This is the website for my holding company, Kagem Tibaijuka & Co.
It was finished this week, and I have also been tweeting and posting links on the Twitter & Facebook pages that I set up for the website.
Here is a screenshot of what the website looks like:
The situation of overcharging
My local salon is full of hi-jinks, to the point where you would think we were watching Scooby-Doo.
I have talked before about my salon, and essentially the owner is amazing – we have a great rapport and I think she’s fabulous and she does a good job on my hair for the most part.
Her assistant on the other hand overcharges and I am sure of it, but because there is not a price list or a menu, I can only go off memory but the other day, I went to get my hair washed and blow-dried and it was 8,000 shillings. I remember back a few months ago, it was 7,000 with hair styling included (as if it should not be included).
Now this could be the result of 1 or 2 things: a price increase (which is fine) or overcharging and I think it’s the latter because the second assistant stylist always has shit going on in terms of pricing and I have called her out on it.
What would you do?
A) Tell the owner that you think the other stylist is overcharging
B) Tell the owner that you only want her to do your hair (I think this is the one I will go for)
C) Stop going to the salon all together?
I like the owner – she does her job well and she is a hard worker, but her assistant has such a sloppy approach to hair and she just is so robotic about hair, and I even had to tell her to use big toothed combs when brushing natural hair. Like come girl, get it together! I think I am going to go for option C. The salon is the best of a very bad bunch in Tanzania.
Ariana Pierce is not your ordinary entrepreneur. This charismatic African-American business woman has made the beauty industry sit up and take notice with her own nail varnish brand called Superstar Nail Lacquer. I first heard of Ariana when I watched a video of her on Black Enterprise and I was captivated about how she started her nail varnish company which is growing from strength to strength. In this exclusive interview with Charcoal Ink, Ariana reveals what it is like creating your own beauty brand.
1) How did you spot a gap in the market for Superstar Nail Lacquer?
I saw a need for polish that matched the runways. I wanted to create a couture line for your hands. I also was going into my freshman year at Michigan State University and I knew that girls had busy schedules and needed to get back to class on time. I wanted my polish to be fast-drying, something perfect for the woman on the go.
2) How did you go about branding Superstar Nail Lacquer with aspects such as packaging and logos?
The concept behind Superstar Nail Lacquer is making every woman feel like a celebrity. Hence the name Superstar Nail lacquer. The packaging/Logo is very fashionable, bright, and eye-catching. I wanted to deliver luxury in a bottle. Continue reading
Yesterday, I did some door-to-door sales. It was such a joke!
I went to this charity to enquire about whether I could get some contact names in the hops of sharing an office with them.
I waited over 30 minutes to get attention and no one even bothered to greet me at the reception when I came into the charity – and it was such a shame because my goodness, the offices of the charity were absolutely gorgeous!
Yet the total apathy for the charity in the office was absolutely pathetic – how can you have a charity reception that is unmanned with no one in the entire office except for one manager? One manager came and then just disappeared and never came back. I waited for 30 minutes then got frustrated, left my business card with the guard and left!
It was so depressing to leave because the office was perfect for me and this charity does not even respect it!
How can we build businesses when people in their own organisations have no respect for customer service?
One of the most interesting stories to come out of the hip hop world was the J Cole vs Diggy beef. Diggy is Rev Run’s son and J Cole needs no introduction, he’s one of the hottest young rappers on the scene at the moment.
The general gist of the beef is that J Cole made a supposed reference to Diggy’s sister Vanessa on a song ages ago, and Diggy came after him in a song which was leaked recently.
I remember reading lots of comments on blogs such as Necole Bitchie about this, and one thing struck me – there is a lot that this story can tell us actually about business and the concept of being self-made as opposed to having connections create a career for you. Diggy has ventured into the rap world so far, and it’s been a mixed reception. Some see him as this Drake wannabe, others are not sure if they are trying to make him an urban Justin Bieber.
I found the whole situation quite comical – Vanessa is 27, if she is indeed the woman J Cole was talking about, so be it! They are 27 year old men and women, a 16 year old kid getting involved looks slightly laughable if only to get more record sales. Which brings me to my key argument of this post:
Self-made people always look more credible than people who have had it handed to them
I created my marketing business myself. No one from my family has helped me get one client or anything. J Cole has created a blossoming rap career from nothing, and now he is on songs with King Beyonce and going on tours with Rihanna. Diggy looked like a fool coming after J Cole from a business viewpoint, because while he was defending his sister, it was almost like an inherited scion coming after a soon to be hip hop baron who has creatde their own career without their uncle or brother co-signing them.
Do you think Diggy should have a seat? Does he ”know” that J Cole can’t come after him because of who his family is?
You better work!
Today was a milestone for me because I did my first cold call in a long time. I did not get through to the decision maker but I got a key name which I can use to follow up when Easter ends next week. How has your week gone for all of you, whether you are at work or not? I also have been building a new list of cold prospects, it’s an organic list I am collating myself – it’s extremely time-consuming but I am aiming for millionaire status so I know I have to put in work.
King Beyoncé got herself a tumblr + sent her first tweet. Good for the king! As some of you regular coals know, I love Beyoncé! So it’s cool to have a spot to be a crazy stan and not be judging for it ha ha ha!
How has your week been?
1. There are no queues: I was the bank recently and one girl came up to me in the queue and note I don’t know this bird from Adam & Eve and she literally was like ”save me a spot”. No bish, you can queue like everyone else in the bloody queue.
2. When people queue jump, they make it look easy breezy beautiful CoverFool: I will never forget being at the NBC bank branch at Mlimani City and seeing this guy queue jumping and all of us behind him let him know to get the F back and have a seat. I always find it crazy when people think their bank issue matters more than people who have been queuing legitimately.
3. Some cashiers power-trip: Now cashiers in Tanzanian banks do not get a great salary in Western terms but for Tanzania, the money is alright considering that they are sitting on their arses and counting cash (no shade to anyone who does, talking about the ones in my bank only). And yes cashiers at NBC bank in Mlimani City, I am calling you guys out for being rude and wack when someone fills out a cash deposit form and makes one tiny mistake such as a crossing out and making them fill out a brand new form….*crickets*. Power tripping at its finest.
4. Raggedy Anne types should not be underestimated: The people who rock up to the bank looking Raggedy Anne are the ones depositing tonnes of cash. I remember one day queuing to deposit some money and seeing this man who if he had been outside the bank, people here would have probably said he looked messy and stained. The guy was depositing serious sums of money. Just goes to show, never judge a book by its cover. I certaintly don’t because I’ve been judged in banks as well judging by how I look.
Moral of these 4 things: Appearances are always deceiving and have some damn courtesy in the bank! When I went to the bank recently, I looked a damn mess – my dress was a little dustry and my feet definitely needed cream and the looks people can give you is ridiculous.
All black everything! Just got my new business cards from the printers today. They are double-sided on both sides, and black too
What do you think?
#Godfirstambitionsecond
New beauty photoshoot of Jourdan Dunn who is the face of Burberry, the innovative fashion brand that invented the trench coat
Enough said with this simple poster.
Is this a good move by Burberry?
Sasha Ricketts and Natasha Dunn are two women from the UK who have created a natural hair brand called I Love Afro. The London-based pair discuss what it is like running their own business & their thoughts on the business of natural hair, which is on the up and up.
1) Why did you start I Love Afro and how did you spot a gap in the market?
We started our business in 2008 as we found it difficult sourcing afro hair products from the UK and buying from the US didn’t prove cost effective. Our initial thoughts were to import US products and sell them in the UK, but once we realised there was a gap in the British market for natural hair products we thought why not make our own! Continue reading
