We get many referrals. It is all fun until we meet the “terrorists”. Yikes. We get these guys whose idea of joy is as cheap as possible almost nothing. I go all the way to the airport for the first meeting, and even after wearing a red dress, still came out with a very bad deal. Should have noted from the first interaction, this may not go down well. But still took it. So as usual we are not going to compromise on how we do it, we went all out. So they were full of praises, a lot of them. This time though couldn't afford Yusuf, so we do it self, very proud to have pulled it off. Weh .   Only, now, not only are we sleeping at midnight, waking up at 3:00, but equally also stuck at airport the whole day for 200 Bob a plate. It is driving us crazy, because equally we have the crazy customer as well who has shifting goal posts. So the Lord gives us self control to practice loving our neighbors. We endure all. But we realize we are getting tired. So we partner to make...

So, we have a deal. Me and my partner now on mission catering. It makes such a difference when you have a partner in first times. At that moment you Unalone .. Anyhow, we get up at 4:00 in the am. Dressed in white and black. He he he , like in the movies. Yusuf is at house by 6:00. First, slept at midnight on a mission to impress em , baking cakes, wiping our stuff, arranging . And now couldn’t even sleep too well thinking about the day. Our hearts beating, can we really do this? But there is a first time to everything. So we start to prepare and before we know it, we are done, we have everything. Carrying amazing breakfast in our car. Rushing to be on time. And the voila, we reach destination, and   our hearts are settled for a minute. Laying the table and decorating the space, so that it looks amazing. It really feels great. We start to wonder why haven’t we done this all our life. Everybody comes out and they have this breakfast, they are smiling. Meanwhile, we are...

Esther Neema: Founder Dream Tribe. Having rushed, not even a minute to reflect on the path and the journey ahead. Dived straight in and was now face with the reality of a lesson, he he he. It is funny that now I was not operating from a space of over-confidence. Now, at this point you are a little bit more humble. More humble than necessary. This is perhaps not the right time for humility, you are supposed to be feeling bigger than life. Whilst the first round you were shouting and making noise, this time you are holding back. You are thinking perhaps this is time I should take time off social media and deactivate account. Sales and Marketing takes a lot out of person. When you are selling, sigh, it is like giving the entire of you. Yaani unajimwaya mwaya. Weh, my fren. So now you have to gather self from the ground. And start planning for the next event. So you start to design thy posters and come up with this brilliant ideas. COOKING WITH YOUSUF. Now you are back to the gri...

IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU, IT IS ABOUT  THEM  # DemystifyingEntrepreneurship When the curtains close,and you have had a great event, you will either be faced with profits or lessons. You now become philosophical, reflect upon life. You can reflect on Mahatma Ghandhi's words now  :D  . Esther Neema After two weeks of shouting about this one thing, and now there is nothing to shout about. You are faced with the results of what you did, how you did it. Somewhat excited, sometimes not. Looking at this very colorful event, and you are thinking, WE DID IT EH!!! But what did I learn from it. From when the music stopped, and it struck mid-night and no-body was dancing, I think I galloped my bitter lemon for the first time. Even though people seemed to have had their moment and danced immediately after the songs that were like poems were over. The event was a success and great, even when it had not been exactly as I dreamed it to be. My vision...

Nicole Mumbi and Esther Neema at the Launch of Belle Enterprise Events So now, I have Belle Enterprise Themed Events. Launched it in a colorful white party. Feeling over confident over this brilliance to create fun themed event. My first event was, Dance your mate. Weh, first of all that name?! Sigh. I imagine couples will be dancing first thing at midnight. Walked to quins, and said, yo, I will be bringing 30 couples for valentines, and they will be buying drinks from you but will provide food. Barter. Turns out, barter is BAE before you can afford extra costs.  They agree. I design my posters by self and we are on. Again, I call everybody. Excited. I go all over social media, and there is such hype to deliver in two weeks. I am doing all this alone, until June joined me  . Bless her. She brought life. She brought a chef, and became the chief marketer. Now on the day, we are extremely nervous. We had like about 10 couples. Yet we had prepared food for...

Unlike in the past where starting a Business was a matter of life and death. It would take you months to have a basic name. Today, you can register your business & have your Business name in less than two working days. Through the Online business name search, it is easier to start a business, at the comfort of your office or home. To start a business:  you need the name of the business for a search, nature and the activities of the business, names of all the proprietors in full with IDs or passport and PIN certificate, the postal address  (physical address, including the plot number, adjacent road, town, and county. Go to: www.ecitizen.go.ke   and follow the following steps. Click on business registration or business name search. A name search letter and Ksh . 150 invoice will be created.  Later you will pay for the name at about Ksh .800. name is enough start you off. And you are ready to launch yourself a party, for you have already started th...

Henry David said, “ If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. ” Esther Neema: Founder Dream Tribe Perhaps you are hearing Lingala beats, and you are here forced to dance to Jazz. First, you won ’ t dance well, you won ’ t even enjoy it and perhaps sometimes you may not even like yourself much. So perhaps, taking every chance to cause Mayhem to the universe, fighting over coffee. Groups can bog you down in to the madness we are all the same. It feels normal to kinda walk slowly even when sometimes y á ll going nowhere. “ Confusing optimism for achievement. Hope for success. ” In culture that would rather we echo our how we feel, as twins.   However , Sometimes to finish your own race, you must find you. Getting to the first hill, some stepped back. They had finished their race. Some the second. Some of us the third. Some went the 7 long ...

Empire Content Network I always found it hard to be in a choir, for I always wanted to sing the loudest. I found it hard to be an extra, because surely, I wondered why am I not the star, please. So I have been in and out of groups, seeking my spotlight. Hence, entrepreneurship, he he he, you get to declare self whatever you want.   You can sing off key and be the lead singer. But it wasn’t until 2017 did I meet my first real break. To be part of creating something amazing.   I would sit down on a chair extremely humble. Unbelieving of the beauty of people to come together. For the first time surrendering my personal good for our good , at the expense of my shine. To watch people come in full from all parts of the country devoted to create. Pull their resources, make time, dress up , show up for a vision bigger than our pockets . To create something timeless many years to come, that not money can pay. A labor of love. An ultimate m miracle in the form of peop...

DEMYSTIFYING EFFORT #7 Esther Neema: Founder Dream Tribe Each of us has a semi-part, that is fully introvert. The one that can be overly needing of excessive self-time, would prefer to be out there reflecting upon philosophical thoughts, drinking juice modestly as we think of Mahatma Ghandhi. That sometimes would rather not suffice out of our shell. It gives usno pressure to reach out to no body. You could just wait somewhere, wa iting to be greeted. People to cheer you up and excite you, while sitting pretty, like president Kingston. Rolling your eyes when people are not interesting enough. We all have such moments. Until when you get to trade, where, relationships and people are everything. It is you who makes cold calls, gets blue-tickedoften. Lliterally making most first moves. The worst when I walked straight to random four women discussing, ambushed them with greetings, trying to be cool. I had nothing to say, ehh. Until one by one started leaving me wondering, eeeerm, w...

Esther Neema: Founder Dream Tribe I had sworn to never get on to a horse, until the day I purposed to overcome my fears. This may not include activities such as Bungee jumping which I perceive as madness. So right infront of me was a horse. The only image I had was how I would be tossed in the air, and would not know how I would have to tell everybody, that this was brought about by my attempt to horse ride.  My image of being thrown on the air had been stronger than my desire to conquer it. But on this day, I did get on the horse, I rode for a while, though screaming, but was not thrown in the air. Infact I had the highest level of feeling of accomplishment on that day. It was amazing. Business and entrepreneurship is the same for many people. Before people came to terms with the idea that it was a possibility, everyone was afraid that you could sink. The struggle to success never seemed worth it to anybody. Such as if I came out having been tossed in the air, per...

The Empire Content Network  Did you also imagine that the power to be anything was outside of you? And that you were sort of helpless, and stuck in a dead-beat society, with everyone dragging everyone to some poverty. That makes the most of us. Until one day I heard, there comes a certain age, where any adult reaches and has stop blaming they parents for anything. Sited there at YALI, I would hear the most profound speech. About the potential of a human being, if only they would stretch themselves . That if he/she did, would astound themselves at how much they are capable of. That even they could be stars in a minute if they wished for it. THE POWER ONE. I would be awakened to my own power. That never again shall I allow anyone to call me Common Mwananchi.   There is nothing particularly common about self  . Kila mtu na mzigo wake. When the bible says, my people perish for lack of knowledge, it is true eh. Very powerful people, yo ung, resourceful, talen...

Esther Neema:- Founder Dream Tribe There was a time, I was terrified to make official calls. And I remember in my first job, on the first day, I was given a list of calls to make. In an open office space, everyone can see you, and hear you stammer, you feel like you could just fall. Fear had already started to creep in, and the world looked so huge before my eyes eh, but it was only a matter of time before I could step on it. For everything I ever wished for was on the other side of it. On th e other side of fear are great possibilities. For many of us, our fears have stopped us from everything beautiful and we stood there in a paralysis imagining satanis waiting for us to start, and all hell breaks loose once we move. Afraid to even try. So we get stuck on the known, and the daily existence of just soaking in life as it is, wondering what life can possibly be. Sometimes afraid of even our fellow humans, who truly had nothing on us. And in the end, we have compromised no...

Esther Neema: Founder Dream Tribe I would begin to see trade as something so noble. Only, shortly I would learn the perceptions towards it. Saying you are an entrepreneur, you get the feeling that you have probably been categorized as Al-shaabab or practicing some cult. The illusion that you may be posing like a model having a good time. Or outchea pulling a Wilkings :D, he he he. Half the time you are feeling ultimately crazy for an idea that sometimes doesn’t even make sense to even you. That you have to chant you are amazing on the daily to maintain sanity, before anything particularly shows for why you are gallivanting the universe. And you may wonder, why would anybody want to feel like this eh??? Far from the truth though, something is happening in your heart, your body and soul. You are probably working round the clock for something you feel strongly about, that sometimes wakes you at 3:00 in the am, because you can’t imagine never having given your dreams a chance. S...

Esther Neema, Founder Dream Tribe Leaving school, it never occurred to me that there was a world of entrepreneurship. Having studied PR, the government spokesman, Alfred Mutua, then was my role model. He he he, I know that is a bit funny now. I could see myself in that space, strutting the world as one, perhaps in red high heels, red lipstick and perhaps even a red dress. Well, this vision was until I got my first PR job, and I was bored to death in the afternoons literally having to lift my feet in the air daily not to dose, reaching work just before the 9:00 am, rushing in wearing my heels at the gate since it was a rule. And I remember being so unsettled, and thinking, yo, this can't be it!!! So the moment I was called for a play, I could never have been happier. The stage was my escape from all my "torture". Every evening, I would go without fail. You feel so elated and so alive. Before long, I was out of PR for stage, and every one thought I was mad. An...