Let us consider the following scenario. You’re an investor. You have some 5 million shillings that you want to invest somewhere. You are a Kenyan living in Kenya. Now, the last assumption is important because we all know what all your friends and family will tell you to do: buy a house, get paid rent monthly.

So let us say that you buy a 5 million house in Mlolongo. How much rent can you get for such a property? I would argue that you will get nothing more than KES 25,000/- per month for a house in Mlolongo that costs KES 5,000,000 to buy. Am I wrong? Contest that in the comments below.

So you’ll be getting 25000 x 12 = 300,000 a year. 300k per year is a 6% return on your investment. Nice eh? Nope. It is actually a shockingly bad return on investment.

Right now (the link leads to a PDF document) you can invest in a Kenya government bond which will give you about 12% returns per year. DOUBLE what you get from a rental real estate investment. This is crazy.

Government bonds are generally thought of as “risk free” investments because the government will always, always pay up. This may not be true everywhere in the world but you get what I mean, right? if an investor is a rational investor (i.e. not stupid) then they will never invest in anything if it returns less than the risk free government bond. Why would you take any risk anywhere if you have a guaranteed 0 risk investment as an option?

If you follow this train of thought then it means that any other good investment simply HAS TO yield a higher level of returns than the government rate. Why? Because it is higher risk. A house can burn down but the government can never “burn down”… see what I mean? Why would you invest in something higher risk, for less returns? It simply doesn’t make sense. Any right-thinking person would never ever do it.

And yet Kenyan “investors” do it all the time. Why is this? Are we crazy??

Small note
I know, I know, there exists governments out there (maybe even in here) that can and do default. But: 1) we’re assuming this is not the case and 2) if a government defaults then all the houses and other investments in that country also go up in smoke.

The post Are investors in Kenya crazy? first appeared on Like Chapaa.

I would like to share some experience about searching jobs online and some tips to help you find your ideal job.

1. The email you send to the company should be concise and to the point. You have to ably express your strengths and personality in brief without being verbose. You had better clarify the position you want to apply on the subject and give a brief introduction of yourself in the body text.

2. Get better your CV and make it unique for each job application. As you search for your job online, the first impression for the interviewer is your CV. The quality of the CV reflects your personal conduct and your attitude to the job. A perfect CV will leave a good impression on the employer. If you apply to many similar jobs in different companies, you need to adjust the content of your CV according to the match the company you are applying to.

3. Search for information on authority websites. It is always better to find the recruitment announcement in the official web page of the company. But if you do not have an ideal company to search, you can turn to some authority website that offer jobs or post free ads on such kind of platform so that the employers will look for your information and contact you.

4. You can establish your CV online. While sending out your cover letters, you can simply share a link for recruiters to visit your personal website to further attract their attention. The personal website should be well established with your personal information, CV, your study results, your work experience, etc.

5. Be careful of your personal information. The Internet is huge and there are some risks of revealing your personal information. Take precautions to protect your personal information.

I hope some of the advice will help you find a nice job and I wish you all the good luck in your career.

The post 5 Tips to Get a Job Online first appeared on Like Chapaa.

Here’s a case study on what works as far as Internet marketing is concerned.

“More and more the internet is becoming a primary marketing tool for many businesses, and those who have not yet taken the plunge are starting to get left behind. Most businesses accept the fact that without an online presence it’s hard to stay afloat, but with all the choices out there it’s easy to end up treading water, and instead of gaining more customers you can end up drowning in Tweets and Facebook posts that never seem to produce results.

To help those just getting their toes wet in the online ocean, we’ve put together a case study that shows you exactly what works and what doesn’t work when promoting your business online. The study below follows a start-up summer camp through their first year of business. The camp has four different camp specialties, each with it’s own website: Windsurfing, Photography, Climbing and Outdoor Adventure. The camp has a fifth website to act as a landing page. Over the course of 6 months they tried different marketing techniques, spending similar amounts of capital on each option.”

The best

1. Blogging
2. Online directories
3. Google Ads

The Worst

1. Spam email
2. LinkedIn
3. Deal Sites (Groupon, Rupu and co.)

Does this tally with your own experiences? What do you think?

Read the full Case Study

The post The Best Internet Marketing Techniques first appeared on Like Chapaa.

This is how Victor contacted Steve (unedited):

hello there.my names is Victor Gido from nairobi kenya and would like to ask i fyou people are intrested in any plays for the moment.i can assure you that you wont regret by doing so.please do reply with immediate effect.i will be looking forwad to hear from you.my email adress is xxxxxx@xxxxxx.com

After some back and forth, they agreed that Gido would write one to order for $50. In the words of Steve Gadlin, My gut told me that I was setting myself up to be the victim of a scam. But I was lured in by the possibility of producing the worst stage play, by the most unlikely playwright. Along with his $25 deposit, I sent Victor the following plot synopsis for his play:

A millionaire named Quack Quack Quimby has forgotten the true meaning of the Jewish holiday Tu Bishvat. His daughter goes to great lengths to remind him of its meaning, and make him happy once again….

The Nairobi Project begins with Gadlin at his laptop, trying to decide whether Gido’s email is legitimate, includes a video of cast auditions, and ends with a performance of Gido’s one-act play, The Price.

Victor Gido’s original work, The Price, was be performed VERBATIM, in its entirety, as part of this hilarious show based on a ridiculous plot by a writer with little to no command over the English language.

So, dear readers, what do you think of this? It seems that “success” is still only an email away!

The post The Nairobi Project first appeared on Like Chapaa.

So what is NationHela? According to them:

NationHela is a new, simpler and more convenient international money transfer service that allows you to receive money, from anywhere in the world, straight to your NationHela prepaid Visa card and mobile phone. A prepaid card is one in which you need to load money first in order to use and therefore keeps you in total control of what you spend. A prepaid card is different from a debit card or credit card in that it is not linked to your bank account nor can you spend money that you don’t have. Just like carrying cash in your pocket, you only spend what you have, but in a safer and more convenient way.

The NationHela card is available in Kenya at DTB branches, NationHela agents and at Nakumatt supermarkets. Individuals based in the diaspora will be able to log in here to send funds directly to a Kenyan NationHela account.

You can also top up your account in Kenya at any NationHela agent location or through M-PESA. All funds in your NationHela account are accessible through your NationHela prepaid VISA card or your mobile phone.

The most interesting thing about NationHela?

Simply log on to www.nationHela.com and send money home instantly from your Paypal account, Debit or Credit Card ( Inclusive of Visa, Mastercard and Amex).

Could this mean that one can finally easily withdraw from PayPal Kenya? Dear readers, has anyone of you tried this method to withdraw from PayPal?

Update: An interesting point of view by J. Nyagudi:

Think of it this way.

I’m a Kenyan and I want to withdraw through Paypal, so I take a trip
to London and open an account with XYZ bank in London, and have a visa
card attached to it. I then tell the bank that I will be using the
VISA card on international ATM’s POSs etc. I also open up (or update)
my Paypal account to confirm the bank for withdrawals and so on and so
on.

I then take the 8 hour flight back to Nairobi with visa card on hand.
From then whenever i want to withdraw i just “push” to my UK bank
account which i can withdraw from any visa ATM here in Kenya.

Now parter that bank with a bank here; so that it can issue visa cards
on behalf of the UK bank (long distance agency banking) (look closely
at the BIN of the card), DTB is here to make the CBKs here happy, and
as they always say, talk to a bank, if they are happy we are happy
since we regulate them.

and there you have it

The post NationHela? first appeared on Like Chapaa.

The objective is not to overcome these challenges overnight, but to work within them and make them work for you!

1. Identify a niche. In order for small business to thrive, it needs to create a product or provide a service that is both unique and relevant to the target community. Creatively thinking outside the box and developing complimentary yet separate services to those that already exist can boost not only your own profits, but those of an entire community!
2. Begin locally. Often, the best resources can be found at home. Identify partners who understand the needs and culture of the target community. Let them guide you through the proper channels to help minimize vulnerability and maximize opportunity. Consider forming a cooperative with local entrepreneurs who are willing to share not only the business and investment risk, but also the skills and rewards of a grassroots partnership!
3. Develop your brand. As a small business, you want to build recognition, trust, and loyalty around your product, sustaining its value long after its initial reception. This requires confidence and objectivity to step outside yourself and see your product or service as others perceive it. Only then can you commit to improving your brand with a recognizable logo, a catchy tagline, and an overall image that speaks well of its origin, of its grassroots.
4. Partner globally. Yours might be a business that started out as local, but if perchance to dream, why not go global? In this way, with proper and careful management, an entirely new market can open up. Products considered essential or custom in one country can take on new meaning in another, where a shrinking world view creates a consumer preference for ethnic goods from far flung places.
5. Go social. There is no better way to advertise a product then by word of mouth. In developing countries, reaching rural or underserved populations can still pose a challenge, but working within the local framework of community connectivity and tradition can open doors. And, with technology reaching new frontiers every day, going social not only means recommending a product to the neighbor next door, it also means bringing your product to a worldwide consumer base linked via online social networks and video sharing.

Launching a business in a developing country takes courage, foresight, creativity, and a plan that is flexible enough to allow for a little experimentation and risk. Without risk, we cannot reap the rewards!

Author Bio:
Paul and his wife Julie both spend quite a bit of time coming up with ideas, blogging, and researching all things related to childcare. They take care of all the necessary information related to “babysitting”. He personally thinks his blog will help finding information on all things related to a babysitter.

The post Niche Marketing in Developing Countries first appeared on Like Chapaa.

I feel the same way when I bump into a hotel website and would like to sample the services, but I can’t find any estimates. Instead, I find a phone number, and when I call it, I spend endless minutes (and airtime) being told everything but the cost of a room. I suppose the assumption is that if I could afford it, I wouldn’t need to ask.

When you’re working online, you may wonder about whether or not you should have your prices out in the open. Sage salespeople will tell you never to mention money until the buyer is hooked. Make sure your prospective client is so impressed that they will pay whatever price you quote.

I find that doesn’t really work on the web, because there’s so much scope and variety. Unless they like what they see, your client will be looking at your site for mere seconds. It seems unfair not to lay out your terms right from the start. That way, when a client gets in touch with you, you know you have a serious prospect.

The next challenge becomes what exactly you should charge. There’s no sure-fire way to do it. I once sat down to write a quotation for a client. I had a complex system of per-page billing based on word counts and time-shares that had me charging him 5,000/= for a high-end security website. After my complicated calculations, I decided 5K was too little, so I added a 1 before the 5 and sent off the invoice. The client never called back.

Wondering whether I had made a major gaffe, I called some friends who did similar work. They all felt 15,000/= for a website was massive undercharging, claiming that they billed their clients anything from 50,000/= to 200,000/=. I’m not sure what that prospective client ended up doing. He may have written the content himself, or got his high school nephew to do it.

For me, it was a lesson well learned. It’s not about how much or how little you charge – it’s about being transparent and consistent. When you have your rate card plainly listed on your website, your client knows exactly what he’s getting into. He might still think you’re overcharging him, but at least he won’t feel you hiked the price based on his outfit, office space, or mobile phone model.

I’ll tell you what someone told me about choosing your price range. Think of your ideal salary. Figure out how long it will take you to finish that task. Then divide your ideal salary by 22 to figure out how much you should earn in a day. Divide that figure by 8 to average your hourly earning. Then calculate the cost of the task based on how many hours (or minutes) it will take. Of course the downside of this method is that you have to finish the task within the set time, but at least you’ll be a lot more organised.

You could work it out the other way round, multiplying your ideal salary by 12 to get your annual figure, then dividing that by 40 to see how much you should earn in a week. Then you can base your rates on the volume of work you can get done in a week, assuming the task takes 7 days at the very least. But for math haters like myself, it sounds like an awful lot of work. A handy shortcut is to use an online rates guide like this one. You’ll still need some conversions, and it’s a tad generic, but it’s a good place to start.

Anyway, after months of procrastinating, I finally created a rates page on my website. I’ve used it to bill a few clients, but as clients often do, they think I’m overcharging. Meanwhile I’m tempted to review everything and add a 1 before every figure. Or maybe I could multiply the numbers by 5. Either way, I’ll let you know how that goes once the first client pays…

Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through threeceebee.com.

The post To Have or Not To Have a Rates Page first appeared on Like Chapaa.

1. The job requires a sign-up fee. No legitimate job will require its employees to pay for a position, and any that says they do is likely just after your money and will disappear once you’ve paid. No matter how good the offer sounds, if it requires a fee of any sort then it’s probably a scam. The employer is supposed to pay you; you aren’t supposed to pay the employer.
2. There are misspellings in the ad. One way to spot scammers is frequent punctuation errors and word misspellings. This is because their postings are usually generated by a bot somewhere. Any respectable employer will take the time to post a well-written ad that has been proof-read ahead of time and is free from errors. And even if it isn’t a scam, do you really want to work for someone that doesn’t care enough to double check their ad posting for errors? Probably not.
3. A quick internet search turns up the company’s name + the word scam. You should research any company you’re applying for ahead of time, and a quick internet search can usually tell you if it’s worth your time or not. If the search engine results generate the company’s name with any ties to being a scam it’s probably an ad that you want to skip responding to.
4. The ad promises extreme profits in the first week. Anything guaranteeing that you’re going to make hundreds of thousands of dollars right off the bat is more than likely hoping to rope you in with the lure of quick riches and then scam you once you’ve taken the bait. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
5. Red flag words. According to privacyrights.org, there are specific words that typically show up in job listings on Monster that denote a job scam. These words are generally “package-forwarding”, “money transfers”, “wiring funds”, “eBay”, “PayPal”, and “Foreign Agent Agreement”. If any of these words turns up in the ad listing it’s time for you to move onto the next.

Don’t let the desire to find a new job cloud your vision when it comes to job scams. These warning signs are all indicative that the ad you’re reading and applying for is probably not there to provide you with an actual job, and is really just there to get your money or your identity.

About the Author:
This guest post is contributed by Debra Johnson, blogger and editor of nanny housekeeper. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: – jdebra84 @ gmail.com.

The post How to Avoid Online Job Scams first appeared on Like Chapaa.

It started when I was on Google Reader this morning. I bumped into this article explaining how I could start a mutual fund for as little as 1,000/=. I spent the next few hours browsing the Old Mutual site, and a while longer trying to figure out the system.

Here’s how it works. The minimum amount you can invest for a mutual fund is 50,000/=. But Old Mutual has introduced a new service called i-Invest, where you can open a mutual fund with 4,800/=. The best part is you can do it all right on your mobile phone! All you have to do is dial *480# and follow the instructions. The process takes all of two minutes to complete.

Given my issues with technology, signing up was not as simple as it should have been. I spent an hour trying to input my details, but I kept getting an error message. I tweeted Old Mutual for help, and they gave me a number to call. They also offered to call me back, which I thought was really nice of them.

After spending half an hour on the phone getting free financial advice from Isaac, I spent another hour trying to sign up. As it turns out, my mistake had nothing to do with technology. The reason I kept getting error messages is that according to the system, I was spelling my own name wrong. Apparently, it doesn’t recognize apostrophes.

Once I corrected the ‘typo’ it took me less than ten minutes to get everything done. I emailed a scanned copy of my ID to Old Mutual and am now the proud owner of my very own mutual fund, so yay! I’m sure that’s not financially accurate, but the point is I now have a portion of Old Mutual and an opportunity to sit back and let my money work for me.

The beauty of this account is I can do everything online, or rather, on my mobile phone. I can check my balance, withdraw, invest, and top-up my account whenever and wherever there’s battery power and Safaricom network.

Okay, here are the facts. For today only, you can open your account with 1,000/=. After that, you need a minimum of 4,800/= to get started. Once your account is open, you can top-up as little as 480/=. There are no requirements for monthly payments or anything like that, you just top up when you can. Dial *480# anytime to check your balance and monitor the progress of your account.

The day is almost over, so if you have a K lying around and have ever considered owning units in a mutual fund, all you have to do is dial *480#! For further details, call 0711010000 or check out the Old Mutual website.

Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.

The post Invest for 1,000! first appeared on Like Chapaa.

Internet usage growth rate

Have a look at the graph above. Go ahead, you can click on it to make it bigger. As you can see, the internet usage rate in Kenya is growing rapidly, especially when compared to other countries which are slowing down. In those countries, the internet is already mainstream meaning that a lot of people make money online. However it also means that it is much harder to make money online because there is a lot of competition. Compare this to Kenya and you realise that while at the moment you may not be able to make much money online, it is much easier to launch something and have it do well in Kenya. But this will not last forever.

I think that now is the time for aspiring internet entrepreneurs to attack and completely own internet business niches. It may take a while before you get super-impressive results but if you invest in online business now and take root, you will be reaping huge rewards as more and more people and businesses get online in Kenya.

So what are the best niches to invest in? Going by what works in other places the following, in my opinion, are some of the most lucrative areas to invest in:

e-Commerce
Online shopping in Kenya is nothing to write home about at the moment. But as the number of people who are online grows, it will definitely become very lucrative. Just as Amazon.com grew from nothing to one of the largest and most powerful businesses, you can grow a small little online shop to massive proportions and potentially millions in the bank.

Food
Food, recipes and cooking tips are traditionally very popular. This is a saturated market in more developed countries but is quite accessible locally. You should get creative but the basic idea would some website that provides tips on cooking and recipes from around Kenya and possibly the world.

Making Money (or Saving Money)
I think it would be safe to say that literally everyone has an interest in how to make more money, save more money or reduce their expenses. Why not position yourself to cater to this need? There are so many different ways to approach this. Some are:

• Insurance
• Entrepreneurship
• Loans
• Investments
• Personal finance

Self Help
Almost everyone has some thing that they want to improve about themselves. In fact, in developed countries, there are countless online “gurus” providing information and guidance on things as diverse as healthy living, career advice, money management, relationships, etc. Your job would be to motivate and instruct others on how to improve their lives in a certain way.

The “Supernatural”
Believe it or not, this is big online. I’m thinking that as big as it is in other countries, it could be even bigger locally. I put the word supernatural in quotes because it can cover many different things from horroscopes to planets aligning with your birth date to psychic readings and even witchcraft/wizardry.

Like me, you may not believe in this stuff but lots of people do and an opportunity exists for you to fill their need. As usual, do not do anything illegal.

-/-

So there you have it. We are at a point in time where you can take root in an industry early and absolutely dominate it as it grows. I am sure a lot of smart people are already diving in and establishing themselves. What are you waiting for?

If I missed any important opportunities, don’t worry. My list is not conclusive.

The post A Time To Sow first appeared on Like Chapaa.