I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Said Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb. Years later American professional basketball player Michael Jordan said “I’ve failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed” This quote seems to imply that the fruits of success grow from the ashes of failure.  How then does one fail their way to success?

Alex Mbogo, a 3rd-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Business Technology, Gahire Nick Orly, a 2nd year student pursuing a Bachelor in Commerce and Edwin Magalasia, a Strathmore University Alumnus founded Yana Trekkers, a travel agency in April 2018.

The trio launched their business during the Student Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion (STEP) that was run by the Strathmore University Business School in conjunction with a German University. STEP develops young people’s skills, knowledge, and confidence to pursue an entrepreneurial career. In the training, the students learn step-by-step how to start their businesses. This provides them with an effective means of creating jobs for themselves and other people in the community. At the end of the training, the trio was loaned Kshs 10,000 as capital to start their own business, they would later pay back the money but any profits they reaped they would comfortably pocket.

After long periods of brainstorming and racking their brains they eventually came up with Yana Trekkers, a travel agency that offers travel packages, team buildings, and travel logistics. They realized a gap in recreational activities specifically the youth.

“Yana – abbreviation of You Are Never Alone – endeavors to make sure your experience is worthwhile as you get to interact with others giving them a fun and memorable experience they would always want to rekindle.” Says Gahire.

They scheduled a series of trips and excursions to kick start their business. Their first trip was to Ngare Ndare forest located at the foothills of Mt Kenya, only two people registered for the trip. For the second trip the number grew to six people. They toured the Hell’s Gate national park in Naivasha.

The third trip was to Kisames Giraffe Camp, with 40 participants but it turned out to be a loss due to poor planning. The trio agrees that they were incurring huge losses but it gave them satisfaction to see their clients happy with their services at the end of the day.  This motivated them to work harder at their enterprise.

Their big break eventually came during their fourth trip which was to Ngare Ndare forest where they had 30 people; learning from their previous mistakes they earned their first eagerly awaited profit. They were elated and promised to work harder to make their business a success.

A year later they have done multiple travel packages, added team building to part of their services and organized their first out-of-country travel package to Kikuletwa Hot springs in Moshi, Tanzania.

“We owe a lot of appreciation to Strathmore University and the STEP programme which we were able to pay back in time. Strathmore has been our haven; we learnt units that helped us mold our business. There have been so many networking opportunities for us and a huge bulk of our clients comprise of the Strathmore fraternity,” says Edwin Magalasia.

They urge other young, upcoming entrepreneurs to start, be patient, be resilient and believe in themselves.

 

The article was written by Tuzo Jonathan.

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