Financial Informants

06/08/2019

The MbeleNaBiz business plan competition (MbeleNaBiz) is an initiative of the Government of Kenya that aims to expand new and existing youth-led enterprises by providing them with grant funding and/or business plan training.

02/07/2019

Want to learn how to build a customer driven business model and scale your enterprise faster than your competition?

Register through the link below and join our class in Kenya:

http://factory24.org/course/entrepreneurship/

28/06/2019

Essential Compliance Training for SME’s & Start Ups in Kenya

Avoid unnecessary penalties and costs by learning basic compliance aspects for your SME or startup..

Legal experts at Capita Registrars in partnership with financial advisors from Fie-Consult got you covered

Venue: Pride Inn Hotel, Westlands Road
Dates: Friday, July 12, 2019.

20/06/2019

Are you determined to build a start-up and need practical skills to build a sustainable business model and accelerate your growth?

Fie_Labs in collaboration with Afrolynk in Germany offers you a complete online entrepreneurship course where you learn at your own pace.

Sign-up via the link below and start learning and applying what you learn each week for 12 weeks..

The Entrepreneurship Development training is aimed at creating a conducive environment for young entrepreneurs to access relevant entrepreneurship skills, knowledge, …

03/05/2019

Fie_Labs Agri-Accelerator still accepting applications...apply and join the change makers deploying sustainable food systems to feed the future!

To combat food insecurity and contribute to development of sustainable food systems to feed the future: Fie-Labs Agri-Accelerator Programme 2019 (FAAP 2019) seeks to identify, incubate, showcase, invest in and scale early (seed) stage start-ups in agribusiness; which have business models that are vi...

26/04/2019

Apply today and stand a chance to join Fie-Labs Agri-Accelerator Programme 2019 (FAAP 2019)!

To combat food insecurity and contribute to development of sustainable food systems to feed the future: FAAP 2019 seeks to identify, incubate, showcase, invest in and scale early (seed) stage start-ups in agribusiness; which have business models that are viable, sustainable, scalable and have huge social-economic impact within their communities.

To combat food insecurity and contribute to development of sustainable food systems to feed the future: Fie-Labs Agri-Accelerator Programme 2019 (FAAP 2019) seeks to identify, incubate, showcase, invest in and scale early (seed) stage start-ups in agribusiness; which have business models that are vi...

05/04/2019

Pillar 1: IDENTIFY

We scout for & screen innovators, entrepreneurs & next-gen change makers from the grassroots through diversified outreach programmes

http://fielabs.com/index.html

28/02/2019

19/09/2018

Are you an SME interested in measuring your pulse rate in comparison with your peers in the market as well as backing your decision making on reliable economic data?

If you do, please fill in the survey below and let's give you valuable insights for business decision making..

The year 2018 has brought with it many blessings and challenges. Wylde, Fie Consult and Credit Bank are taking time to find out from SMEs how they are doing so far. The data we collect goes a long way to inform our interventions in the space and influence government policy. Your response is kept in....

18/09/2018

Price Setting And The Implication to Your Revenues

Price Setting And The Implication to Your Revenues

We covered the qualitative aspect of revenues yesterday; and today we will delve into the quantitative aspect of it.

To generate more revenues over time, your prices must be what your customers are willing and able to pay.

In economics, we say that forces of demand and supply determine what we refer to as an equilibrium price i.e the middle ground where you the supplier and your customer arrive at after each compromising on their preferred prices.

Ideally, the customer wants the lowest price while you want to sell at the highest price possible so as to increase your profit margins (we shall deal with key business ratios each entrepreneur must have on their finger tips soon).

But sometime there are more customers than the available supply in the market (this can be as a result of intentional hoarding which is unethical, inefficiencies in the value chain such as poor infrastructure which breaks linkages to markets or it could be as a result of genuine low production or low supply of service providers); hence you can increase your prices and still sell all your stock or be fully booked for your services.

In other times, the market is flooded with supply and there are fewer buyers; and at such times you want to dispose what you have at whatever price since the customer has a higher bargaining power.

From the foregoing, its obvious you are most likely not a monopoly to set your own prices, hence a lot of other players in your market are affecting your price setting processes. In economics, we say you are operating in a perfect competition market system (ideally but not realistically due to informational asymmetry on the side of the consumer - topic for another day).

Long story short, you are in a market system with many players and how they set their prices affects how you set your prices too. The ability and willingness of your customers to pay count as well; hence complicating the process further.

But it does not always have to be complicated; if your value proposition is compelling enough and you are within your customer wallet range, you can always be rewarded for offering a premium solution!

... ... [email protected]

13/09/2018

This Animal Called Revenues! (Continued...)

This Animal Called Revenues! (Continued...)

Why do some businesses generate more revenues than others? Why do some businesses die after operating for a short period of time?

The devil is in the details as they say.

Your revenues don't just come, they are payments for your solutions to problems or needs that your target customers have. Which takes us back to the "Customer is King" cliche. But like we agreed sometime back on this series, customer is not really the king, customer segmentation is!

For your business to maximize its revenues generation capability, the secret is in getting the right solution for your customers; and at the price they are willing and able to pay.

Getting the right solution is not enough though. The solution has to be compelling enough to the customer, to make them prefer buying from you and not from your competition; as well as refer more customers to you. This points us back to the value proposition question that we addressed sometime back too.

We agreed that you only develop a stronger value proposition than your competitors if you are able to meet your customers' needs or solve their problems in a very specific way that leaves them with a unique experience compared to what your competitors are offering.

Drilling further down, to provide the best solution to your customers' needs or problems, you must have understood what their pain or pleasure points are in a very specific way. And for you to have this granular understanding of your customers, you need to have done thorough market research by engaging your customers regularly (we covered this too).

Effective market research is on the hand focused on particular customers in order to get a real understanding of their needs or problems from a psychological point of view. To do this kind of market research, customer segmentation is key so that you narrow down your focus on one particular homogeneous customer segment and explore it exhaustively!

What we are saying is, businesses that generate more revenues than their competitors have mastered the fundamental rule of Customer Segmentation.

They have further applied it in developing strong value propositions to each of their customer segments; and hence are able to sell more of their solutions to each customer segment, get more referrals from their current and past customers as well as retain their loyal customers longer. To grow your revenues, start by segmenting your customer base!

... ... [email protected]

11/09/2018

This Animal Called Revenues!

This Animal Called Revenues!

Just how do businesses make money? Of course it's by generating revenues :) Some people call this the "top line" (why they call revenues the top line is a topic for another day).

And how do businesses generate revenues? Now this will require a bit more explanation. The obvious answer is that businesses generate revenues by selling a product or service to their target customers. However, there is more to this simplified answer.

Why do some businesses generate more revenues than others? Why do some businesses die after operating for a short period of time?

Mathematically speaking, Revenues = Volume x Price. Where the volume is the number of customers you have multiplied by how much of your product or service they are buying; and Price is the amount of money your target customers are willing and able to pay for one unit of your product or service.

But the above equation is rather obvious; right? Wrong! The devil like they say lies in the details.

The reason why some businesses make more money than others is in the details of how they generate their revenues. The reason why other businesses die after a short period of operation is also in the details of how they generate their revenues. (We shall explore this more tomorrow)

For today, keep in mind that revenues can never get too much to kill a business!

... ... [email protected]