Testimonial from Denise Ngibuini of Cogwheel Creations

Before the Activate Bootcamp, I was winging it at my business. I had the skill but zero business knowledge. I have made many expensive mistakes, dissolved a partnership and pivoted close to 5 times trying to find my ground in this thing called entrepreneurship. I almost gave up on this. The 5 day bootcamp opened me to a world of trusting in my passion again. This time, learning it from a business angle. From the business idea, to the value proposition, to creating a business model canvas to building my service around design thinking, to learning how to promote it and packaging all I have to offer into a pitch. I'm so excited at this new journey. My mind has been transformed. I have met new friends who are keeping me accountable, and a Coach Dr Melvin D'lima who has me researching and finding ways to be relevant in this pandemic .. I am not yet there, but I am equipped to turn my clients into repeat clients and build a steady source of income! This is the best investment I have made in my business journey!! Thank you Frida Owinga, Dr Melvin D'lima and the team for making this happen

Sun and sand while you save, Sir!!

I attend many meetings. I have to be trained and re-trained. I am loved and hated in equal measure. Rejection is a frequent daily experience for my ilk and me. I am a Financial Advisor like my late Maternal Uncle, Bento J Desouza, before me. He practiced his craft in Kampala, Uganda and Toronto, Canada. I am in Nairobi, Kenya. I work with a reputable company in this space, Britam Kenya Ltd. Insurance penetration in this market stands at 3% of the population of close to 45 Million Kenyans

We probe our clients using Who, What, When, Why and How questions surrounding their needs and wants. Our solutions lie in the areas of Savings, Investment and Risk Management. Our objective is to put you on the road to financial stability.

The Kenyan economy has been severely dented by a little virus. Employers have laid off or sent workers on unpaid leave. This has hampered the affected in their ability to pay for non-priority expenditure. Their priorities have changed. On KTN TV last night, I watched the regulators and leaders of our industry remarking that Life and General Insurance premium receipts have dropped drastically. Motor vehicle insurance is mandatory yet some motorists are downgrading from Comprehensive Insurance to Third Party Only Insurance. Other are simply not renewing their covers. Folks with Group Medical covers from their employers, lose out when their employment is terminated and the employer stops paying premiums. The uptake of new Medical Insurance covers is not as vibrant as it was three months ago. Life Insurance policies are in danger of lapsing.

In this season I wish to look beyond the dark times in which we live and hold my clients to a higher standard in the Financial space. Besides being a Financial Advisor I am a Business Coach and Mentor so I can show you how to recover from the effects of this pandemic. As a life Coach I can help you develop lasting solutions to creating business sales, profit , order, impact and legacy. 

Insurance protects your sales and profit and affords you the opportunity to get savings  to invest and leave impact and legacy to your family and society.

I am reaching out to you as part of my Business Continuity Planning. I am in the process of creating impact and legacy just like you. Why don’t we meet online to get to know each other. If you have read thus far you will appreciate that I mean well and am committed to looking out for your best financial interests and mine.

Fathers Day every day

The week that was. Kenya won a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The Judiciary and the Executive are still trying to develop a harmonious working relationship. The Senate is at an advanced stage of legalizing abortion. At household level, the closure of Schools has left our children unoccupied and at risk of predators. We have a shortage of Fatherhood material and this is manifested in disturbed, nay, dysfunctional families. Today is Fathers Day.

What do good Fathers do? They are present for their children. They protect them from harm. They save for their future education. This assumes,  all things are normal. Throw poverty, bad governance, corruption into the mix and you can easily see why we are individually managing this COVID 19 epidemic, curfew and lockdown so badly.

This season is unlike our experience in 2007 and 2008 when in response to the US sub-prime mortgage crisis our economy went into a tailspin. We are back there again and it’s worse. Many of us have demonstrated resilience. We have downsized, we have redefined our relationships and become spiritual. It is time to go back to being real Fathers.

I have just listened to the story of Goldilocks and the three bears told by my six year old and two year old children. There is a difference in their renditions. Avanka used big words like realized and complained and Kiran started with “Once upon a time there was a girl” and moved quickly to “the end”. It gave me great joy being there for this story telling session. We clapped at the end of each story.

How can I be more available for them? You might suggest better time management, delegation of the drudgery in my daily work and becoming more attentive . You are quite right. How about, I get closer to God and rise up, to my true purpose?

Are you like me, a Father, who is energized, this Father’s day? Well, if you are, join me in honoring my Father and yours. Join me in celebrating Fatherhood. Let us pray to our Father in heaven to give us the grace to do what He taught us to do – to listen, to correct lovingly, to provide, protect and nurture. Above all to show love to our own and other peoples children.

About the Author
Dr Melvin D’lima is a Coach, Mentor and Financial Advisor especially to Founders of Small Businesses. He is committed Christian who professes Jesus Christ as his personal

Advice to my younger self

Photo credit Dr Josiah Sarpong and Unsplash.com

My daughter, Tanya, turned 31 years old, Sunday. I have peace of mind and I sleep well at night. I am in a loving, paternal mood this week. If you are on the right side of 40, I have some fatherly advice for you. This is borne from experience gained in an eventful and colorful life in which I made many wrong choices and a few good ones. I choose to speak a blessing on your life, my child. If I could turn back the hands of time and be thirty-one again, what would I do differently?

I would treat myself well. I would respect family and friends a lot more. I would develop a healthy respect for and relationship with money. This would give me the wherewithal to treat family and friends right. I would demand my rightful dues.I would pay all my bills on time and not run up unnecessary credit. Saving and investment would be a priority. I would tithe (or give to charitable causes) 10% of my after tax income. I would save and invest 20% of my income in Life insurance policies and other vehicles to accumulate wealth and multiply my money. I would save for school fees in a high interest Money Market Fund. I would hire a Financial Consultant the way I hire the best Doctors and Lawyers.

Water under the bridge for me? No way. I am opening old wounds, learning new tricks and giving cash its due respect. I am a Financial Consultant who is highly motivated to lead Nexgen Kenyans down the path of prosperity and peace of mind.

If you have read thus far you may well ask “What three things can I do right now?

1.Call or SMS me on 0720297433 for an appointment to review your savings and investment plan for free.

2.Call me to walk with you down the road to freedom from debt for free

3.Call me to show you what to read to grow wise for free

If you are above 40 pass this message on to somebody you care about.

Wish you a blessed day.

Dr Melvin D’lima

Tel 0720297433

Wealth management Fund

Do you have KES 1M upwards?

If you are planning to invest in the NSE or put it in a high interest Bank Fixed Deposit Receipt, hands up and take a step back.Did you know the CBK base interest rate is 7% but banks factor in "the cost of money" so the best interest you can get from a Kenyan Bank is 5.9%.Would you be willing to learn how to earn an interest of 9.3% for a 3 month lock down period in a properly run Wealth Management fund at a highly reputable Financial Institution? Talk to me on 0720297433.My name is Dr Melvin Dlima and I am a Financial Advisor #MoneyMatterswithMelvin

Are you often an ATM in an emergency?

Dr Moraa drove in to the compound in her KES1.6M second hand Toyota and stepped out. Moraa is a frontline worker at the national teaching and referral hospital, KNH in these challenging times. Dressed smartly she settled down at the Nairobi suburban convenience store/café with a Capuccino in front of her. Onions sell at KES 500 a Kilogramme here but customers are buying convenience and that comes at a premium. 

We maintained a social distance of sorts. I asked “You must be busy”. Moraa replied “The benches at KNH casualty are empty. Most of the cases we see are battered women at the receiving end of domestic violence which seems to be on the rise at this time.” I quipped “The experience at KNH is replicated across private clinics and hospitals across the land. Maybe the economy is doing so poorly that folks do not have any disposable income to attend to health matters”.

We went on to make additional small talk about some of the folks in the café who had high end radios and packed guns. She said “ I call these guys Interpol agents. They all walk with a swagger”. Many of them had bought Pizzas and ducked into their SUV’s in a hurry. The curfew hour was a scant fifteen minutes away

I then came to the business of the day. ”As a Doctor, how many financial emergencies do you deal with from relatives?” She replied, while toying with the handle of her empty coffee mug “I am overwhelmed, every week I get about 5 requests from my home area for cash , in this season”. I swung in “Do you have an Emergency Fund?”. The answer was pretty quick “What is that?” I went into the details and suggested she set up an emergency fund equivalent to eight times her monthly household expenses. She added “Where do I start raising such a colossal amount of money?”. “You could start with as little as KES 1000” I replied.

“Is this a typical Doctor?”, I couldn’t help asking myself. She had taken an emergency loan a few months ago in order to top up for purchase of her Toyota from what she realized from selling her old car. She was paying a mortgage. Moraa had two Life Insurance policies and an Education policy for her son in Form 2 in a public school. For now there were no school fees to be paid. Clearly she was overstretched financially and had borrowed heavily.

As the sun set on our conversation and we headed our separate ways she promised to contact me in a weeks time to start the process of setting up an emergency fund. And it only takes KES 1000 to start.