NO FOOD NOR DRINK ADVENTURES THIS WEEK FOR ACHOLA ROSARIO AS SHE EXPLORES ENTREPRENEURIAL OPTIONS
(Posted 12th October 2021)
By Achola Rosario, Contributing Editor for www.ATCNews.org
My little patch of grass is my mental real-estate that has been sitting outside my rented apartment door ever since my friend brought it back to me. It is my piece of land on which I anchor my dreams and hopes, praying the roots intertwine and feed growth to the grass-tentacles, so they can spread out and up the walls of the room where I re-potted her and brought her in.
In here, in an environment protected and watered with creativity and sheltered from adversity, I believe my little grass patch Gloria will survive.
This is a metaphor for that grass patch of creativity we all walk around with called “A Business”. That piece of real-estate in your head where you sow your seeds of prosperity. Placing it in the right context and location is the number one factor in the 4 Ps, the product, place, price and people’s matrix that goes into creating a successful enterprise. So how does one create and maintain such an environment when they are a business traveler or nomad worker, traipsing across 50 different nations in Africa?
The solution is what KOFISI provides: creative, fully fitted flexi-share workspaces and customizable office suites that you can rent on any given day or month and in 5 different countries.
KOFISI AFRICA has 5 different location hubs in Nairobi alone and invited THE FOMO TRAVEL SHOW to take a sneak peek into their brand-new Media Hub at 9 West Building Ring Road Parklands.
Being an entrepreneur is a little like being a painter. You have to prep and prime your canvas carefully if it is to support the Art you are going to create on it and make it stand the test of time. Michael and Georgia Aldridge have done just that with their labor of love KOFISI, by creating what can only be referred to as business shelters and incubation centers.
The KOFISI hubs’ strong penchant for interior design is not just for frivolous purposes, but function as the context in which to define your individual business ethos.
Here on the 7th floor of 9 West, banished to the corners are the blank office walls, replaced instead with lush green plants and lime candy-stripe wallpaper, a Prussian Blue reception with a magnificently gravitas chandelier made of tiny ebony warrior figures all rising up in a whirlpool to defend the light. Artwork from UWEZA (meaning WE CAN) gallery in Kibera former slums adorns the walls, bought from a collective of young neighborhood artists ranging from ages 13-27, male and female, to whom all 60% of individual sales proceeds come back to, and the remaining 40% going towards replenishing the gallery’s stock and materials, enabling more interested artist to find market for their work and pay school fees for themselves. We shall meet them in the next episode.
Another noteworthy project KOFISI 9 WEST is involved with is the “Desks for Harambee Schools Kenya program”, a locally run charity organization. Run by a lady named Aimee Willenberg, Harambee Schools Kenya in Gilgil provide education and meals for approximately 2000 students from Primary to Secondary on scholarship and entered into an agreement with KOFISI about 3 years ago where every desk rented out by a KOFISI client goes towards the manufacture of a desk for a kid at HSK. So far, they have not only been able to meet and surplus their target for their 5 primary schools, enough to fully fit the staff rooms as well, they have done it with the help of a carpenter who came up through the HSK scholarship system, went to carpentry school, and came back to dedicate himself to making desks for his peers. He is now a programs manager with the school. His name is Samuel Miomu Muroki, who joined Harambee Schools Kenya in Gilgil when he fled election violence with his parents. Him and Aimee are also now best friends and work buddies.
As Georgia Aldridge, my new personal friend, and I climbed up to the 9th floor rooftop to see what will very soon be a beautifully trellised Secret Garden, I could not help but notice that the infrastructure for growth in the country is actually there. Seeing all those high-rises coming up, with construction ladies delicately perched on balconies scrubbing newly-laid tiles, we emerged into the warm bright sunshine, with the world at our feet, traffic circulating like platelets in the circular river of our veins, carrying essential supplies where they are needed and feeding growth like a tower to the Heavens.
KOFISI NAIROBI: 9 West, Karen, Riverside, Upper Hill, Westlands Eden Square.
KOFISI AFRICA: Lagos, Dar-Es-Salaam, Johannesburg, Accra, Cairo.
Office space rental starts from $150/month. You can work across any of the centers during the rental period and added services include P.O.Box. rental/usage, and provision of physical location details for business licensing while in a given country. Suitable for start-ups and established businesses, as well as workshops, events and focus groups. Video conferencing and now media broadcasting studios with chromakey available to rent. Lockers available for storage of equipment long/short term.
To book an office space at any of the KOFISI hubs check out www.kofisi.africa.com
To watch THE FOMO TRAVEL SHOW EP76 KOFISI 9 WEST HIGH:
Stay tuned for the next KOFISI adventure next week. So good we had to do it twice.
Contact Achola Rosario via coalrosa@gmail.com if you are interested to have your location featured on the F.O.M.O. Travel Show and on www.ATCNews.org
