 Welcome back to why in the morning and if it's Tuesday it's entrepreneurship Tuesday at Y254 Channel is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle. Ashila is where you can equally find me across all my socials. So having an experienced mentor you can rely on in your business. It's actually a boost especially if he's one or she is one in that being just gender sensitive that they hold an experience in coaching and training. So it's definitely a win for you to get mentorship in all aspects. So in studio I am joined by Peter Ongara who is a business trainer coach and a mentor. Thank you very much Peter for creating time to be with us. Happy holidays how are you doing? Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you Peter. So Peter if I've missed out on anything from your titles because you're a man of a many titles probably we could add a few. Not exactly I mean that's a summary of everything and in entrepreneurship you you're looking at how you you can solve problems by combining solutions so that's the best that I can give done and that's the best for me and everyone. I'm glad I did justice to your name. Yes you are a student so I give you an A. Thank you. So starting us off I'd like to find out what is the difference between coaching a business coach a business trainer and also a mentor. Basically training is when you get a skill I mean for example I can train you to drive. Okay and then coaching is where there's someone someone somebody somebody trying to tell you how to drive all right then mentorship is the somebody you're looking up to you might not be on the field for example in soccer for example you have teams train they go into camps and they train then they come to the field to play and then you see the coach but probably these players have people in their heads in their minds that they would want to be for example but I don't know whoever so that's the big difference so this training where you get a skill get a skill that is coaching where somebody is now telling you do this do that for example in this program there's probably you went to college to get training now right now as we're doing this recording there's somebody probably directing you on what to ask when to ask how to ask and then there's probably that's a coach and there's probably somebody looking up to probably a veteran broadcaster veteran TV personality all right what does it take to be a coach it takes experience you cannot give what you don't you don't have experience whether good or bad so it's basically experience and the skills that you have learned or gained and mainly and knowledge all right yeah because you cannot give what you don't have okay so what you're saying is if I'm running a business or who is eligible to be needing a coach in terms of if I'm running a business I'm either the only one who needs a coach or if I have a business idea can I look for a coach so who's eligible to everybody you need coaches everywhere because one thing is that business is is I can say business changes so for example like I like even example of information technology for example we used to go to the cyber cafes to do internet but right now you have your cell phone that you can use your cell phone to browse the internet you have your cell phone to even do financial transactions so at end level of business you need a coach at end level of business in training for example someone needs to train you on how to do tax returns for example you need someone to coach you on how to start for example a software that probably can help you get the pricing correct yeah so you need a coach trainer the mentor they're all essential in one's life exactly we can call them advisors okay yeah or consultants all right so far I believe that we are on the same page and you have break it down in an easy way so that our viewers can understand all right so for someone who's looking for coaching services and also looking for you as a trainer so how much take us through the process of maybe the little bit of a basic of what you take them through in terms of coaching let's start with coaching basically it depends on what level of coaching is needed for example if you start up for example you have a business idea or you have this grand idea of solving some problem so you need someone to tell you how to start how to get started how to name your business for example if you want to get into say catering business you don't have to call your business meaty shamba foods and something so you need at that level of startup you need how to know how to start the business how to name that business how to protect that business in terms of copyright in terms of business registration in terms of getting to set up the business you don't have to use all the money that you have you've gotten to probably get a furniture for your business when you make business the core business is to provide food so basically from there it depends on where you are if you're starting up you need a coach trainer or a mentor on starting up if you're expanding you send someone to teach you how to expand for example into the East African market or the international market so it is from different stages of your business exactly exactly it's not like custom stone that this is for this oh it's like a one-time thing yeah and it's forever it's lifetime yeah all right I only say that you cannot give what you don't have in terms of being a coach so take us through a couple of experiences your first business startup and what you're doing right now mine is a long one and then encourage your audience to probably copy what I did or what I've done I started off when I was around age 10 I was selling sweets when I was in primary school wow that's me young yes yes I mean this you can start business at any age at 10 15 20 30 and all that and then I got into business when I went into high school for example I used to save my pocket money I went to a rule of high school and all the pocket money I used to be given by my parents I would save I would take to the school canteen and another canteen out at the school so that every weekend when we're having that free work I get a few mantasis but when we're going back to back home I go to the the business person where I've invested my money to get all my money back oh yes so from that is the base that's where it all started yes yes yes yes so how did he transition from now you're doing it you know in a level by you're not just a qualified coach but you've said we've done a couple of other several businesses let's look at after that what did you do next after that now then like there's one aspect of life that really changed my life okay it's voluntary work now what so when I got into university I got into voluntary work I was a peer counselor and then out of that I also did you know when you get into voluntary work you're out to get in again skills gain experience so when I was doing voluntary work I realized that you know counseling is almost coaching people don't even realize that counseling basically is coaching so you're telling for example may you fellow students because I was a peer counselor so you're talking to your peers and on matters sexual health matters of financial management and all that but then now when you're doing voluntary work you really get even no pay but you paid in kind kind is for example the experience you gain this is where I got a chance to be picked by the university to attend an exchange program youth exchange program in Japan in 1994 and part of that exchange program it was a requirement it was mandatory for us to do homestay so homestay is basically we were taken to a host family in Japan and we stayed there to learn how the Japanese people behave how they eat what they eat and all that but then out of my business mind and business approach I wanted to find out why did this family host us was it for free or was it for pay I realized they were being paid by the government to host us we were about 300 of us from all over the world so there was curiosity exactly so then when I finished the program I came back to Kenya and then I'll set up that homestay business called african homestay and safaris whereby in my business I encourage tourists people from other cultures to get into people's homes so they can learn more the same way I did in Japan all right and it's actually a nice way to just integrate and learning different cultures but before we get into your turn travel company let's go back to the voluntary work and I'd like you to tell us do you feel like the voluntary space is also a good place where probably graduates from universities can get into these spaces and is there an opportunity whereby you can get employment out of just volunteering you know one of them the key areas like for example when looking for a job they ask for experience so if you're fresh from college where is the experience you can earn the experience by doing voluntary work you can you can call it internship or attachment but voluntary work in most most employers most employers look for that spirit of voluntary work and you know when you're doing voluntary work away from internship internship is like forced you know you have to do this exactly to graduate to get credit but voluntary work is a different way of I call it it's entrepreneurship it's not you know it's not like you know the internship where you're told okay fine go do this for three months but you can volunteer to either either gain a skill to get experience and again somebody was done voluntary work voluntarily has a higher chance of getting any job done or any job given to him or her what a couple of tips you tell us in terms of in the voluntary work space that would help any young person to position themselves for opportunities such as in employment for example if your passion is in accounts in let's say in finance and you you you really want to to get into that space voluntary work would help you a lot because now if you are voluntary you are doing voluntary work in let's say in a finance company the people are working there for you or the people you work with will be more interested in helping you out to gain more experience more skills and exposure then for example when you were doing internship and you are so many of you so many of you let's say from one college and this so little supervision but with voluntary work they know this person is here too because of his own say his own willingness so the willingness to help is the kind of willingness they would help you with to gain the experience and to get the required skills right there's also situations whereby you find a young person has volunteered in a space they have actually studied it or they are interested but they lack those particular opportunities in that particular space when is the time to actually identify it's time to move on and seek other opportunities I like giving my personal example when I was in college I did sociology and philosophy those days we didn't have undergraduate in mass communication I really wanted to be a journalist so what I did is volunteer as a journalist I started writing for the university magazines I started writing for national print media and then I got into now the mainstream media which actually for lack of better what I left because one is I saw the kind of stories I was writing I was writing about people doing great projects people solving problems people getting experience then I said wow this is something nice it's something I can move away from and do and I can tell you the people who have done voluntary work simply because they lack a space where they can gain some particular skill you and I know of people in politics for example well volunteered with political parties during campaigns and all that but right now you find them they are some of them are senators we can we can name a few yes others get nominated into parliament into the county assemblies so voluntary is one is one space that young people really need to to capture to get into to gain what probably they are passionate about now let's get into business and in the aspect of just starting a business before anyone starts a business it's important to identify the problem you're solving in the market I was telling earlier on about the story of voosing the require saying you have to identify a problem so that you can actually solve it talk to us on how you actually identify a space in the market and how to go about filling filling the cup you know in business or in this actually if I can take you back there is a difference between entrepreneurship and business entrepreneurs are people come up with ideas and they can also convert the idea into a business and we have business people business people are out to make profit it's really that you find that a business person is an is an entrepreneur so the idea that you can pick up for example a businessman can use it to make profit for example I'm zoom zoom is a platform where people do online classes they invent of zoom came up with the idea but now the people using zoom to have classes and they charge they pay they ask for payment to do those classes now for example if say I like giving the example of a cell phone the initial cell phone was for voice you call and you receive a call you make a call then it got improved into SMS short message service you can send a text you can receive a text then we got a cell phone that has a camera so you can do recording of you know your event you can take photos you can share photos but right now you can your phone is a bank your phone is is is something that you can do classes on it's a it's a college yeah was it you don't have to go to to to school for example like during covid most schools in fact all schools were shut but people are doing classes using the cell phones yes so there's many things way easier portable you can just do everything at the comfort of your home wherever you are on your phone you give us the difference between business and entrepreneurship which is very quite very important what does it take to start up a business it's number one it takes some creativity and innovation and a sense of knowing what is lacking a sense of knowing what you can solve if you lack those then I don't think you can be a good business person or be good in entrepreneurship because you are out to identify a problem an existing problem you're out to identify and feel the gap if you're not able to see that then I don't think you are able to make it in business I know we are so much gracious to have these videos I'm going to ask every single question for the sake of the entrepreneurs back at home so as business owners so if you are starting a business yeah and you're in the early stages of your business and there's no return they're not coming how can we be patient and just still and it's still be productive well at it I like the way you use the word be patient patience pays in fact rum and most of these big cities will never be in one day and you cannot go to the farm and plant seeds and harvest the falling day you have to plant the seed wait for it to germinate and you can do the weeding and then expect to harvest you cannot even go to college as young people you can't go to college today and you graduate tomorrow so you have to have that sense of patience nothing grows overnight nothing so everything else needs to be patience and as you said patience pays so if you want payment be patient you will be leaders of tomorrow you are a leader right now so at any level you are you are in leadership there is business leadership the civil society leadership you don't have to wait to be member of parliament or you don't have to wait to have a million Kenyan shillings to start a business or you don't have to wait to have ten university grades and then you run for parliament okay so it's it's right to say that you are you are a leader right now but you're just growing well at it yes yes yes okay and you mentioned that coaching a business coaching is quite like the same old counseling when you're talking to someone and most of the time when you're talking to I've been gracious enough to talk to a counselor so there's always the aspect of being cautious if this person has your best interest at heart or they're just after its profession for them it's a business like any other any other business so how do you identify the right coach trainer or even a mentor for for your business if you are pushing someone to help you out that's a good point in most cases some of the smartest the best coaches I never paid because one whenever they teach they learn whenever they give out the lessons they also get less they also gain lessons and that's why I'm telling you the people get in coaching and they have misinterpreting the coaching so they charge for coaching they charge for anything else that they they they're supposed to do almost for free and some of them you might find that they are probably not the very best as I told you experience the best teacher so for one to to say okay fine this one is charging par hour this one is charging per day this one is charging go that is his business business of coaching but I can tell you for sure most coaches business coaches are affordable okay yes alright so I have a question here so someone is asking if I'm your client how would you help me refine my talents goals and decisions for this success for my business it's very easy you have to we have to share we sit down tell me what your missions are your goals are and then I take you through how you can either probably because again it's in business coaching I don't have to be your boss okay that's why I told you for example in soccer and football the coach doesn't play the coach doesn't get into the field and play but it's out there trying to you know to tell you what to do want to do it and when the time for substitution comes he calls the referee and says okay fine I think this player here is is not doing well so basically it's all about guiding advising you on your idea okay it falls back to me as a person it's you as a person so coming to you and we're looking for a strategy just to maneuver for the sake of the success of my business what are the key areas that you that you look at the best one is I need to know why you're in business the reason you're in business there's several reasons I could give up to 25 reasons there are people get into business to make money there people get into business as a form of employment the people get into business for example if say your your spouse is jobless and you have a job and you don't want your spouse to be idling in the in the in the estate or whatever in your home you probably think that you can open a business for your spouse most my to keep them occupied have something to see so it becomes very difficult for me for example if let's say it's your wife that you have opened up boutique business and probably you think maybe you work in a bank and you're nicely dressed so you think that your wife can serve nice clothes for the bank managers and probably wife your wife is good in teaching when for example if your wife would be nice having a business in teaching kids but now you think for her that she can do well in selling decent dresses and decent you know office office wear so basically what what what you're looking at is why are you in business are you solving a problem are you getting self-employment are you investing the extra money exactly yeah yeah okay so that you have to understand if you don't understand it you get it wrong oh interesting yes very interesting let's dive into emotional intelligence right so and how it affects our careers and business and what we can you know do about it because most people in getting into business they become attached there's so much emotional and attached to their business holding on holding on to you know what they have so let's look at emotional intelligence and how we can handle that in our careers and also in our business if we are running one you know it's all it all both downs to to passion we are advised we do what we are passionate about the example gave you of um espoused selling clothes instead of opening a school for training so the attachment is the passion are you passionate about what you're doing if you're not then probably you are in the wrong field so it all goes down down to what you're passionate about the passion yes all right another question here we have so let's look at when you're dealing with business startups that is or want to be business owners in a situation like that so what are the biggest conflicts what's holding the what's the biggest conflict what's holding them back when it comes to the business aspect of it and what should we actually watch out for peer pressures one for example if say I did a law degree for example my peers my friends even my parents even the society would want me to get into low practice and probably I'm looking at making money I can give you an example of a dentist that I know of the dentist had his son go into dentist you know college he did all the programs in dental whatever dental training but he was not into say you know getting the smear of people's mouths he didn't want to do that so he got into matatu business and every time the parent asked what are you doing now or you know I need a equipment I need an office for this and that but then this guy all he wanted was office space to run his mother to business so the parent what he did is that he opened up a dental clinic for his son to do dental work he bought all the equipment from abroad everything as the clique was well set in a very nice area so and every time he would ask the son how is the business he says it's doing well so one day the father decides to visit the clinic and he finds this was the time when we had matatu crew donning you know uniform so when he got to the clinic he finds matatu you know dressed people dressed in matatu crew uniform and he was like so are these your clients now the son did not want to embarrass his dad he said no these are my clients they said no my son you cannot do this because these guys don't earn much he didn't know those wise employees he had opened he had started a matatu business he had several matatus and every morning or evening these guys would come and you know do reports for the day bring cash for the day and all that in the dental clinic that his dad thought was for for dental work but because as I as you asked that kind of um whatever is holding you back yes comes from either your peers or your parents or the child exactly yeah so the guy did very well in in matatu business and uh he was not asking for money from the from dad and all that until now when dad discovered he was not doing um dental work um he said okay fine if that is a passion go on but now give me the money that I used to buy which is the equipment and for the office all right now take us through uh what your company deals with the to and travel in details because it's quite unique and the market the market space you saw in the in the in the in the in the markets the gap that you saw in the market and how you dealt with it and came up with the to and travel company just take us through that it's very simple what I do is my company does this we identify homes ordinary homes our clients don't get into hotels so the ordinary homes that once we we spent in japan we identify homes that I save and secure for the tourists to come and stay and we also get tourists who are willing to be hosted in these ordinary homes for purposes of learning more about culture for purpose of saving most of them are low budget and sometimes most of them are for long term for example if you are spending hotel for one month to be very expensive for you but if you do that in an ordinary home home state and all that it's it's it's affordable I don't say it's cheap it's affordable it's enriching so what my company does is to link up guests with hosts all right yeah it's almost uh say airbnb but that came later but that is for bread and breakfast all right but my company um links up the students sorry the guests were mainly students and volunteers who come for example and stay in a country and it's not a matter of just staying they can take part in any cultural or social economic activities around the homestead so for example if you have students coming in from say canada I organize for them to stay in a rural home whereby they can learn the history of that um say the county they're staying in they can learn the culture of the county for example and they're able to interact with the people around the home where they're staying all right yes interesting very very interesting in the aspect of your guest being concerned about their safety do you run any background check for for the place where they're going to stay that's mandatory that's mandatory because again you don't have to expose the guests to any dangers so you have also to make sure you know the home they're going to stay you have to know the people they're staying with probably and again you have to know who the guests are sometimes you forget probably these are crooks coming in to be hosted so you also do both background check for the guest and for the host and different temperaments of people different personalities how you did that yeah yeah there is a form they have to fill out so you have to get to know why you're hosting for example once you experience with hosting or you know because you never know you never know you have to be very sure than to be very sorry all right so 2020 has been a year of economical hard times especially due to the global pandemic COVID-19 and in the same year during the recession there are businesses which have been actually doing well let's look at in 2021 cut a sea of COVID-19 because there's always the bad side of every situation and those are the good side of it so cut a sea of COVID-19 another couple of businesses that you see they'll do well in 2021 wow prophecy okay we're getting into information technology yes and we're getting into changing of lifestyles what people are doing before 2020 is not what they'll do in 2021 so you have really to make sure you know what people would need in 2021 most of us when COVID got us here most of us were selling vegetables using our very expensive vehicles most of us got into training and got into training and coaching most of us found ourselves jobless most of us found ourselves earning half salary so 2020 is a year to reset to readjust so that we know for example if I was doing teaching for example I can do something else you can you know even as a Christian even the Bible says you have to invest more than one in fact they say seven you have to invest in seven ways you have to have multiple streams of income exactly all right yes so in the holiday season and in the festive mood people looking to celebrate with friends and family what would be your advice when it comes to expenditure in terms of finances spend less invest more save more because this is not the last holiday we have very many coming we have schools opening in January we need school fees we need businesses to start again in in January and as you realize we really the economy was very bad during COVID most business shut and all that so spending less and investing more and saving more is what I can advise yeah and so you wrap up a couple of tips that you can give to business owners and people want to get into business that actually can increase their sales just a little bit of tips I know you have them as a business coach and the very best is that look at the problems if you are able to solve a problem then you are able to make it if there's no problem to be solved then you have no reason to be in that business do do a research again do it again and again go back to the drawing exactly for example if as you as you've seen clearly we have supermarkets moving out of the CBD into the villages so they're solving that so you don't have to come into the CBD to come up with another big supermarket people hate moving around with shopping baskets around the CBD people want to have products closer to their homes or where they work or where they stay people doing online deliveries so you probably need a warehouse and a delivery person and an online platform where they can do payment where they can do orders and all that okay yes so how can people find you on social media accounts and also your travel company how can they access it on social media handles um peter ongera everywhere and then my travel companies african homestay and safaris across all social media everywhere okay it's it's simple and short repeat the name of the the turn travel company african homestay and safaris african homestay and safaris yes simple across all social media handle everywhere thank you peter ongera for creating time to be with us thank you so much so i'm looking forward to have more of this kind of conversation in the near future uh probably next year absolutely so thank you guys next week is uh christmas i think okay thank you very much peter thank you guys for watching this conversation so that is peter ongera who is a business trainer coach and mentor make sure you follow up with him and get to learn much more in terms of studying your business if you're in one how to scale up your business right why two five four 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 we'll be right back don't touch that dial