Never burn bridges

Hannah Clifford, Director of Nairobi Garage.

I’m not a morning person. When I wake up, I feed my cats, shower, get dressed and head out. I never set meetings before 10 o’clock because I know it’s a hustle getting them done. When I get to the office, I check with the general managers that everything is fine, checking that marketing has gone out on time. If there are no major issues that I need to help the team with I respond to emails and have meetings with people who either want to offer us services, hold workshops or want to partner with the companies here.

At Nairobi Garage we provide flexible office space solutions. That might be in the form of co-working where you pay for a desk per day or per month, and that includes everything you need to run your business—internet, tea and coffee, furniture, meeting room space -- except for a laptop, or in the form of private offices. We also do a lot of networking events, workshops and investor introductions.  

My job entails looking for new locations, meeting with landlords and agents to figure out where our next location would be, working with the development team and developing our processes so we can become more and more automated and standardised in our operations. I also do a lot of marketing.

My favourite part of the day is when I have my cappuccino every morning. We also get to receive cool visitors who come to check out the space and meet our members.

I have a transformational leadership style. If I see someone has leadership potential, I work hard to grow that person as quickly as possible. I like to involve people in decisions and I hate micro-managing. At the same time, I am a perfectionist. I strike a balance by having systems and Key Performance Indicators. That gives freedom for everyone to perform tasks their own way -- as long as it gets done and they know what is expected.

The most unique thing about what I do is our customers sit with us on a day-to-day basis. Unlike most businesses where you meet your customers once in a while, our customers are basically living with us. This allows us to really understand who they are and their challenges. The challenge is that you can’t hide anything from anyone because they see everything that is going on.

One of the challenges we face is with suppliers. You meet a great supplier and forge a great relationship and with time you hope it will get better, but the frustrating thing is that some might abruptly change and decide they’re not going to offer services on the same level they used to, or increase their prices, or just stop delivering. You’re forced to constantly look for new suppliers all the time.  

My first job was in a factory for tractor parts. We would pick the different parts, put them in a box and send them to customers. I was planning on travelling and I thought I would not turn up for work the next day. My friend, who was older than me, told me something that has turned out to be the career advice I’ve ever received – don’t burn your bridges. But at the time I thought: “It’s just a crappy warehouse job. I’ll never talk to these people again.” Two years later, after I finished university, I ended up going back there, needing that “crappy job”. Don’t burn your bridges, even when you are certain the job is not for you and you’ll certainly be leaving it behind. You never know when you’re going to end up in a situation where you need that person. Also, don’t take for granted what it means to have a job. Even if you think you can do better and you deserve more, then you just have to prove it and things will come. Sometimes the rewards are not immediate. If you’re consistent overtime, the rewards will come.

I always leave the office at around 6.30pm just to avoid traffic. I get home about an hour later and cook. I love to cook. If I’m not going out with friends I’ll get back to my emails and work a bit more before I go to bed at 11 pm.

My husband and I love going out of Nairobi. On weekends, we will either be at the national park if we don’t want to go far or we’ll go to Nanyuki, Magadi or Tsavo to spend some time in nature.

The book I love recommending is The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. It makes you think of how you are using your time and how much more you can achieve if you work less hours by just putting in place things that can save time. The last great book I read was Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.