A Step to the Next Challenge – How we Made it to Year One

Like many startups, Ngamia Haulers Platform (NHP) has a story to tell as we approach our 1st anniversary.  For us, it has been a combination of bittersweet experiences as we brace ourselves for an even bigger impact in Kenya and subsequently the entire continent of Africa.  The idea that drives Ngamia innovation was conceived way back before it was finally registered on 14th August 2019 with a mission to create a scalable digital platform to disrupt the transport and logistics industry by providing a different perspective of how consumers and service providers (transporters) transact daily business. The journey has been so exciting for everyone who took up a role and position at Ngamia, and it’s still so to date.   As we were just starting or settling in for a rollercoaster ride, the world had something else waiting, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and big.  The young team of 11, an odd number by any standards was now under financial pressure, disease threat, and forced to work from home and still deliver the expected results. In the beginning, it was a bit shaky but once everybody got the swing of things, the performance became better and virtual collaboration became part of life.  The number and just by the fact that young minds with energy, ambitions were involved, the survival instincts kicked in to be able to occupy the technology space we were representing.  We have kept doing practical things consistently which made us survive year one.  What would we say is our Mantra? Continuous Improvement, the Kaizen Methodology.  Through these philosophical footprints, Ngamia team continuously keeps the ball rolling by: –
  1. Start
The key to success is to ensure that you start.  If you don’t, there is no way to measure progress or make changes and improvements to the idea. The genesis of failure is procrastination which is a thief of time, that gives way to talking oneself out of an idea.  At Ngamia we suppressed all that and started anyway while making small changes along the way.  The most overwhelming thing should be acting and socializing the concepts with the team to iron out the processes and loopholes before taking the next step.  This way, you proceed. This way you get support from the team and traction to overcome any challenges.
  1. Focus
Focus is of great importance when carrying out any activity.  Sticking one’s head out to be counted and getting involved in the game and giving your all-in terms of resources, time and undivided attention is key in whatever venture.  Working at home has challenges of being distracted, but with proper planning and schedules, everything becomes a walk in the park in achieving the set goals.
  1. Communication
At Ngamia, one of the breathtaking traditions we have kept since the beginning of the pandemic is morning updates through virtual conferencing on alternating days of the week. This has helped us keep tabs of what we are doing as a team and also log in our completed tasks. Using various online collaborative platforms, it’s easier now to create backups and share documents.  As much as sometimes we have office hours, there is still that aspect of keeping communication channels open to swiftly synergize and collaborate on Ngamia activities – No one is an island.
  1. Expanding
To expand the mind, we must seek knowledge because information is power.  At Ngamia we encourage associates to be studious because the culture would expand the success horizon for self, society and our company.  This has broadened our space of operation and “Ngamianese” has become domain experts and thought leaders in mobile and web software development, digital marketing, research, business, finance, customer service, and this isn’t an end to itself because we are just getting started – Just keeping ourselves up to date with current affairs to broaden our perspective of life and things that matter.
  1. Agility
One of the things we take pride in as Ngamia staff is the ability to make moves swiftly and easily. Being agile is something we continue to perfect as we move forward. Being a lean team, we have learnt to multi-task and support each other in handling huge tasks as we embrace Agile Methodology of getting things done. With these five pointers, we have been able to make our way to this 1st birthday.  Indeed, challenges were encountered, but our consistent efforts made us forge ahead and fall forward. As we now celebrate this milestone, a word of encouragement to any start-up – Keep working with a goal of achieving your objectives.  
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