Are you a young entrepreneur? Is your target market online? Are you unsure as to answer both questions or just one? Everyone is hustling. The people hustling are not all unemployed. In fact the reality is, most of the hustles you see around you are owned by young people in employment but who don’t want to feel tied.
The older generation is complaining that generation Y lacks something golden, patience. They are probably right but it is also true that the initiative currently being witnessed is a reaction to a need and not something which they were prepared for.
Young people usually is thought to apply to 20 year olds (in politics this applies to 40-year olds). It is interesting to note that 30-year olds trying out their hand in business are not going for anything complicated or predictable. They all run tent-hiring companies for events, catering for offices, MPESA kiosks among others. As somebody asked, ‘who will start making the sweets that kids buy in shops then?’
Innovation is a word thrown around in board rooms, when it should be part of a culture. How is the CEO using technology to run his maize farm in Trans Nzoia? It is not enough to launch a mobile app for money transfers and yet you could sell your groceries online.
Most analysts of the Kenyan entrepreneur have one complaint. He thinks like many of the people he lives with. No one works on differentiating a product or service. Two owners of hardware shops will have exactly the same thing. Common sense dictates that other than different names, there could be slight variation on products.
The need to expand the thought-process behind hustles is great. The question is; who wants to go first?’