Advertising lights take Nairobi by storm

It began by the assembly of amplifiers in 2006 out of a passion for electronics and friends would marvel at the entrepreneur’s products, writes JOHN KARIUKI In his entrepreneurial journey, Samuel Mwangi, the director of a business signs-making company exemplifies the proverbial jack of all trade. He has coached music from schools, churches to military choirs. Mwangi has also been repairing radios and television sets. Ironically, he has no formal training in any of these courses. But like all entrepreneurs the world over, Mwangi has been able to consolidate his many experiences in his current trade of designing electronic business—SAMM signs. After completing secondary school, 12 years ago, Mwangi began as a music instructor in Nyahururu. He would take local schools through the set pieces for the annual music festival. He, too, would costume them; make stage backdrops and props, and so on. As the job was seasonal, he would fill in the remainder of the year with odd artistic jobs and coaching church and youth choirs."My big moment came in 2005 when an army man in Nyahururu advised me to apply for a choir instructor’s job at The Third Battalion Kenya Rifles, at their Nakuru barracks where there was such a vacancy," says Mwangi. He got the job and relocated to Nakuru, where there were better prospects for his artistic and coaching talents."Meanwhile, I saved a little money and with it read electronics by correspondence from the Cleveland Institute of Electronics in Ohio, USA," he says. This course proved too expensive and he was able to learn only the first few packages. But this knowledge would be the vehicle for his eventual paradigm."I began assembling amplifiers in 2006 out of my passion for electronics." His friends would visit him, marvel at his products and buy them, he adds. "With time, I found myself assembling amplifiers on a daily basis," he says. "Mine were cheaper than commercial ones and besides, I would customise the casing and add flashing lights to them for the heck of it," he says.Mwangi began reading books on electronic and searching the Internet on the subject earnestly. "This led me to a whole new world of Light Emitting Diodes-LEDs," he says. "I began assembling LEDs as indictors for mobile phone chargers and television and radio sets." These lights would simply indicate when these devices were turned on, he adds. "With time, I began assembling LED lamps strictly for my bedside use and as a way of cutting down on the electricity bill," he says.At around 2008, a friend from Nairobi called me to help him with his amplifiers business. So, Mwangi relocated to Nairobi where he continued assembling amplifiers. One year later, he found himself without a job. "I remember walking down the streets broke and dejected," he says. The school music festival was over and he had no coaching contract that he could fall back on. "That was when the big if came to me. What if I could make LED advertising signs and convince enough people to buy?" he says.Teething problemsMwangi sold his Meko gas cooker to raise Sh2,500 capital for his first advertising sign contract. "Though there was teething problems, the striking power of my flashy sign board caught on well," he says. "The first few customers began seeing its effect in increased business and recommended right, left and centre," he says. "My creation was at first seen as madness," he says. People questioned the rationale of advertising with flashy gadgets while everything was going on well with them. But he persisted. "In late 2009, I began making headway. Since then, there has never been a dull moment," he says.Mwangi attributes the success of his signs to their sheer novelty in attracting youthful customers. "My signs are vastly catchy than painted boards and light boxes which use fluorescent tubes and lots of electricity," he says. "They literary beckon the customer by flashing at cyber cafes, restaurants and Mpesa agencies and so on," says Mwangi.Artistic talent"I customise my signs to my clients’ desires even using fancy letters and logos that they wish it include," says Mwangi. And his artistic talent comes in handy, distinguishing his work for its finesse. "There are some imitators around who can’t shape the letters right or spot on in the centre of the sign board," he says. And in this trade, he reveals, aesthetics is everything," he says."Ordinary people in the streets can notice any sloppiness in the letters on sign boards and its worse in the choice of colours of the diodes’ light muddles the message instead of enhancing it." And his electronic command ensures that the flashing lights are programmed at the right time lapse for people to read the messages effectively and that no part is brighter than the other," he says. Mwangi’s billboards range in price from Sh1,400 to Sh30,000 depending on size, characters and number of diodes that go into shaping it. "I have made over 1,000 LED signs for mobile phone transfer services agents for clients all over the country," he says.His customers come from all over East Africa and South Sudan. He remembers a client from Zanzibar who ordered for a signboard to be done in French. "After he was sure that I had got the spelling right, he paid and left with instructions that I freight the finished product to Zanzibar," he says.Mwangi, who describes his job as "immensely" rewarding, attributes his success to perseverance and persistence and constant improvement. "In the beginning, it would take me days to produce one sign, working from my house in Kayole," he says. But he stuck on, getting better with time and expanding his network. He now works from a workshop in river road and has employed two full time technicians. He increases the workforce when the volume of work demands.He sources the diodes from the Far East. His biggest challenge is fake diodes that sometimes creep in from the Asian market. But he has learnt tot sort out the fake from the genuine diodes. Often he sends samples that he keeps to suppliers when ordering and doesn’t transfer the cash until he has inspected every consignment. "Barring faulty workmanship, a LED sign board done with the genuine diodes should last for at least 10 years," he says.Mwangi laments that even after maintaining a healthy balance in his account; his bank is reluctant to offer him credit to expand his business. "Banks are still asking for log books and such security while the modern entrepreneurs have only concepts and big dream in their minds," he says. Vastly cheaperBesides the business signs, Mwangi rents out a public address system and assembles LED lamps on the sides. He says that these lamps are vastly cheaper that the normal bulbs. "A LED lamp uses about two watts of power and costs Sh850," he says. "These lamps use the mains power, with a converter, or a battery and they are ideal and compared to conventional bulbs, they cut the electricity cost by 90 per cent," he adds. Mwangi’s fame has reached the academia. "I frequently help some engineering college students with their electronics projects," he says.

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