The entrepreneur who made lemonade when life gave him lemons

By Ramadhan Rajab

"You don’t need a million to start a business or to be a millionaire. You just need that shilling in your pocket to help you reach your dreams," Mr Richard Omondi, a 25 year-old entrepreneur, says as he recounts how he started his IT business two years ago.

As we sit down for the interview he adjusts the seat, puts his tie in place, and raises his head, to look at the Kaspersky flag that he has pinned neatly on the wall of his office.

"Do you see that flag? That’s where I started," Omondi a director of Fairbiz Limited a company he started two years ago says.

He travelled to Nairobi in October 2006, after completing his IT course. He then launched a massive job hunt, but did not get any job offering, despite after numerous attempts, and thousands of application letters.

"I suspected all my CVs ended up in trash bins, so I had to think out of the box, by looking for anything to keep busy as well earn myself a coin," Omondi said.

He says he started hawking hotpots, which he earned a Sh2 commission for every piece sold.

Bus fare

Businessman Richard Omondi Otieno of Fairbiz Limited. Photo: Moses Omusula/Standard

"It was hard. One day you could sell three pots, while on other days, you sell nothing, even after a long discouraging trek," he says. "I could not even afford bus fare, but because I didn’t want to sit idle in a car. I preferred walking to town and to Kibera, where I was putting up with my uncle," he adds. After lots of frustrations, and harassment by council askaris, Omondi says he opted out and joined Capital Express, an advertising publication as a marketer. Unfortunately, things did not pan out well there either.

"This is what many bright graduates go through everyday, dimming their hopes. But they should not think employment is the only means of survival. They should venture out into business," he says.

He called on the Government to provide opportunities for students to learn entrepreneurial skills in schools, and provide soft loans to graduates with intentions of setting out on their own.

"To the graduates if your sole goal is to get employed, you’ll become a very sad person. The purpose of education is to liberate your mind and thus you should be able to think and churn out new ideas for yourself," he says

Luckily he says, in January 2008, his mother sent him Sh1,700 as upkeep money.

"I went straight and bought a Kasperky antivirus, one user, with an intention of selling it to recoup the profit. When I reached to the market, I found a client who needed four pieces. I rushed back to my supplier, who build trust in me at first sight took the packets on credit and sold it," Omondi the owner of the Fairbiz business that started from an office less platform and now has income levels of over Sh400,000 a week, Omondi says, as he hands me pieces of papers that profiles the company and Kenya Revenue Authority tax returns copies.

He says the Fairbiz brand was the most difficult thing to introduce in the market.

"It was mind-boggling. As the product — Kaspersky — I was selling was new to the market and my company was also unknown. Winning trust was very tasking," he says adding that there are those who mocked him.

Have to endure

"I knew as an entrepreneur you have to endure all this. In business, you can create and develop skills but it does not happen overnight. I had to convince reluctant retail shops and wholesalers, who viewed Kaspersky as unattractive product, that it was the best in fighting computer viruses," he recalls.

"I would not falter even as some told me that entrepreneurship is failure and the business that will be gone in two years. Instead of earning less for long hours work, I would be better off taking up a traditional job," he said.

He says he drafted a business plan to direct his business, and give it a professional touch. He also made sure the company was liquid enough to buy and sell quickly, growing the client base in the niche-focused regional businesses.

"I was aiming to achieve rapid-scale growth, through an aggressive buy and build strategy, as well maximise on profits," Omondi explains, saying the strategy dramatically outperformed, booming the business very fast.

"The secret is to make your products cheap, so that your clients don’t see you are exploiting them. But what many entrepreneurs do is set their dreams too high by fixing their price tags too high, not knowing that this keeps off clients," he advises.

dominate the market

Now, Omondi says, the business boasts of over 250 corporate clients in Kenya, 10 in Uganda, a major supply of the Kaspersky antivirus to thousands of retail computer accessories shops.

"With the current customer backings, we are determined to move the company to niche areas. Our plan is to dominate the market spaces we are in, but as well in our new openings," he says adding that the company has opened four new offices in Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Kampala, to cater for its growing clientele base.

" Our success story is that the business has progressed from selling Kaspersky antivirus, to branded desktops and laptop computers and hardware maintenance," he says.

He notes that although internet bandwidth has been increased most cooperates are still operating with low bandwidth, and some areas are not served with internet, which is a major threat to his antivirus business, that depends on internet for updates.

"We have to grow business, not just by acquisitions, but by value added business both to us and to our customers. We want to demonstrate to the market that we have the best prices and offer quality service," he says.

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