yeah there's usually that fear that when you're up there you don't know what's happening down here and let's talk about how that experience is you're flying through the the craziest terrain and maybe yeah how did you survive one of the craziest terrain up there in the skies because you know kids kids would be margin please just paint for us a picture well just okay just just to keep it simple okay there are two ways of flying you can either fly visual or you can fly instruments if you're flying visual you're using you're using visual cues to navigate so if you were to fly visual to let's say Mombasa I'd probably follow the SGR that's a visual cue if I follow it and it takes me to Mombasa again there's and then there's the flying for the big boys the the pure instrument flying where you can't see outside you just rely on your electronic instruments you're just looking at your GPS you're looking at your at your radio navigation instruments so it's actually I find I find we're flying to be quite thrilling to say the least yeah and I don't remember the time that I got scared I only remember one time when we had a small mishap sort of like a ninja in failure during training but it was just it was it wasn't something major that's the only time I got scared but all the other times I find it thrilling so interesting and also talk about some of the policies the government has put in place to ensure that you know importation of cars is flowing well especially for second-hand cars in relationship to the legal bond that had been is previously issued to you have there been any changes so far that you say you'd say they've made progress and things and yes I think one of the one of the most interesting things that that happened in the industry in the past two years was the was the introduction was actually not even the intro was the introduction and the revocation of the licensing for some two inspection companies that that had been contracted by cabs and unclear circumstances as an industry player I found that to be quite a step in the right direction because it we had already started seeing complaints from from dealers from end users you know saying these companies are letting through cars that are not clean so when when the government through cabs revoked the appointment of those inspecting firms I saw it as a step in the right direction because the whole point I belong to a school of thoughts that much as we import in these cars they need to meet a certain standard Kenya cannot become a dumping ground for for dirty used cars even if you're going to be importing used cars they need to be at the highest standard I think the only thing the government can do is just make it easier and cheaper to import newer cars because the current tax regime in Kenya tends to punish people who bring new occurs your cousin because the limit is eight years but I get a guy bringing a one-year-old car and a guy bringing an 80-year-old car not pay in the same taxes you'd expect the guy bringing an 80-year-old car to pay higher taxes but in Kenya it's the reverse so yeah so it's it's majorly massively affecting that yes yes yes it actually it actually affects the industry because most people will tend to bring the older cars the 80-year-old cars because you know you have to stay in business but if if the law was reversed and and they allowed people to bring newer cars yeah we would have better emission standards in Kenya and we also have newer cars on the roads yeah so I think that whoever the next regime because I do understand the elections are probably two weeks ago yeah so the next regime that is going to come into power needs to look at that and maybe just change that tax law yeah yeah and I hope they'll adhere to that I'm being informed that I have to wrap it up but before before we wrap it up madam producer and director there's a there's a term the Kabyo Jesus partnered with you and they bought an Audi yes posted on a billboard and later on the very time the Audi as in what was the drama because no people's attention no actually no actually get these quite a lot the truth of the matter is Kaby actually bought the car or Kaby bought the car yeah sorry it was actually a gift for me for the wife yeah it was a gift from me to Kaby so what actually happened was they bought an Audi A5 which has very low ground clearance and then at that point if you follow the Kaby's they were living in Tindigua yeah which has the roads are not very good so we advise them to just top up after after after she presented the gift we advise them to top up a million was it it was something close to a million and then get the Q5 yeah the A5 and the Q5 actually share they actually share a platform so we just advise them to get the Q5 yeah they topped up the money which they did which they actually did and Kaby drives around has been driving a Q5 for the last two years okay yeah so but of course guys you know people will hate online yeah say we did it for clout but if the people who follow Kaby Kaby still driving the Q5 to this day so it wasn't clout that's not clout chasing yeah now you've heard it from the horses mountain I think we'll end it right there just kindly what people can find you maybe the social media and the number for your business and yourself yes the business profile is imports back arrow at on all social media platforms that's our Twitter Instagram Facebook Tik Tok and then I'm if you want to follow me personally my name is Calif Cairo on all the social media platforms there and shoot you DM yeah all right a number company number for imports back arrow is 0 7 3 7 6 6 5 5 6 6 all right and and thank you so much bro for coming and respecting the time to be with us thank you so much you welcome thank you you guys are going to ask me again definitely will maybe you should try our sister station too if it's possible right okay and thank you so much guys this has been a great conversation about the automobile industry and car dealership just in case you had questions he has left his social media platforms and even the numbers just in case maybe you want to buy a car God has blessed you please reach out in that regard we are taking a very short break we are coming back with much more including my co-host Stephanie and yet so stay around on hashtag why in the morning