AAP Consultancy

The most profitable company in Kenya today, is arguably, Safaricom.

Best performing companies listed in global stock exchange bureaus, companies that make the top 100 Forbes list and financial heavyweights such as Google, Facebook, General Motors, British Airways etc all have one thing in common with a car wash, a chapati dondo kibanda, a kinyozi, a salon or a wine's and spirits business in Kiamaiko...

That they are all businesses. And Business is the sale of goods and/services with the sole purpose to gain profit.

Profit is a financial gain, attained especially through making the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.

What makes safaricom succeed in it's profits? Their ability to keep their cost of production low while maintaining a steady and diverse revenue stream selling 'air'.

Safaricom does not physically bring data and airtime to you. They no longer need to rely on printing scratch cards, they don't need to even keep their customer care in their building anymore.

They have an accountant, an auditor, a salesman, a manager, a record keeper and a C.E.O. who ensure the business runs smoothly as the technical team ensures your data bundles are 'eaten' and that you have stable home fibre.

This applies to all those businesses I've mentioned above.

Zuckerberg doesn't just code Facebook and sits back in his house making billions. No.

He has a salesperson selling to advertisers, he has an accountant, he has a record keeper, an auditor, a manager and a C.E.O to oversee his operations as he concentrates on the production aspect of his business; such as trolling Trump supporters 😌.

In your boiled eggs and smokies business, your chicken business, your barbershop or beauty parlor, you only succeed if you have all these people.

And all these people are all dolled into one; YOU.

You need to have the mentality of a big corporate entity to break even.

Be your own market researcher.

Be your own salesperson.

Be your own auditor.

Be your own manager.

Be your own CEO

And be your own production team.

You have no choice.

Now, corporates shortlist the right people for those positions.

They give them probate working conditions. They micromanage them. They check their discipline. They do team building. They resolve office conflict through internal systems.

You have to give yourself probation. Micromanage yourself, check your own discipline. When in conflict with your emotions, develop a mechanism on how to resolve it. Don't spend your revenue without accounting for it. Even if it's yours. Don't bring your family drama to work. If you have a toxic partner, best they stay away from your work place. The minute you treat your hustle like it's a bluechip company, then the greater your chances of success.

If you treat your hustle disrespectfully, it's shall disappoint you.

There are many people who love to say how risky or difficult running a business is, or farming is... Their problem is that they don't have any expertise on the dynamism of making something work.

A bluechip company will do research before opening a branch. Meanwhile, a wines and spirits hustler will open one because 'huku watu ni wengi na hakunanga pub'.

A Forbes ranked entity will spend money on advertising and marketing to get noticed and to gain new traction in a new territory. A salon owner will go to instagram and post ' friends ain't loyal they don't support my hustle'

A stock exchange listed company will have a CEO fired for gross misconduct and sexual harassment at work. A mtumba seller will call his girlfriend to his stall and start bickering over texts she stumbled upon while he was fitting a client...

If you don't apply winning standards on your small hustle, it will deplete you, frustrate you and you turn into these bitter people who imagine every nice car on the street is 'pesa ya tender' or that every successful business person has a sugar mummy or a sponsor.

Lack of business acumen is what makes hustlers run around the mill.

And that's where Flipside Hustle comes in.

From the desk of VC