Year in Review // The 10 Articles that Piqued your Interest

Year in Review // The 10 Articles that Piqued your Interest

Like most organizations in Kenya, Nairobi Garage has been deeply impacted by the 2020 pandemic.

Everyone has experienced deep turmoil, with the looming economic crisis, which is likely to be made worse by a Kenyan political campaigning & referendum year in 2021, and elections in 2022.

However, despite the challenges, Nairobi Garage chose to remain open. We did our best to keep the content, and interactions – albeit online – flowing. As we did our research on what to share with our members and ecosystem, we started to experience our own ‘Aha!’ moments. 

It is those insights that guided the content we shared with you. We’d like to share them back so that you can take a minute or two to reminisce and recap lessons learned from the year in review. Here are the top 10 articles that resonated:

• #AfterOfficeHours: Right Strategies That Can Position You for Business Success

With what’s going at Tuskys, which was once the leading chain supermarket in Kenya. We felt like this article done earlier in the year was timely, as it gets to highlight some of the mistakes family-owned businesses make over the period, leading to business failure. 

Key to it as shared by Dr. Joyce Gikunda, Founder Lintons Beauty is that most family-owned businesses lack a great succession plan. The article also highlights some strategies that business owned companies should uphold in case they want to survive the tides. Read more

• Funds Focusing on Female-Led Businesses

One of the greatest challenges women entrepreneurs face today is lack of funds. This has seen more women opt out of entrepreneurship. However, there is a ray of hope as institutions and individuals come together to offer funds for women-led businesses.

Whether you are looking for an angel investor or Venture Capital firm this article showcases funds that focus on women-led businesses from angel investors, venture capitalists and incubators, we share a list of funding firms that should be on every African female entrepreneur’s radar. Read more

• Impacting Kenya’s Edutainment Space through the Akili Kids! Channel

On this spotlight feature, we focused on telling a story about one of our members, Akili Kids. We had a chat with Jesse Soleil, President and Co-Founder of Akili Network, where he shared the journey to what has become Kenya’s first and only kid-friendly TV Station. 

During the interview, Soleil shared that the company took over 8 years of conceptualization and hard work to see Akili Network venture into the vibrant Kenyan broadcast industry that has more than 64 free-to-air TV Stations. 

However, despite the number of channels, there was again a unique opportunity that had not been explored by Kenyan Broadcasters. Kenya’s population currently stands at just under 48 million. Out of the 48 million people, 20 million are children below the age of 15. All through there was no TV channel that was entirely catering for Kenyan children, who form almost 50% of Kenya’s Population. Read more

• 7 Questions to Ask Before Moving from Traditional Office Space to a Coworking Space

In this article we shared some of the questions you need to ask yourself before joining a coworking space. If you are moving your company from a traditional office setup to a coworking space, we put together a list of questions that will help you find a new workplace that is right for your business. The questions you need to ask the community manager during your first visit or subsequent visits before taking a desk or two. Read more

• 15 Interesting Facts on Coworking You Probably Didn’t Know

On the #InternationalCoworkingDay, we shared with you interesting facts about coworking. We took you down the memory lane to give you a better understanding of where the whole coworking concept began. Did you know that Coworking started off as European hacker spaces of the 1990s, where programmers would exchange skills and best practices? Find out more about this concept that is changing the workplace of today. Read more

• Office Space // The Drive to Flex is on Course

With more companies planning to go back to the office in January following a year long of working from home, in November we shared just how much the workspace will have changed mostly driven by flexibility. We also highlighted how landlords will be tasked with ensuring that they ensure they embrace new age office space technology as more tenants look out for more flexible workspaces. Read more

• 7 Business Lessons to Learn From “Game of Thrones”

As shared by Laureen Gayle, sometime in 2019, this creatively done piece was put together way ahead of time, maybe preparing us for the happenings of this year. In one of the subheadings, Laureen talks about ‘winter is coming’ and how businesses should be prepared.

“You never know what the world will throw at you, but something will always come. It helps to hope for the best but plan for the worst. To prepare an emergency plan, first brainstorm for potential hazards that might come your way. Then research a plan to respond to each, delegate tasks to the appropriate employees, and run drills whenever possible,” she wrote. Read more

• Financial Coach // 5 Tips to Consider Before Engaging One

As shared by Rina Hicks, this article highlights some key considerations you should put together while looking for a coach. She also talks about the questions that should guide you as you look for a coach in any field. Read more

• Why We Think the Office is not Dead!

On this Think piece we shared our thoughts around working from home and why despite most organizations embracing WFH, why we felt there was still a push to return to office. We share the advantages and disadvantages of working from home. We also share our thoughts around why we think there is still a rise in the demand of office space. Read more

• Workplace Wellness | 8 Tips to Help Manage Mental Health

With the year having taken a toll on most of us, in this think piece we shared tips on how employers can help employees moving forward even as they struggle with adapting to long-term remote working or whether to comfortably return to office despite the surging COVID 19 cases or both. Read more

We look forward to supporting our ecosystem with relevant, insightful and informative content in the upcoming year.