 Welcome back. Okay the clip you just watched it was just taking you through what an optometrist does. It's all about eye care and they say that the face is like a piece of work and it requires an artistic aspect of good frames when it comes to glasses and also that life is too short to a boring glasses. So today we are looking at the eye care industry and it's all about matters pertaining looking at different business opportunities in this sector which is the eye care industry. In studio I am joined by none other than chatlone Ogingo who is an optometrist and the co-founder of Smarties Eyewear. I said it right yeah Smarties Eyewear. Yes but you missed the name it's fine. Okay this is the opportunity please. Introduce yourself. Oh thank you so much. My name is chatlone Ogingo I am an optometrist. I am also passionate about eye health education so I'm an eye health educator and also an entrepreneur in the eye care industry and like you have rightfully put I last year I decided to venture into that kind of business and besides that I work with the nephromed speciality care where I'm a resident optometrist there and we work with a very enthusiastic team of doctors and nurses just to you know give service to the people okay. All right so who is an optometrist? Okay that's a very fair question. A lot of people really confuse these the people in the eye care industry so an optometrist is a primary eye care provider who is trained to test to correct to correct certain diseases of the eye and the visual system. They are licensed to prescribe eyeglasses in medication but they are not licensed to do surgery. Okay then who is a ophthalmologist? A ophthalmologist is a medical doctor who specializes in vision care so somebody was going to a medical school and then a specialization in ophthalmology and they are trained to do surgery to prescribe medication and also to to manage different eye diseases of the eye. Okay and finally who is an optician? Well an optician is a technician who is trained mostly in lens technology okay so they help patients to choose the best lenses for the prescription that either an optometrist or an opththalmologist writes. All right I think now you have a better understanding of all the three and what you guys do yeah so what you deal with is when I come to you you'll you know do a good a checkup that's when I the vision aspect of it eye pressure and all that yeah yeah so we'll do the examination and then I will prescribe a management plan for you eyelid could be spectacle or medication or contact lens depending on on on the problem that you have. All right so Charlton so take us to your background so who's Charlton why were you born and brought up? Okay so I was born and brought up in Kisumu a place called Nyakach and I when I was growing up I becoming an eye care practitioner was not one of my dreams but I really thank my father who actually shaped me to to to this career that I have right now and I have never met somebody who is more altruistic like him and he's somebody who likes helping people which is what optometry is all about so I after finishing my all levels I enrolled in in my Cinder Muliri University at that time that was the only university it's actually still the only university that is offering optometry at a degree level the other institution that we have is KMTC which offers it at diploma level so I undertook that training and then began my practice or in 2016 towards the end yeah and since that it has been such a fulfilling adventure I mean usually the greatest pleasure that I get from it is probably not the money but the fact that when you hear somebody that say to me that you know right now I can be able to see I mean I can be able to go about my daily activities very well because their eyesight is now good so it's it's it's one of the greatest pleasures that I derive from my profession. All right and for the sake of all viewers who are watching us today and they have an interest to get into the the eye care industry so what is what who is eligible to actually you know be an an optometrist and what should they major on in school? Well anybody who has a passion to help people can be an optometrist and I believe that is what the health industry is all about it's about giving back because trust me there is no amount of salary can be able to match the kind of the fulfillment that comes when you realize that you have just changed somebody's life you have just given him or her the gift of sight so anybody who has that heart of helping can become an optometrist when it with regards to academics sciences would be a good measure you'll have to imagine the sciences especially life sciences biology and then also physics and chemistry so when you are good at those ones then you stand a higher chance of qualifying for for admission into into the university to do optometry. All right so also I understand you're into employment and also you've started your own retail business so what take us through your work experience and at what particular time did you decide to to venture into the retail business of smarties I I wear? Okay I've always wanted to start my own business I have several interests which I'm pursuing one of them being in the IK industry because it's an industry that at least I have an understanding of so we can remember last year there there was a very change in the structure of our lives you know when when COVID-19 struck and as I was you know just thinking through what kind of opportunity exists you know even in this in in this situation and I thought to myself why can I start with what I know with the IK industry and as we know with COVID-19 people went so much into remote working you know companies had their employees working from home government was encouraging people to to minimize going to the offices so that means that working had to come back from home and as people working from home you are using your computer and using a computer is a demanding task to the eyes and as a way just to to prevent the eyes from deteriorating and and being affected by the light that the computer has because it uses high-end technology which cumulatively has effects on the eyes so this is what I thought of and and I I I said why can't I begin a business where I can sell non-prescription spectacle one that doesn't need you to go to the doctor it's just something like it's just like sunglasses but now what is that is meant for computer I like that you saw the gap because most of us also the young young guys are very addicted to our phones so I believe also that affect our eyes yeah it does yeah it does yeah you'll tell us a couple of ways to actually manage that but just getting back to it so was there a business plan when you embark on this journey yeah I had to it was not a very comprehensive business plan but I jotted something down like what did I want to achieve with this how much the amount of money I'll need to put in where I will get their merchandise and where I will get my customers you know so so those are some of the things that I just I jotted down to just help me with the pipeline of implementing the business yeah and since I I immediately wanted to do it online because I'm passionate about digital marketing also I I say that that is the first place that I will start yeah how important was it like the fact that you had structure uh but then you said it was no in detail just ensuring that you stay or you know on on the right lane of influence implementation yeah like you're right to rightfully put um having that kind of a structure helped me to to stay on course of course at the beginning it it doesn't sound very easy and still it's not we still have to you know to to to to have a lot of great to push it on but having that structure help help help us to give some direction to what we wanted to achieve and how we are going to achieve it so that we are not just groping in the dark at least we we we had something that is that was guiding us towards what we wanted to achieve okay nice many of us out here have business ideas I'm telling you but one of the key things that they say just like holds them back is the issue of finances so how did you raise your capital um yeah it's it's usually a very dicey issue because everything boils down to finance I mean the youth of our nation have a lot of business ideas that lay unimplemented because you know there is there is no money so when it took it took planning I started thinking about it earlier and so it took um some savings and also like I've told you we co-manage it with uh with my wife so we we brought our finances together uh portion of highs and some from from from my earnings and then yeah we just uh ordered some merchandise on a small scale okay yes you don't want to go be good yeah don't have to go uh highly yeah you know expectations go all in yeah just started kiddo and then you know we we grow all right so where do you get your merchandise from um so I I get them either locally or or from china yes but the first batch I got from china uh and then yeah then the others locally although that one from china had challenges yeah and you know it got so thinking about just doing it locally because it took a very long time then at at um at the customs office it was also another protracted period to just acquire them so yeah it was a challenge especially with with the importing but yeah those are the two places we are much less okay so what is your value proposition into the market because I'm so sure people think uh we can get glasses anywhere right I can get a glass the people sell you know I wear everywhere so what is how different is it when they come to you okay um at summaries I we believe that um we want to live by the spirit of our name and so we believe that our way is not just some some brand names tapped on the frame but it is about expression of your personality yeah so we we we want to give somebody a frame that also expresses their fashion also makes them to express their personality so that is what we want to do and also we want to to to to to do that at affordable prices you know because most people when they hear of glasses they imagine huge badges and so they they like go wow this is just not meant for me but we we want to be able to to give people an opportunity to to take out their eyes while they sometimes not breaking their bangs for it very very very actually fair and reasonable so let's look at during the early stages of our business are you guys a brand for over a year now yeah close to a year okay so during the early stage let's say three months six months so how was it how was it like like typically on an average uh scene because uh when people starting off their business they're thinking like I need probably it depends on what you're whatever you're doing I mean I need a social media manager I need uh probably if it includes services I need a receptionist and all other things involved but how is it for you during the early stages of the business let's look on a scale of three months uh six months there okay um okay I love I love the beauty of the process and so um like I I have mentioned we we we didn't want to begin on such a huge scale that we will not be able to manage so um at the beginning basically the first three months I was actually me and my wife were actually everything to the business come to customer care to social media manager um but some of this thing I had to to learn them through YouTube you know just go to YouTube learn how uh people you know do social manager managing work and all that so so you wear all the hats I wear I want all the hats okay and still I do because we still don't have a receptionist or social media manager but the beauty of it is that you learn and and the process you know just shapes you to to become you know a better entrepreneur all right so how do you promote your business to the community um okay so like I've seen it's majorly online because um that is where businesses is going I mean um if there is one thing that COVID-19 has taught us is that we have to change the way we do business and and so any other way of marketing um so we we we do online and also offline one-on-one and majorly through status and also Facebook and Instagram especially this status group yeah things happen right there so uh who are your target markets and uh let's start from there let's look at your target market okay um well we we target school going children and also people working the working group these people are very active you know making sure that the the the engine of our economies run well so those are the people we we we we target corporate people okay yes actually knowing the fact that you guys are based online uh is it quite I believe it's not that uh on high expenses when it comes to maintaining your business but maybe maybe the other things that I'm not actually looking at maybe you can take us to that um well yeah there there are there are certain experiments like if you have to promote it on Facebook you'll have to pay Facebook for them to do the odd sponsorship yeah yeah sponsorship um um you know you'll also have to give certain incentives to the clients you know things that are not they do not directly pay for but it's just something to to make you stand out okay and um yeah we also do a lot of we do branding also so yeah it's it's one of the projects that we're having moving forward all right uh this is still like uh this is a very it's a it's a small business and let's look at the fact that how you manage your budget and the priorities just to ensure that the business still keeps afloat even during this time of COVID-19 okay yeah of course during this time of COVID-19 the the the the profit is a lot less but uh we we we ensure that um whatever little money we we get we at least retain some in order to to run the business because you can't eat everything yeah so we ensure that um at least from every sale there is some bit of money that we keep yes this is this is for the business yes a couple of mistakes that you've done uh in this particular business during the early stages um okay so during the early stages after I had set up the the facebook page I took really quite a while to order the merchandise I mean it it's really it it really hit me that while I was almost living the business yeah it took like close to to one month before we finally decided to order the merchandise because I I took a lot of time to research and all that yeah so I didn't swing in super fast so that I could order the merchandise um also um I miss sometimes on consistency because uh social media requires such a I realized that it requires a lot of consistency especially with the posting and all that so that is something that we are still working on yeah couple of financial lessons that you have learned along the way um I have learned the value of budgeting and um fortunately uh the the person whom we run with the business with my wife is she's good at budgeting so at least yeah she's grounded exactly yeah so we have been able to to to you know to to to keep to a budget you know you you don't want to to see the money coming and then you get excited and um so so that that that kind of of life that we have been able to develop as a result of that also um the the the resilience you know because it's not going to be easy always sometimes you you will go into your pocket to to get the business running but uh you definitely know that it's worth it was the end yeah so how do you build or rather create ensure that you are credible to your potential clientele especially you on the online platform because in this online space we meet all kind of kindable people we have people who are they claim to be what they are not called people so how do you build credibility uh with your potential clientele um okay first of all people need to trust you uh so you have to to bring out that trust you you ensure that you keep your word to them and um then after that we we and since our every client that we get we ensure that at least we call them some few days after to to just you know ask them how they are doing all the feedback the feedback so that we can be able to maintain that personal touch so I think that that increases um our credibility so apart from uh let's look at the we've looked at what it takes to just get into the eye uh the eyewear industry but let's look at the mindset what kind of mindset does one need to have just to break the barriers of self-doubt or even the naysayers in regard it doesn't have to be in this industry could be in any other industry so what sort of mindset does one need to just break the boundaries okay um so business is is not easy and um if you're somebody who had started something you the urge to always give up is is um is always there but um I believe if you have a very strong why you know the reason why you are doing the business then you can be able to transcend all barriers because when you remember that why and it is a strong why for you then you can be able to to to overcome the challenges of self-doubt and naysayers and um you you you definitely also want to ensure that you believe in yourself uh because they always say that you know if nobody else believes in you then at least you believe in yourself so so believing in yourself will and will help to ensure that you you you are in need for the long run you're not going to give up whether it's become hard or whether you you you sort out you know you're going to do it all right yes let's look at a couple of set bucks that you're facing in this kind of business um well um COVID-19 is an opportunity for the business because it's it's mainly um uh done online um but also it comes with a set of challenges because you have to to reach to the client especially you have to do deliveries and all that yeah which in Nairobi is nowadays a very difficult thing and um also Facebook budgeting can frustrate you yeah it's uh it's something that can eat into your money a lot yeah so if you if you don't take care of it you know you can just burn your money and probably you don't have a a lead or a client and how do you manage that uh okay well you start with a small budget yes you just start with a small budget and then and then you scale yeah at the beginning I have ever run Facebook as before and it can if you if you put a lot of budget you know Facebook will definitely just eat it and then probably won't get your quality leads so you start on a small budget and then you scale up so that you can find value for your money for your money exactly all right so let's look at uh I don't want to give a specific time frame but what does the future look like for a smarties eyewear um okay um there are certain things that we are we are we are looking at especially the technology that surrounds eyewear um there is a technology that is called a virtual try on uh where it's it's it's a it's installed into a website where you can just go and uh use your picture to try on frames virtually yeah so it's a it's a technology that is upcoming that is being embraced by the eye care industry and that is what one to be because the convenience that it gives to the client is huge all right yeah so charlton we were talking about business all this we were looking at the angle of business now it's time to change hats yeah let's change hats to you being uh an opt optometrist yes hi this is the tongue twister of my people several questions a couple couple of questions for you so uh we posted on our social media handles and this is what I have so uh one question comes in like how often should I get my eyes checked um okay so basically we recommend that you have your eyes checked um every two years and of course as you age that frequency increases you're supposed to do it um after one year as you age it's clear from 40 years going onwards and also if you have um mobility like if you have diabetes and all those other conditions then it should be as uh any as frequent as six months every six months like two times in a year okay yeah so if one comes to your office what should they expect take us through briefly the process okay so when you consultation yeah okay so when you come in in in our practice that is at at nephromed we will uh basically take you through uh those registration process and all that after which we will ask you you know several questions just to know what exactly your problem is okay um some of us just come for either check up to know whether the eyes are okay which is good yeah because you you can never say that your eyes okay just because you you read there's a chart that we usually take people through to read so reading that tells not a qualification to do so after you've read that chart then we will do our examination using the equipments that are there to to determine the the health status of your eyes so after which we'll advise you on the best management forward all right I've been to a checkup and it's really very uncomfortable especially the eye pressure when you are checking the eye pressure it can be really uncomfortable yeah yeah I know but they are actually developing equipments where there is there's minimum contact with the eyes but can still take the pressure all right so let's look at the three most common eye problems um in our side of the country the three most common symptoms are first of all allergies it's a lot of people suffer from allergies and and this is usually seasonal especially when it is sunny and and there's a lot of dust the other issue is complaints about um light sensitivity um so we our eyes nowadays is exposed to a lot of eyes a lot of light sorry from the computer and all that plus almost virtually every work that we do is is on a computer so that is one of the major complaints and um the last the the the other condition that is more prevalent in our side of the country is um the pressure issues although this is uh it sometimes um hereditary because of the genes that you have it can it it it's something that I have seen most people have the other one is um short sightedness yeah all right so let's look at three ways to protect our eyes mentioned uh issues with light yeah um okay so I usually tell my patients that they are to there are two ways to to to sort the issue of light either one is to prevent exposure or to avoid exposure yeah because light is something that we need we can definitely not avoid it so we prevent exposure so the first thing that to that we recommend is to use eye glasses okay to to to prevent your eyes from the sun um and and these eye glasses need to have 100 percent UV protection and also we recommend that they are polarized all right yes okay so as we wind up probably you could tell us where people can find you on social media and if they want some merchandise from uh uh uh smarties eyewear where they can find you okay so we are on facebook at uh smarties eyewear we are on facebook at smarties eyewear and also if you want an eye checkup we are at upper hill uh on fortongong avenue that is nephromed you can find us there we'll do for you a very comprehensive eye checkup and also we have an educational channel it's called the favorite optometrist on facebook so we give uh you know cutting age information of eye on eye care there so that people can be empowered is to take proactive management practices on their health well I think you very much uh charlton for kate in time to be with us thank you Michelle you're welcome yeah so that is charlton ogingo who is an optometrist and the co-founder of smarties eyewear so make sure you follow them across all the social media handles keep that conversation going and if you have any other question make sure you reach out to him make sure you don't start that that will be right back with so much right here on why in the morning hashtag to use is hashtag entrepreneurship tuesday at y254 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 and be right back