Mr Irvine Ndwiga during the interview. “A family of entrepreneurs
sometimes is an added advantage in business.” Photo/Diana Ngila
By SIMON CIURI, sciuri@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Irvine Ndwiga abandoned studies at Australian university to start online tour and travel guide covering East Africa
When Irvine Ndwiga’s idea for a business in tourism assailed him, he dropped out of Curtis University in Australia having done two and a half years as an Electrical and Computer Engineering student.
That is how he launched Safari Desk, an online tour and travel guide in October 2011. The firm provides guidelines and destinations to international tourists visiting East Africa.
“We digitise huge chunks of the East African travel industry, making it easier and cheaper for travellers to find amazing deals from travel providers,’’ says Mr Ndwiga, 25
.
“Sitting with successful business people gave me insight on untapped potential in online tourism, I saw lost opportunities I could have capitalised on a long time ago’’ Mr Ndwiga told the Business Daily last week.
He used savings he had accumulated while working as a bartender in Australia during his studies and parental support to register the firm.
“This is where most of my savings came from. I could juggle between academics and part-time jobs,’’ he said.
“My aim was to set up a business that I would enjoy doing. I wanted a self-drive enterprise based on technology applications.”
Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, he got the backing of parents who “supported the idea and through their contribution I kicked off with Sh2 million.’’ said Mr Ndwiga, 25.
The father advised him on the do’s and dont’s of starting a business, giving him the much-needed energy to start the walk.
“Coming from a family of entrepreneurs sometimes is an added advantage when either starting or running a business,’’ he admits.
Last December, Financial Times quoted a study in Sweden by Mirjam Van Praag of Amsterdam School of Economics that reported that having entrepreneur parents increased the possibility of the offspring setting up a business by 60 per cent.
In 2012 he returned to Nairobi, a location, he says, he understood better. This could translate into more opportunities, he convinced himself.
“I had made good contacts before leaving Australia and reaching Kenya I started looking for opportunities with hotel services providers in East Africa for a commission,’’ remembers Mr Ndwiga.
He came face to face with “inevitable” competition, meeting bigger sharks that gave a rough ride.
“Competition was so stiff and still it is. We worked on partnerships based on commission and it worked for us.’’
Within six months, Safari Desk had made inroads, bagging more than 60 partnerships that put the business on the road to expansion and growth.
“It was a good start after three months of dry business that came with hard lessons. We mostly relied on referrals and established players for endorsement.’’
‘’Growing an online travel start-up is very capital-intensive. There is a growing pool of capital sources out there, the challenge is in finding partners who share your vision and are in it for the long haul,’’ noted Mr Ndwiga.
Learning on the job as a first time founder straight out of university was another challenge.
Decision makers
‘’ I did not have a war-chest of experience in the industry. Every day was and still is a learning experience and unfortunately, the best way to learn some things in business is to be willing to fail at them enthusiastically,’’ Mr Ndwiga says smiling, perhaps to confirm that the climb was not for the faint-hearted.
He went through highs and lows, meeting many people, including decision makers to get what clients want.
He singles out technology and the Internet as one of the key elements that Kenya can boast of since it has made research easier and created more business opportunities.
‘’Today, there are a lot of materials you can find online. Most of our clients we have got through online contacts and making proposals and quotations that positively impacted on our business,’’ says Mr Ndwiga.
Faced with financial challenges to expand, Safari Desk last year approached Savannah Fund to finance their projects. The latter is a seed capital fund specialising in $25, 000-$500, 000 investments in early stages of growth in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We were offered $25,000 and this has played a key role in terms of marketing and stimulating most of our projects. ’’
The entrepreneur has also incorporated a partner at Safari Desk to boost marketing in the business and have an international look.
‘‘Paul Hunkin is one of the partners at Safari Desk and I have additional four shareholders in the company,’’ said Mr Ndwiga.
Safari Desk is working with more than 160 hotel service providers and is hoping to increase the number by another 100 by August this year.
We could not end the interview without talking about the threat of terrorism and how sensitive national and personal security is to travel, he volunteers.
‘’ I did not have a war-chest of experience in the industry. Every day was and still is a learning experience and unfortunately, the best way to learn some things in business is to be willing to fail at them enthusiastically,’’ Mr Ndwiga says smiling, perhaps to confirm that the climb was not for the faint-hearted.
He went through highs and lows, meeting many people, including decision makers to get what clients want.
He singles out technology and the Internet as one of the key elements that Kenya can boast of since it has made research easier and created more business opportunities.
‘’Today, there are a lot of materials you can find online. Most of our clients we have got through online contacts and making proposals and quotations that positively impacted on our business,’’ says Mr Ndwiga.
Faced with financial challenges to expand, Safari Desk last year approached Savannah Fund to finance their projects. The latter is a seed capital fund specialising in $25, 000-$500, 000 investments in early stages of growth in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We were offered $25,000 and this has played a key role in terms of marketing and stimulating most of our projects. ’’
The entrepreneur has also incorporated a partner at Safari Desk to boost marketing in the business and have an international look.
‘‘Paul Hunkin is one of the partners at Safari Desk and I have additional four shareholders in the company,’’ said Mr Ndwiga.
Safari Desk is working with more than 160 hotel service providers and is hoping to increase the number by another 100 by August this year.
We could not end the interview without talking about the threat of terrorism and how sensitive national and personal security is to travel, he volunteers.
World perception
He singles out last year as a bad period when local tourism was badly hit by the Westgate Shopping Mall terrorist attack that claimed more than 69 lives and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) fire tragedy.
‘‘Kenyan tourism mainly depends on the world perception and when a tragedy strikes, it badly affects all the players involved,’’ says the businessman, who did wish to reveal his business numbers in terms of profit and sales.
‘‘I am not in a position to give the names of any influential travellers we have dealt with due to privacy. If we had to single out, I would say Game Watchers Safaris and SawaSawa Africa have been great.’’
Safari Desk has 10 staff.
As is characteristic of many entrepreneurs, he shared lessons he has learnt in the rough and tumble of a sector that is so sensitive.
“Have passion for what you want to do and learn to have patience. There is no short-cut to success, you have to work and do things differently.’’
Trust, quality service and adapting to change also made list of lessons learnt in the three years he has been in business.
He singles out last year as a bad period when local tourism was badly hit by the Westgate Shopping Mall terrorist attack that claimed more than 69 lives and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) fire tragedy.
‘‘Kenyan tourism mainly depends on the world perception and when a tragedy strikes, it badly affects all the players involved,’’ says the businessman, who did wish to reveal his business numbers in terms of profit and sales.
‘‘I am not in a position to give the names of any influential travellers we have dealt with due to privacy. If we had to single out, I would say Game Watchers Safaris and SawaSawa Africa have been great.’’
Safari Desk has 10 staff.
As is characteristic of many entrepreneurs, he shared lessons he has learnt in the rough and tumble of a sector that is so sensitive.
“Have passion for what you want to do and learn to have patience. There is no short-cut to success, you have to work and do things differently.’’
Trust, quality service and adapting to change also made list of lessons learnt in the three years he has been in business.
No comments:
Post a Comment