BY VICTOR ADAR
Armed with a backpack and laptop with no knowledge of what lay ahead apart from just a belief in her convincing power, Sheila Ogembo made a big leap. Three years ago, she started Speed plus media limited, a firm that not only deals with design, printing and branding but also advises customers on marketing strategies. A journalist by profession, and alumni of Technical University of Mombasa, entrepreneurship bug bit her at a time when many people her age would find it a great discomfort jumping into business.
She tells of the fears that include lack of jobs and powerful business ideas being the main stumbling blocks to the success of many Kenyans as far as entrepreneurship is concerned. While most of her friends were busy doing a spirited search for jobs, which were scarce, deep down her spirit, she wanted to become financially free. It is this reality that saw her jump into business, incorporating her company in July 2014. She would start operations in earnest in 2015 and ever since, she has never looked back.
“As a marketer I wanted to do better,” she says. “I wanted to offer better services to my clients which I was not able to do under employment. We’ve done quite a lot and from where we are right now I can say we are heading in the right direction.”
Throwing in a capital of Sh2 million, an amount that did not include overheads like rent, transport and money for personal upkeep, her business is now on the right path. Half of the major capital was from her personal savings while the other half was an investment from a special person, an angel investor, who believed in her proposal.
With fairly good business partners including Siginon Group, Tamarind Group Mombasa, Pwani University, Kenya Maritime Authority, Crown Paints Kenya limited, Kenya Ferry services, among others, the beautiful lady is proving that hard work pays. What gives her confidence to succeed in a business that is crowded, dominated by men, and mostly viewed as costly to start, is getting to understand her clients’ needs. She says that it is important to throw some creativity in the mix of things in order to do the actual business of design, print, and even stretch a bit to offer events management services.
“We handle each client with utmost attention that they deserve regardless of the business transactions made while further giving them what they need. In addition, we go the extra mile of giving what we think will be good for them,” she says.
To win the hearts of customers, Ogembo embraces entry level pricing for design and printing services. For design alone, her pricing differs from one item to another with her charges ranging from as low as Sh500 to as high as Sh300, 000 depending on what she is working on, which range from design of artworks to general printing of stationeries, embroidery to screen printing, letter heads to promotional items and roll up banners.
“There is no constant figure but we can’t complain. We charge depending on what we are working on. Actually, we have never charged a client above Sh50, 000 being a startup company,” she says
As with any venture, she says that each week, month and year is always different but by putting the right price on products and services, money keeps flowing. Businesses, especially start-ups that fail to go the extra mile are those that pay no attention to pricing and customer needs. She is managing the company putting in mind that what matters most is the customer.
The going is very tough but she is getting creative in order to increase the numbers. For continuous customers – those who give continuous monthly business – her firm does designs on a complimentary basis as a way of offering good experiences and value to loyal customers. Typing away on her laptop, she says that the road a head is clear. “I think running a business is becoming more essential. For us, in the next two years, we want to venture into advertising, mostly outdoor,” she says.
Investing on satisfying customers also seems to be her main priority. Growing her business in a tough economic environment has meant that core values such as customer service excellence, teamwork as well as passion for results are embraced big time. She says that there is no cutting of corners when it comes to the above mentioned three principles.
A few insights by Ms Ogembo on how to find your path to big money, especially for entrepreneurs who are eying design and print jobs, include offering custom solutions tailor made for each unique situation, and not being choosy. It is mostly the quality of the services, good rates and good customer relation that keeps their customers coming back. She says that getting the much-needed profits all depends with how you relate and handle clients.
At the moment, her start up, which is located on Links road; Links estate in Nyali (Mombasa) and has employed six individuals including her self, is also offering attachments and internships to serious students who are interested in this field.
“We offer a wide array of services including full house in design, printing, branding and a lot more… we do not want to choose because each field brings its return fairly but given that we mostly do design on a complimentary basis most of our returns come from printing and branding,” she says.
