Having started a graphic design, social media and digital marketing company, Eric Waibochi realised that many clients needed a fully-fledged 360-degree marketing and public relations platform.
My initial target was purely money, but I later noticed a huge demand for quality design, social media and digital marketing services, so I had to figure out how to support Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs), begins Mr Waibochi, the founder and executive creative director of Smith Aegis, a marketing, public relations agency.
Their strategy from the onset was to figure out the needs of the various brands and why they were not meeting them (needs) were they expensive, or were they getting the wrong services? They had to do deep market research on his targeted clientele base, their current needs and tailor Smith Aegis services quickly for that.
Chiki Kuruka jigs all the way to the bank Why I started company for staff background screening in KenyaOur work was and is still driven by two things, creativity and quality, Eric says.
Mr Waibochi adds thathis biggest obstacle to landing big contracts was the age factor. He would occasionally find himself in boardrooms competing with much older players and he ended up losing business deals on the presumption that younger entrepreneurs cannot handle big assignments.
It is quite undermining because being young doesnt mean one cannot handle big assignments. I had to figure it out because I couldnt afford to lose deals based on that perception, Mr Waibochi recalls.
Despite being a crowded field that includes multinational marketing and PR agencies, Mr Waibochi doesnt consider them as his competition because Smith Aegis has defined its target market, which is largely multinationals, large corporations and organisations.
We have figured it out, curated our services and tailored them to specific clients needs as opposed to one shoe fits it all approach, he explains, adding that landing international brands is hard because it requires patience and knowledge of how they operate.
He adds that one key challenge they face in the industry is price undercutting by other agencies, but two things have kept Smith Aegis abreast creativity and quality of work.
You can undercut, but as long as you are not speaking to client needs, target audience, doing it creatively and encompassing quality, it wont make sense, he says.
In 2020, MrWaibochi signed a lease agreement, and paid a years rent space but could not occupy the office due to unfinished structural works.
We sought legal redress but ended up losing the court case and money. I learned the art of being an underdog and carrying out due diligence before committing myself to a business deal, he says.
Over the years, Mr Waibochi has also learned to cope with losing clients to other agencies which he says is a norm, but says that Smith Aegis has one of the best client retention scores in the market.
Another of their lessons is on human resource management. He says managing people, especially a young workforce, does not come easy.
I am a huge advocate of young guys, but they can be a solid headache due to their professional inexperience and work ethics, Eric opines.
He advises that as an entrepreneur, one needs a good human capital manager and impeccable recruitment process because bad hiring is bad business anywhere.
