 Welcome back to why in the morning and if it's Tuesday it's most definitely entrepreneurship Tuesday at Y244 channel is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Ashira is where you can find me across all my social so they say if you want to be successful you have to wake up and make it happen and if you want to you know fish about it it's okay you just take a late-back seat and it probably never happens instead of it's a story of an industry journey when it came when it comes to the e-commerce business and I hope it will be inspirational to you and you know triggers you to wake up and do something about what you which you're dreaming about instead of I'm joined with Waweron Deritu who is the co founder of notify logistics thank you very much for creating time and Deritu thank you for having me how have you been good morning coming along so far so good fantastic thank you so telling us of tell us who is Waweron Deritu and what's your educational background looking like so I am an economist by training I did economics and statistics and have a bit of training in finance from the University of Nairobi besides that you know I am just another you know young guy trying to do something fantastic with his life making ends meet and also helping out yes yes so the reason why you're here it's because of notify logistics yeah yeah so why notify what's notify logistics all about so logistics is a company our goal is to support small businesses the store for the companies very interesting we started as a small company you know my father business and she you know she had difficulties in the business in terms of getting affordable space in town and so we decided to do something about it and that's how notify logistics came into into the picture so our goal is to support small businesses to give them a platform where they can actually grow and thrive support them you know to a point where they're able to at least be profitable and be scalable and that is it's been interesting so you seen small businesses come start with us to a point where now they've grown and you know they can afford their own shops they can afford their own outlets in town and that for us is our joy all right for any business startup or any business venture when they get into any market space there's always a problem they're so bad what was this problem that you guys are so bad yeah so our problem was quite unique actually we didn't notice it was a big problem until we actually faced it so it was by chance we what we realized is when it comes to space specifically retail space there was there was a disconnect in the market space was very expensive yet you you know this space supposed to address small businesses so the disconnect is most more business could not afford the space and what we decided to do is come up with a different kind of a concept it's anchored in shared economy the concept that you know you can take a resource and make it just rethink the the model it's used to allow many people to consume that resource think of Uber in Airbnb you know the car is expensive so what they do is that you can only hire that car for the trip you're going and after that trip now that car is not your problem anymore yeah that makes sense because when I'm thinking of getting a physical shop just in central busy the central business district right here in CBD in Europe it's quite expensive and we look about you have to pay their rent there is is it the good will this license fee there's a lot and you're just starting off small businesses so did you guys experience that when you're starting off yeah definitely definitely prices are a bit expensive and you know the problem the market is once you're small business you start a small business so your capital is a busy is usually a problem you don't have a lot of money for not investing all these outlets but as your business picks up and grows your consumer base grows and so the delivery aspect of your business becomes a problem if you don't have a central point to distribute your products from that becomes also an impediment to growing a business so it's you know it's a catch-knitty to chicken or the egg problem where a business you need to grow to afford rent but you also need to get a good space to also be able to grow so it's for us what we did is we decided to come up with a new concept a different concept where we took a shop and allowed many businesses hundreds of businesses to come to to use that shop to you know co-share that shop but you know in a way that's very efficient their customers will not be inconvenienced and it's easy for everyone fantastic and I get you you know I get any any micro SMEs out there because I'm just starting up I'm trying to make ends meet and here it is like these are lots that I have to be accountable for and I'm just starting up so who is eligible to be part of notifying logistics actually when we started the company it was ideally we focused on most of our clients actually small businesses just trying to make it not even actually small you'd call them micro businesses these are businesses that are in existence for a year less some of them are actually brand new someone starting a business and in economics used to call them several list businesses a survivalist business is a business where the founder is still new you're green in this line of business you're not sure if it will make it and the business is not able to generate enough revenues to actually even pay the entrepreneur himself that kind of business is very interesting because they're very easy and susceptible to premature death because again if they're not supported well in most cases they are not you know then you run into the number of problems marketing is a problem space is a problem hiring is a problem you know just getting the right product market feet is a problem so at that point it becomes a problem and these are the people we had initially coming to join us but because again of our model we're able to bring the cost significantly low you know people would pay over 90% less you know than what they would actually pay in a traditional setting that allowed them to at least thrive you can now manage to pay your bills three thousand two thousand per month and you get a shop attendant licenses everything inclusive so it becomes it became easier for people to actually start businesses and not just to start but to thrive now for us down the line we have a bit of medium-sized business even you know brands that you would know also using a space and it's big now we accommodate the whole area of businesses yes all right so briefly for someone who's watching this conversation and they really don't you know have a clear picture of what you guys do breakdown for us the model of your business and how you're helping online businesses out there perfect so what what if I does is we have we have shops in town yes and these locations are not just Nairobi we have Nairobi, Mombasa, we have also La Coruena Eldora the thing is we take these shops we partition them we allow small business to co-share the space so if you're small business you only come to a shop you'd probably be located a shelf or space you know this is your space our shops are fully serviced we have shop attendants in those shops we have licenses everything is taken care of we have a system to manage those shops inventory management systems so everything is in build it's a plug-and-play for a small business you bring your stock then for you as a small business the benefit we give you is now you're able to you have the confidence to market your product and when you get clients you can actually refer them to our shops it becomes a pick-up point where people will actually come interact with your product before they buy if it's you're selling you know upper-hand dresses what not your clients now get the opportunity to actually come and fit the dresses before they buy and yes now we have an e-commerce platform so we are targeting our audience right now so we are also supporting our businesses in marketing okay so it's like a walking it's like a mall I'm getting into a mall but I can purchase anything these shoes clothes makeup everything is we have things that you wouldn't even for me actually it's a learning have been in that shop because you get to learn so many things and we have so many products we have you know jewelry you know if you want your kitchen things cutlery what not we have all those brands if you're looking for smart locks you know you want to as you have literally everything you can furniture we have everything so how much are the shelves going for if I want to rent a shelf for let's say a month how much am I supposed to pay so if I have a package you can actually get a space for as low as three thousand shillings a month and the three thousand shillings a month is only inclusive this is the goal for this package is to help the businesses that are just you know the micro and spot businesses this is just trying to to make ends meet this is affordable this something that you can afford and we just don't give you space per se we give you supporting supporting marketing we give you things like we have five partners in you know financial partners so if if you're stuck and you looking for a load of credit we have partners whom we've actually negotiated with so you're able to get credit at an affordable rate from our partners is in me and because you're part of notify you will actually you know it's it's it's the fact around time is usually fast so we started the space what we're now doing is it's not just about space it's supporting small businesses in all the things that they need to actually thrive yeah all right and if I want to take more than one shelf I don't know maybe take like six of them it's allowed yeah it is in fact interesting story is we have businesses who say you know that started one shelf but then as he started to grow you know the demand you know grief for their products and they needed to bring more products so the slowly you know to an extra shelf here an extra shelf by the time you know you realize someone is you know has almost 10 shelves scattered across the different towns in Kenya and for us these days the truth of notify what we've actually what gives us you know what allows us to sleep at night this is what gives us our motivation to continue working had the fact that you see it business is growing and it's actually fantastic yeah we have people gone to you know as many as 10 shelves within a span of a year or two so yeah someone is allowed to get as many as possible and you also allow to you can also get in multiple locations so we have people who have a rugby and they also in Mombasa okay how many branches do you have currently we have for number we have for outlets okay we have two so take us to home how small businesses benefit from rent a shelf space for operation I think the cover model is cost reduction the fact that you able to reduce cost the whole point of the sharing coming is by thinking coming up with new ways of utilizing these resources resources able to reduce the cost that you know consumers pay for for the service so for us we're able to reduce cost by over 90% and we think about it you know we're saying that for a shock that we pay a rent in excess of 100,000 shillings shillings a small business only pay 3,000 shillings yet they would get a location they will get shop attendance they will get other you know add on services to the model so fast and foremost is we make it more cost efficient for for business run and not just that they most of them looked but you know and equally big benefit a business gets from being notified the community by community I mean that you in the presence of hundreds of other small businesses and that means you able to share ideas you able to leverage network so if you're selling clothes for example you have someone else so selling shoes and because you both are getting the same person it means that now you create a whole economy an ecosystem that is very beneficial to the customer to the end customer and that means you know the benefit of that is that everyone now it's you know when I say it's the time that lifts all boats so everyone will actually sell because of the fact that you know we are getting more working customers Do you feel like it also cubs the issue of credibility because for potential client who is online are going through you know I want to purchase probably you know clothes or shoes and but I feel a little bit hesitant you know sending my money because I'm not sure if you guys in fact they tell us they don't have a physical shop does this does notify us of this problem of credibility on a potential client perspective 100% actually yeah you know the jerky is you don't trust anybody and so even for small business you want to tell your clients that they can actually interact with your product before they buy why because we know of people who take advantage of you know this online space so we give the businesses a badge of credibility because now you can actually send your customer to interact with the product confirm it is what they saw in the picture so that the mismatch between what you saw on online and what they bring eventually at least just bridging that gap is have a physical outlet it brings a lot of credibility to your business and most importantly it opens you up to a client to working clients clients when we didn't actually spend money to get them so it actually benefits small business a lot so the first time I I got opportunity to be introduced to notify logistics was back when you guys were on there the lion's den and you guys were asking for you were looking for funding for I think it was was it six million four twelve percent yes it was yeah and you guys ended up working out with the one lion he's called Chris Sena right so he's well known or rather he's a guru when it comes to marketing and technology so what was what was his presence in the business impacted notify logistics in what ways has he impacted today so yes people like Chris are people who have experienced it all the they have a wealth of experience and regardless of the time we spend with them however short it is these are people who will impact your business with a lot of wisdom because I think you know it is something that you have to experience before you actually the whole business thing is something that you have to experience you know school you'll only teach you so much but once you're on ground at least that allows you to learn quite a number of things so yes what you've gotten from them is a lot of wisdom and not just to move also interacted with others from the lion's den outside the lion's den setting and these are people who have a lot of wisdom these are people who will not only give you their networks but these are people who will also give you a lot of nuggets of wisdom ways of doing things that you probably because of the experience they have and the lack of it that you know for young businesses like us they're able to give you new perspectives of doing things which in any for me entrepreneur you know mentorship is one of the most important things to get someone who has gone before you someone who's able to see things differently and give you different perspectives of doing things so yes we have benefited a lot so from Chris and even from the other layers that you actually had the privilege of meeting outside the set these are people who have a wealth of knowledge actually and they get to appreciate it now because I've interacted with them these are people who when you know when the studies are written these are people who have actually been tested and they've come out the other side stronger so for me one of the biggest benefits of getting I've gotten from from from interacting with them is the wisdom they impart on you that is that is the perspective of things is entirely different yes okay that's great I got an opportunity to meet Chris at Mashanti I think he's also a co-owner there something he's also into the hospitality industry and is a very humble guy yes so for someone who's watching this young person watching this conversation and they want to get into business and they are what's holding them back is the aspect of capital what would be your advice for me I think yes capital is an issue but the bigger picture is that you know you start with what you can if you wait for all your ducks to align in a row before you start you may never start there is never a right time to start a business have you not started with you know before we start to notify the story for us it was interesting because my wife was just dealing with cosmetic products and it was not a very capital intensive business but business is you do what you can today with what you have so as you wait for capital because I can tell you for a fact reason capital is an extremely expensive process and you know for the four years we've actually been we've seen both of the stories so reason capital is also a bit expensive so we start with what you have and then once you start then once in the mix of things able to to learn and in any case if capital is your biggest issue and you there are many ways to raise capital you can of course you can go to a bank if you have a bit of assets that that is an option that most small businesses will not have because again they lack collateral so you can always ask your parents your friends to chip in but if you choose to go that route one of the things that you will need to show you know your friends and your parents and your colleagues instruction you you cannot ask for money for a concept that is on you know on paper the best way if you stay if you want to stand high chance of raising capital you need to come with a track history show me the customers show me the clients and one of the reasons I was successful in last time is because we had customers we had proven business model we would you know we stood there and told them you know what this is what you've done these are the numbers because we have actual customers who are willing to pay for the service so the thing is you have just starts with the little you have try to get that one client although you know the two clients the three clients then would strap try to you know the the profit you make plight back into the business before you know it you have a stream of income then with that it is is allowed to convince someone else to join the business because business is a risk and you know someone can actually put in money and it means but if you have a proven track record if you have a proven business model if you can show I have customers they are paying and we are making a profit that gives you a chance of raising capital it increases your chances of raising capital all right looking back what a couple of achievements stories that you know four years down the line I'm like I'm really really proud that we went we go into this venture with your wife Helen right yeah yes so what a couple of achievement stories doesn't have to be on a monetary value but yeah so so notify is actually the first business we've started together so we have actually been business ever since I left the university and so for us notify in of itself was one of our biggest achievements why because it was just a combination of the journey in business so we still have a software company that still has to date but the thing with notify that sets that sets is a party is it's a business that touches the small businesses it's a business that whose impact is felt and you can actually see it and feel it why because when you see a small business you know gets an opportunity to actually thrive and grow the net effect of that is it these are you know there's someone's a child who you know will get school fees at the end of the month why because the business is thriving these are families that now have they can make ends meet because the business is thriving so for us notify what you know the achievement that you can truly truly boast about is the number of businesses who have gone through the model and right now actually served over 4,000 businesses and it's fantastic to see the impact that you have on such businesses we have people who started a business and the day they started they came they came to notify and now two years later these are business that have grown significantly revenues have grown significantly and that for us is is such a big thing that is the highlight of notify the impact that we've had on the community as an economist you know things we learn in economics is the only one of the best ways to beat unemployment is to is to allow for small businesses the entrepreneurship businesses are ventures to thrive and not just to to start but to thrive you know when we get small businesses to actually thrive what they do is create employment and that employment is usually felt on the ground this is real and actual employment very true and it means that the backbone of our economy yeah you know yeah it is interesting that over 60% of our of employment in this country is actually contributed by small and medium-sized businesses it is not the white collar jobs over 60% me you know these are jobs you know that are contributed by small businesses so goes without saying that if our goal is to truly create an economy where people thrive then we have to empower small businesses and give them a chance to grow and you will see all the big Kenyan problems we're proud about today the Kiroshas the equities these are business that small businesses but they were you know equipped and empowered and allowed to grow and today they create employment for thousands directly and hundreds of thousands more indirectly so yeah it's it's one of those things we're proud to do okay couple of challenges that you faced as a company yeah of course capital is one capital has was actually it's still is you know one of the challenges you have to navigate as a business then you have to so when it's not your business you deal with this challenges was more business and there's so many this is great getting the right business model acquiring customers and whatnot but then as your business starts to grow then into different faces one of the things that you start facing now becomes things like hiring getting the right talent you know and I'm just getting them retaining them is becomes even a bigger problem how do you keep them motivated to to go over and above to make sure that you know you get the most out of them then they have cost government regulations and they are so many they are so many government regulations you know these but I don't know is the general entrepreneurship is a journey of every time you overcome one problem it will lead you to another problem but that that is the fun of the whole process it is it is a journey of endurance as you wind up to notify so for for us as notify we for any small business out there we have so many things that we have on offer and if you ever wanted to start a business that you will never have a better time as now why because we are here for you and it's not just about space you have things like we give free deliveries to in Nairobi so if you buy the product from notify imagine you'll get free delivery so all our products are on the e-commerce platform so she'll be the handle of the notify logistics on Facebook Instagram offices in Nairobi we have a whole building so if you if you can we'll get like three floors of seamless shopping these are products where he said is you support us but if you want to start a business we will actually be here to support you all right so I'm coming we are coming so thank you very much for creating time to be with us we're looking forward to this conversation again you're much much much much more welcome thank you very much thank you so guys back at home that is where we are we're in the region who is a co-founder of notified logistics we should follow them across all the social media handles that is notify logistics at notify logistic.co.ke yes there you have it so if you want to keep that conversation going we should head on to their social media handles and reach out to them I try to for channel as well you can find us across all our social media handles that Michelle Shirai is where you can find me across all my social and be right back with so much more right here in entrepreneurship Tuesday