 Why 254, imagine? Welcome back to the broadcast. My name is Yvonne Annula. Tonight we talk about ideas for investment with Sylvia Apondi who is CEO of Sylvia Crew Cleaning Solutions. Remember can be part of our conversation tonight by simply tweeting us beginning with the word why news at Yvonne Annula. 254 channel the hashtag to use is why 254 updates beginning with the words why news. Now Sylvia, you are so much welcome to the broadcast tonight. Thank you. Sylvia Crew Cleaning Solutions, how did this start? Okay, Sylvia Cleaning Services which is abbreviated for Sylvia Intercleaning Company. It's a cleaning company which started when I was still working with Sirma Company and Advocates. I had a passion before I was also still working with Strami then from Strami I started working with Sirma Company Advocates. When I was working with Sirma I had that passion before I had that passion but by that time I wasn't like I had the ability to move out or rather to have something that can help me out also to make the dream come to reality. So when I was working with Sirma Company Advocates is when I started looking on this thing deeper. Yes, I have a passion for cleaning services. Why can't I try this? So this is basically passion based? Ya, it's passion based. You didn't go to school? No, I never went to school. It is something that is passion based. Let's talk about capital. It's a major problem especially when young people want to start something. Is this a business that I can start with a few coins? Ya, it's a business that you can start with a few coins, whatever you have. You don't have like maybe must be saving like a lot of money or rather be having a big capital for you to start. But it's something that you can start so long as you have passion. Passion is what will drive you to have maybe something big or rather something you are dreaming about each and every day. So you have been in a position so far to employ and you employ young people or old people or it doesn't matter so long as you know the job you are good to go? Okay, personally you eat most people that I do employ they are young people because most of them they are self driven. There are people who like they are looking after they really want to know as in they want to build themselves. Most of them will find others they are part time students. You will find others they are just from form 4. They are saving some amount so that they can also go to maybe tertiary for tertiary education. So most I can say most of my employees they are young people. So I am interested in knowing the recruitment procedures that you use. Do you like have an agency that does this for you? No, what I do is we always have a training that is based in our office we have a training. Most of the time we have a training like we can have a training for 2 or 3 weeks where people are trained how to use different kind of chemicals where they are used. Which kind of materials to be used? FPS and everything. Ya maybe also you will find like you can employ some of the people that have not even ever tried out cleaning services or whether they have ever worked with cleaning services. So what you do you have to teach this person how to handle them up. What to do even the PR we also do the training of PR like how they have to deal with the clients because we not only deal with maybe the common areas but also deal with offices. Talking about people who come to you they know nothing totally nothing about cleaning. How long does it take them to consume that information and be able to work with your machines and the detergents? The detergents. Most especially cleaning services it all about passion. Most especially the person you find or rather the employees if someone is so much interested to work or rather they know what they have come to do at work most of them they would take long. If you can notice a person will take maybe 1 week or rather 3 days the person has already known a lot of things. So for the period that you have been in the industry most young people of course go for white collar jobs are young people really willing to take up this particular line of business? Not really. I haven't met a lot of young people who are really interested in taking this job. Yes but I can tell young people to take this job because it really needs young people because it really needs our minds strength energy people have to move from one place to another so it really needs young people so that they can move and do the business. Talking of young people maybe being competent does that mean that the most young people that you've employed or not young people rather the most old people that you've employed are not that competent enough? Not that they are not competent enough they are competent I cannot say that they are not competent enough but at the same time most especially you will find like young people these are jobs you can move from one place to another you can find like in a day you have like three jobs so you need a group that will work from this place after the first job the first town has ended you go to another place you move to another place so it is all about the energy you find these people that are not that much swift when the old people are not that much swift compared to young people How do they do the coordination? Ya I do the coordination we have the field supervisors we have also the people who are in charge like the crew who will be in charge the field supervisors and the crew who is in charge that the people who monitor the work and maybe if at all there is any job that is an outside job that the people who monitor how people are going to work the materials and everything Alright Silvi maybe you can just give us an outline of how your day starts and how maybe it ends Okay my day Okay my day starts as per the day that is the day starts different I can say my Monday starts the week Tuesday will start my Monday can start maybe from as in with the field work my Monday can start with the a day can start with the field work a day can start with you being in an office or rather being in a meeting Alright let's talk about this as far as your job is concerned My job is concerned most of the time I'm taking not in field work like marketing Personally I'm the one who is marketing it most of the time I'm the person who is marketing it so most of my time after I put to the office what I do is marketing moving from one place to another looking for tenders in business Alright now let's talk about maybe customer relations how have you been able to relate to your clients some maybe have gotten services that maybe didn't make them happy how do you deal with such cases with cases like maybe the customers unsatisfied if you find a customer who is unsatisfied in fact you should take it as a point for you to grow because a person will come and tell you silver haven't done this for me rather you haven't met the standards that I was looking for that's the best client so with such kind of a client what we do we have a guarantee that's maybe our uniqueness or rather that's we have a guarantee if our job won't satisfy you we can redo it again So that deals specifically with retaining of the customers Yes retaining of the customers and also not only retaining of the customers but also the customer to satisfy you to other clients alright you have been in this line of business for quite some time who are better ladies or gentlemen ladies ladies ladies maybe it's just something that is inborn I can say because ladies are the people most especially they do cleaning of the house, the cleaning we just know from day one ladies are the people who are supposed to be doing the cleaning and everything but what I can say ladies are the best ladies are the best when it comes to cleaning to come to those needy gritties things that are supposed to be removed So let's go back to like Sylvie crew cleaning solutions what do you specialize with specifically we specialize in cleaning of corporate places we specialize in cleaning of upholstery that is sofa deep clean carpet deep clean we also specialize in post construction cleaning fumigation and pest control industrial cleaning we also specialize in one of cleaning that is maybe for comprehensive house cleaning or rather just need a light cleaning of your house structures about fumigation fumigation yes fumigation there is a difference between fumigation and pest control fumigation is what is done agrenist maybe in an industrial place if those industrial things which are supposed to be exported but pest control these services is done agrenist the pest like cockroaches bed bugs mice yes talk to us about maybe the challenges that you have seen so far in this line of business in this line of business yeah there are not a lot of challenges compared to advantages most especially as a youth youth were given like an upper hand compared to those other maybe the other people who are like in this line of business but they are old because when you go to someone maybe to a client the client will prefer you as a youth compared to someone else yes so as a youth some of the challenges that I can say maybe it's just exposure like for me maybe if I go for someone for a client who is more corporate we want to know how as in the experience in the field we will also want to know if at all I've ever worked with a corporate company before of which maybe not maybe I can meet the standards of that place but because maybe I don't have experience or rather I haven't worked with any corporate company I might be denied the job alright remember you can still be part of this conversation tonight but simply treating us beginning with the word we are talking about ideas for investment so Sylvia let's talk about a young person that wants to start this kind of business so where do I start from the logo requirements to maybe customer satisfaction and so on where you start like maybe business registration yeah take us through that okay first of all you must have you must register your business no you name such a business your business name if it goes through you register your business it will depend on you if at all you register it as a limited or rather limited liability or rather just as a business name then from there you are good to go it doesn't need a lot of things coming up with the name like other instances where some names have been rejected maybe simply because they are not that catchy enough or a name won't be rejected because it is not catchy a name will be rejected because maybe someone else have already used it alright so in the next 3 years where do we expect to see Sylvia cleaning solutions Sylvia in the next 3 years yes in the next 3 years Sylvia Kru I have a goal like in the next 3 years we are going to be in East Africa should be serving in East Africa not only in Kenya because for now we are in Nakuru we are in Limuru and also there is a client at Narok but we are expecting in the next 3 years we should be out of Kenya Kenya, Uganda and then East Africa apart from that I am also having a passion of support services like maybe for transportation like not only just dealing with office and messenger but also having a support service like that for delivery like maybe you can have a rider yes what would you recommend the government to support you to promote this particular sector what I can say about the government is to lower the legal fees for someone to do fumigation there is a fee that they have to pay which is so much approximately 8,000 yes for someone to do garbage collection you know you have papers but for you to transact that business there is a fee you have to pay so maybe for even youth to feel like they can start a business or rather in grow themselves they should lower these legal prices but right now that we are talking about Sylvie Crow what is unique about your business unique about my business there is a lot of uniqueness about my business of which I have already said but there is a uniqueness about my business is we are 24 hour in response other companies don't do that no, it explains myself about it in that for us we have people who are stand by like if we are working for you we have a problem with the being we have a problem with whatever services we are offering you we can respond in the little time we can then something else about us is we have tailor made structures or rather tailor made services we don't just go for a client because the client needs these whatever we used on the other client this is what is being used on the other client no, we have tailor made for each and every client that means every client will meet will meet the expectation so friendly as we wind up is this a business that any young person out there can take up yeah it's a business that any young person can take up so long as what cleaning needs is passion that's what I can tell so long as a person has passion the young person has passion I don't think even man is a problem so long as a person has passion the passion and the hard working because when you start you really need to have to be in the field rather than in the office so thank you so much Sylvie for coming through we really appreciate it there has been Sylvie who is the CEO of Sylvie crew cleaning solutions and for her it only takes a passion and it will be good enough to go in this particular line of business thank you so much for being with me my name is Yvonne enjoy the rest of your viewing