FRIDA OWINGA, 45, is a PassionPreneur coach and speaker at the Passion for Profit School of Entrepreneurship, where she helps individuals create successful businesses. She spoke to NJOKI CHEGE.

Many people are miserable in spite of the fact that they went to school and have all the papers. That is why I decided that it was time people knew how to turn their passion into profit.

I had discovered how to do this while in the US where I lived fro ten years from 1999 to 2009.


Frida Owinga. [Photos: JOSEPH KIPTARUS/STANDARD]

While in the US, I realised that people were living way below their potential by doing menial jobs just to make ends meet. I refused to do the regular immigrant jobs such as certified nursing assistant and broke the tradition to become an executive assistant to the vice-president of US Personnel.

I later worked at Jubilee Christian Church, Atlanta, as a business administrator. Here, I began training teams on leadership.

At the same time, I studied Organisational Leadership and Management at Regent University and acquired my small-business coaching certification.

While at the church, people would ask me how I managed to do what I love without getting bored. I advised them to follow their passions and this worked for many. Some left their jobs and started doing what their hearts dictated and found themselves enjoying it and making money at the same time. At first, I did it for free and then I began charging a small fee.

Soon, the demand grew and I formed a company — Excellent Image — where I did leadership and management training and consulting.

I came back to Kenya at the end of 2009 and after a quick survey of the economy, I realised there was a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities. I realised that Kenyans needed the skills and tools to create, manage and grow successful businesses.


Assessment tools

I started with Excellent Image, but soon realised the market was crowded with leadership training. I went back to the drawing board to review the strengths and skills I had at that time.

I discovered that many Kenyans were going back to school with the aim of landing white-collar jobs, but there were no jobs in the market.

I started my company PassionProfit in 2010, beginning with one-on-one coaching, after which I moved to group coaching. Each class has a group of not more than 25 students and we have eight classes.

The first class is on exploring your passion. We use assessment tools that will help an individual know their strengths, weaknesses and identify an opportunity that will match their passion and temperament.

During the eight weeks of learning, the students are given an action step for every week and the last action step is to write your plan for the next 12 months.

I work with a legal coach, who enlightens the students about the different registration processes that work best for them. We also have a finance coach, who goes through the numbers with the students; and a talent coach, who shows them how to employ their talent in their businesses. The talent coach also shows them how to recruit staff and pay them reasonably but competitively.

After the eight weeks, we offer a 12-month coaching support because we know a lot happens in the first year of business.

For accountability purposes, I prefer to have small classes of 15 to 25 students. So far, I have coached 49 PassionPreneurs in Kenya.

PassionProfit works with aspiring and existing entrepreneurs by helping them develop skills and acquire tools to create, manage and grow successful businesses. We stick with you from idea to reality and beyond.

We realise the importance of understanding your passion, but you also need entrepreneurial skills. To trigger that passion out of you, I will most likely ask you this question; "What would you rather be doing?"

If say your answer is writing, then I will urge you to go ahead with what you would rather be doing. You are also taught how to structure your organisation as well as how to manage your time, since you will be your own boss.

Business endeavours

We also encourage you to move from being a fox — ‘a know it all’ — to being a hedgehog — to concentrate on doing the one thing you love.

My dream for passionpreneurship is that it will grow into a full-blown school of entrepreneurship. This is not an academic course, but a practical one.

I also hope that passionpreneurship will grow into a micro-finance that will grant cash to students of this course and boost their business endeavours.