Young Founder's Journey

Story telling has been the rage for a while now but for the longest I've been hesitant to share my own, perhaps the platforms available didn't appeal to me or am just basically lacking in enough juice to share. Coming across this platform has been Godsent because it's a non judgemental space for like minded women with struggles, goals, dreams and aspirations. 

As a Kenyan young woman like any other with a University degree, hustling is the order of the day. They say gig jobs have revolutionized the work place, but have they? Job hopping is the order of the day in my motherland. From it, I thought why not start something of my own? Which led me to establishing Skills Maishani, a mentoring platform providing life skills training to teens and youths. With the parents' busy schedules, access to the internet and overwhelmed teachers, Skills Maishani aims at providing a safe space for teenagers and youths to share and learn how to be productive children and adults respectively. 

They say starting up anything in Kenya should be among the 1000 ways to die because it's harsh out here, for businesses and non profits alike. I'm only 6 months in and in that duration I have been character developed in more ways than one. Yikes 😬

A couple of Lessons learnt; 

√ Understand the legalities of your company or organization. Ignorance of the law is an offence and quite rightly so. Research, Interact, Ask questions, Seek alternative opinions and most of all, Read.

√ Be wary of cutting corners. Cheap is expensive in the long run. Get trusted professionals to do your logos and websites. 

√ Take a breather when content seems to be vanishing. Writer's block is real and that block can be for anything not just writing. Even a week away from social media can be revitalizing. 

√ Content Creation isn't a walk on the park. Digital marketing may seem easy but it isn't. Figure out who you wanna target first and their social lives around to get a glimpse of how to tailor your content.

√ Networking. They say no man is an island and so are companies and organizations. Collaboration builds trust and visibility.

I don't qualify to be a guru yet 🙂 but so far that's my founder's journey and what I've learnt.