got an assignment from @UrbaneKenyan to write about challenges in my 7 years of entrepreneurship. The challenges I have faced if put together can make a book, a fat book but I will spill challenges as I keep blogging. In 7 years, the business I was in fully involved with wasVance Motors, which was started in 2004 by probably the youngest person to ever venture in the Business without any form of financial support from Family or Friend. They were actually shocked to learn through media that I do car business.

It all started as misdirected text; I took advantage of it fully and when I was done my phones officially couldn’t stop ringing. Sales were good and my name was out there till sometime later in 2008 when business almost collapsed. People stopped buying cars. I had bills to pay and cars in stock. I had to became Innovative. I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and venture into car hire. I had all sorts of clients; from those who would lie about their destination to others who just had enough money to hire a car and not fuel and the most hilarious group was that of manual drivers hiring automatic cars. They would have their right foot on the accelerator and the left of the brakes. I blame those ‘Kenyans’ who carelessly uttered ‘Brake ya automatic ni Clutch’ so to speak.

So one Sunday I had an airport transfer at 8pm. I give out a van to a group the Saturday prior and it was due back at 2pm. I had enough time to make sure the car was clean but my clients decided to extend the deadline and saw it wise to speed back to the city from Nyahururu at 6pm. En route at Ruiruthey were hit by another car that messed my evening plans. Between 2pm and 6pm phones went unanswered. The same group on a different account told me the vehicle gave them mechanical problems while in Limuru. With receipts, Vance Motors refunds on any repairs done but only with my consent. They got to Nairobi and told me all they bought was a bottle because the car was over hitting. These two accounts and of smaller engine capacity cars coming back with dents, no head/ rear lights or side mirrors prompted Vance Motors take up a new line of operations. I decided to get drivers and this has reduced greatly my trips to Kirinyaga road looking for spare parts. Neither do I worry about taking up jobs of kind.

From the above as an entrepreneur the challenges are as follows:

• Clients have this way of oppressing people offering goods and services because they claim to have paid yet they are violating the terms. Staying an extra 3 hours with the car without considering the damage caused to someones business is uncalled for.
• Clients will say anything to get off the hook for delays; from traffic to service network etc… but what annoys the most is when they refuse or choose not give feedback.

On a different account I have met people who go to the extent of insulting me because I couldn’t give them a car for a day over a weekend. Weekends are good days for business. I can’t recall the last time I had a car left as of 2pm. They all get returned from Mondays; guaranteed business. So some clients take friendship further to someones livelihood; the right to demand to have a car at their will. That is telling someone to compromise their business and what I get in a boring story of how the journey or the event was. It doesn’t work that way. I am in the business to make a kill, a living; not to put a smile on a friend’s face. Just This weekend, a client called and a requested for a van. Guess what time they came to pick it up; 2 am!

• People tend to use friendship to get away with business sin. People who will only call you when they are in need.

My biggest challenge has been the mentality clients hold. Client is the KING, the client is always right. You may be the king or you may be right but remember a business also provides a service you need, business kindness suffices. Terms and Conditions apply.

Enough with the car business. Another challenge I continue to face is working with people who have their mind made up. Someone is facing a problem with their brand/event; they come to you for help. You offer that help professionally and even use own resources and contacts to make it happen then they just ditch the whole thing. I may not be perfect but if you know you will not consider or think of what I am putting on the table, don’t ask for my advice. I happen to have experience in events planning. I am not sure where I started but the far I have come I know one thing, planning is of course everything. I have seen the importance of having a blueprint, project plan put down in writing and the importance of following it to the last detail. We can’t survive without people but we can’t afford to make everyone happy every time. Small things such as incurring unforeseen cost not covered under miscellaneous budget is uncalled for but again as I tweeted earlier, if you are employed as a church cleaner, stick to cleaning the church. Never tell the preacher how to preach or how to run his church. Michael Scofield ofPrison Break did not only have the way out of the prison but also his way around outer side of the prison. What you let people see/have when working gives then the impression of how much they can ride over you in future.

Still on consulting, I have met so many people who don’t want to pay the price for hard work. I met a lady early last month. She had an idea of ‘employment’ and wanted to use some of members of an NGO I am identified with. The members are very dear to me and I can’t put them on the line in events I am dissatisfied with. I couldn’t sell her idea to them for a few reasons. I however gave her a suggestion on how to do it with less input and maximum output. It involved having a plan, proposals and such. Before she left she asked me when the documents would be ready. I was giving ideas for her to run with not for me to spoon feed her. That is another challenge entrepreneurs face. People want everything done for them, for free.

I can choose what to get myself into and not what to get myself into. Money can never buy respect and I can never rank so low in the name of making money. If we cannot conduct business with respect then let’s not do so. Good preparation is expecting the worst. One has to study for 8 years to sit their KCPE, they just don’t wake up and do the paper. Even the biggest of professionals know the importance of not rushing through things because they have deadlines but working and perfecting it even before the deadline beats the hurdles.

Respect and appreciation of our differences is vital in doing business, both for the client and the entrepreneur. Terms and conditions apply, the least each party can do is acknowledge so before and after such venture. My experience