BiasharaSME

Biashara SME delivers valuable information and tools to promote financial literacy as well as networking and mentorship opportunities to help small businesses grow. It offers a unique combination of diverse content and an interactive platform with a professional team of writers and experts.

Our Philosophy can be summarised in three words: Share. Learn. Grow.
Members seek and SHARE knowledge, LEARN from each other and GROW their businesses thereby boosting economic growth.

Promoting the Arts
A decade ago our TV and radio stations were full of foreign content which the broadcasters justified by saying that local content was too expensive to produce or buy and in any case advertisers didn’t want their brands next to local programmes.

How times have changed! Today local musicians are much sought after corporate brand ambassadors minting millions in the process. Local TV shows are now the rage and actors and musicians are now able to live off their talent. While all this is good, coverage of the entertainment scene has tended to focus on the personal lives of actors and musicians.

The story of the contribution of the entertainment industry to the Kenyan economy is not being told well or at all.

Biashara SME will lift the curtain to show the machinery behind the films, TV shows, music, and radio programs we can’t live without.

We will go behind the scenes and glamorous faces to uncover the nuts and bolts of daily life in the industry, including the challenges of digitising content, promoting stars and shows, protecting intellectual property, developing talent, employing the latest technology, and getting projects done on time and within budget.

We will carry stories on advertising and product placement, the power of reviews and reviewers, the cancerous spread of piracy, the battles between free to air and pay TV companies (and the threat to both from mobile companies).

Our goal is to provide insight into an industry that generates more conversations on a daily basis than any other. We will offer a comprehensive treatment of the business side of film, television, music, books, and the performing arts (theatre, dance, and poetry).

Biashara SME was created by Wanjiru Waithaka, a creative writer and freelance journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya and founder of Rehtse Media Ltd which owns this site.

She has written or co-authored three books and numerous articles in newspapers and magazines. Her first book, The Unbroken Spirit (2005) won third prize in the adult fiction category of the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature 2007. The award is the biggest and most prestigious literary award in the country.

Her second book, A Profile of Kenyan Entrepreneurs (2012) a collaboration with Evans Majeni, features a dozen of Kenya’s most successful entrepreneurs. It was published by East African Educational Publishers (Eaep) and seeks to nurture the entrepreneurship culture in Kenya by featuring home grown role models.

Her third book Tenacious Courage, the autobiography of S.K. Macharia, founder and chairman of Royal Media Services has been published and will be launched soon.

Wanjiru is currently writing her fourth book, a novel.

For more information about these books and her other work please visit:
http://www.wanjiruwaithaka.com

Follow Wanjiru on Twitter: @CiruWaithaka

Our Team

Editor: Wanjiru Waithaka

Writers:

Winifred Ambunya has written on small and medium enterprises for a number of media publications. She also runs an investment company which invests in this niche. Winifred specifically writes on financing SME's but broadens the topics to include diverse and interesting subjects which look into how entrepreneurs succeed or fail.

Gilbert Ng'ang'a is a Nairobi based freelance journalist with several years of experience in writing on government, policy and business.

Becky Mundia is a business journalist with five years of local and international experience, mainly reporting on macroeconomic issues and equity news in the East African region. Becky is a multimedia journalist with skills in print, TV, radio and websites. When she is not writing about fiscal and monetary policies of the East African countries, she enjoys writing features on the arts, entertainment and small businesses.

Liz Wambui is a credit controller with a Nairobi Securities Exchange listed manufacturing firm. She is certified by Kenya School of Credit Management, CPA (K) and has a Degree in Business Studies.