The power of one when raising your capital

I think I was in primary school when I first heard the saying, ‘Quitters never win’. It sounds really simple, but have you even been hanging right on the edge?

Last week, in just one sentence, I told you how I launched my first album, Tales of Kaka Sungura, on August 22, 2008. It sounds simple summarised this way, but let me give you the full story.

I had just completed recording the album when DJ Loop at Sneed Studios, where I was working as a sound engineer, made adjustments sound-wise and then called me into his office.

We had talked about me launching my album when it was ready, but now he was delivering some bad news; some really bad news.

Loop said he’d be closing the studio, so I only had the master to the album. I remember that afternoon like it was yesterday. I went home with my one album and wondered where to start from.

Crazy idea

One moment, I was so excited that my dream was coming true; the next, it was just me and my 17-track album. My options were to either concentrate on school, go to Gikomba, or shave, clean up and look for a job. But then, after three days of hard thinking, I got a crazy idea.

As much as I would have loved to have been able to fly like Superman, break into a bank and go holiday in the Bahamas, this was far from my reality. The truth was, I didn’t have money to make copies of my album.

Worse still, few people knew me since at the time, I had just one single, Jam Nakam, that played on one radio station. Further, my mother would have disowned me if I told her I was a musician

My future looked bleak, and all possibilities looked impossible. But I’ve lived by one slogan since my high school days: ‘Impossible is a myth’.

Months before I got the bad news, DJ Loop, who is currently one of my life coaches, told me everyone has money, no matter how little it is, and they are willing to spend it. The question is, how do you convince them to buy what you’re selling with the last penny they have?

You remember I said I got a crazy idea? Well, this is what happened.

That one album that I had became my capital. I approached my cousin who used to tell me that my freestyles were ‘fire’, and sold him the album. I made Sh300, which meant I could make two new copies and still have Sh100 left over in profit.

I then asked myself where I would get a market for my album. I started with the asset I had in my hand – my phone.

Monitoring sales

If I had your contacts, it meant you most probably knew I was doing music, so you became my first market. Hello! At this point, I had two copies of the album with me, and knew I needed to keep my production costs really low, and when I say low, I mean low. But quality needed to remain high.

I then changed everyone’s name on my phone. So, for instance, if I had someone in my phonebook called Tom, I changed his name to Tom Album. After selling him an album, I’d then change his name back to Tom. That’s how I monitored who bought an album and who hadn’t.

There was also a need to keep tabs on profits and who was paying, so I bought an exercise book, and started with the hallos.

The message I sent out was basically: ‘Hi Tom, I hope you have been amazing. I just released my single and I am about to launch my album, but before then, I am selling you advance tickets and my album’.

Soon, the two copies turned into four, which made eight and before I knew it, I had 600 album copies, and literally everyone in my phonebook – except my mother – had a copy of my album and an advance ticket to its launch.

It was the power of the business of leveraging on one unit.

The next step was organising the launch. I went to what was once Club Qatika in Nairobi’s Westlands to find out about using it as a launch venue. I was given the manager’s number and called him up: “Hi, I’m Refigah, and I’m the manager of the club.” Refigah later went on to establish Grandpa Records, and now we meet in boardrooms to discuss the future and the business of Kenyan music.

The launch

Anyway, back to the story. We agreed with Refigah that he’d get a percentage of the gate fees and retain full profits on sales of products at the club. I wanted to hold on to a chunk of the cash, so I made advanced tickets cheaper.

The launch date came, and we got a full house. I managed to convince great artistes like Harry Kimani, Abass, Chiwawa, Zakah and Shamir to turn up.

Not to brag, but I was the only new artiste in Kenya at the time with an album, a star-studded event, the best deal on tickets and Sh103,000 wrapped around my socks while I was performing.

Remember, I came from having absolutely nothing but my master album, which later earned me Sh300 that turned into two album copies and launched lots more sales.

That’s when it hit me: music was business, and I was not stopping any time soon.

The writer is an award-winning rapper and entrepreneur.