By JOAN BARSULAI
At only 21 years, when most people merely think about good grades, Beatrice Ndungu had already started her own online marketing company. By 22, she had bought her first car and, now at 24, Beatrice has carved a niche for herself as the CEO of a successful and wide-reaching marketing company— Global Essence. Not only is her company serving local clientele, but it is also reaching the East, Central and Southern Africa, as well as the Diaspora.
Life has however not always been rosy for Beatrice. She had to drop out of college, at Nairobi Institute of Business Studies, in 2007 after her father retired from his job at the UN and had no money to continue paying her school fees.
Even so, Beatrice has always had a kin interest in the media, and while at home, she wrote several articles, and from this she birthed the concept of an online magazine.
Within two weeks, she had the concept ready and she presented it to her pleasantly surprised parents, who thought she should definitely take it further.
She was cash strapped, so her father decided to contact a friend of his in Belgium, who agreed to sponsor the magazine, after he saw the impressive designs.
Help from Odinga
That same year, Beatrice launched the online magazine globalessence.net. The publication has now got as many as 100,000 hits monthly. But she was not satisfied with the results, so she reworked the magazine and gave it a much better outlook.
Beatrice with her parents, Mr and Mrs Isaac and Jacinta Ndung’u at their home in Buruburu. [PHOTOS: COURTESY] |
After unsuccessfully asking around for funds, she decided to take a bold step — she got the number of Fidel Odinga, Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s son, from a friend, and decided to call him.
Says Beatrice: "I had never met him before, and I was very afraid of what the outcome would be, but I was desperate and I had no other options." She called him and introduced herself, and explained what she was doing. He was so astounded by her initiative and ambition, given her age, that he wrote her a cheque, which she used to buy computers and rent office space. With funds at hand, she now started marketing her business fully.
Undeterred, she attended several social functions, where she handed out her business cards to VIPs.
One client that she was eyeing, PLO Lumumba, was impressed by her determination and focus, being such a young girl, and he even offered her a job, which she had to turn down because she was trying to get her own business off the ground.
Today, Global Essence has expanded to include a creative department, an online magazine as well as production department, which runs its media unit, R&B, tasked with creating ads for various companies. The advertisements have been so successful, that Beatrice confesses to being overwhelmed.
Her ever-expanding company has created several employment opportunities for people countrywide, including freelance writers, and managers who are running the R&B media department.
She feels so lucky that she encourages the youth everywhere to email her their success stories, which publishes on her online magazine often.
"Many people think that women cannot get far. But doors are open for you; all you need to do is take the initiative. Be determined and ambitious; know what you want and do not apologise for it. Everyone can do something — the difference is that some people take the initiative and others don’t," she says.
Beatrice’s life has never been the same, since making it big. She is now a role model for so many girls, who come to her for advice on everything. She enjoys mentoring young people in business.
youth ambassador
She explains: "I always just walk up to young people who seem to have lost their way, especially the ones who idle around in the estate and abuse drugs, and I speak to them. I cannot let someone waste away — not on my watch, and not if I can do something about it."
This year, Beatrice was awarded the Kenya Youth Ambassador by a group of Kenyans living in the Diaspora. The group named All Eyes on Africa: Dare to Dream, which is nurturing young people, decided that Beatrice deserved the title, after hearing about all her achievements at such a tender age.
She says she has also achieved international success; she was recently interviewed on a US radio station, Blogtalk Radio, along with Martin Luther King Jr, where she spoke about her business venture and the potential of African youth. The station appointed her their youth ambassador in Kenya.
That is not the only accolade under Beatrice’s belt. She was also declared the best speaker by the Rotary Club, Kenya, after giving a speech at the Rotary Club in Hurlingham. In that speech she shared her experiences as an entrepreneur and her future plans for the youth. She has also been profiled in several websites based in the US, as well as in local radio and television stations.
And the hits keep coming. She was recently hired by Royal Media Services to run all creative works for Citizen Television. In an informal survey on Facebook, Beatrice was named the 6th top media socialite in the country.
She attributes her great success to her family, without which she says she would never have been who she is today.
The second born in a family of three children, her financial success couldn’t have come at a better time — her father has recently retired and she is now the breadwinner of her family. Her older sister, Caroline Roza, who lives in the UK, is the Global Essence marketing manager abroad.
Beatrice is also is thankful for her creative streak, which she says she relies on in her day-to-day work.
"I am a creative — I work quickly and have a wealth of ideas to choose from," says the prodigy.
When not busy, Beatrice likes to unwind by reading comic books or playing the piano.
She continues to climb the ladder of success, with businessmen from around the world requesting to partner with her. She is currently in partnership with business moguls from South Africa, with whom she plans to start a new business venture later this year.
Beatrice plans to expand her creative and production department, with the help of several business partnerships she has been receiving.
She notes: "I want to have the best marketing company in the country, and give Gina Din and Scanad a run for their money."
Asserting her faith in the ability to achieve the impossible, Beatrice says that the next 10 years hold a lot of promise for her. She intends to play on the global stage and be successful beyond her wildest dreams.
