WOMANOFPASSION: All about events

Kezy Mukiri is the founder of Zuri Ignite, an events management company. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Kezy handed her resignation letter in October 2007. She registered her company – Kezy Designs – in November and by December she was in business with her first client. “We rented out chairs, draping and decor to weddings,” she says.
  • And this is where Kezy defined her niche: Kezy brought strategy to events. “We started to use events as a platform to tell a brand’s story. Events became a communication tool, a marketing arena. How we did it is, we develop and customise concepts that are particular to a brand.
  • These programmes work with women entrepreneurs – locally and globally – to increase their capacity in business through mentorship, networking and access to capital.

Plenty was going on for Kezy Mukiri, 36, by the time she was admitted to the Bar in August 2007. She already had two degrees under her belt (an undergrad in law and a postgraduate in International Studies), she was a commercial litigator for land and family matters, she was newly married, and – most importantly – her spirit was in constant conflict. “I liked my work,” the mother of three explains. “What I didn’t like was that I couldn’t guarantee a probable outcome to my clients. And that I wasn’t making an impact to the society outside of me.”

It was an old man’s eight-year-old title deed case that tipped the scales: “One day this old man came unannounced to our office and asked to see me. He told me he didn’t have much time left; he wanted to introduce me to his son. His son would take over the case. The old man had inherited this problem from his own father, now here he was passing it on to his son.”

Kezy had no entrepreneurial background but she knew that her knack for detail and project-oriented mindset were skills she could employ elsewhere. She toyed with a few business ideas and settled on events management because “Mercy, one of the suppliers to my wedding, offered to mentor me for six weeks. She invested in me.”

Kezy handed her resignation letter in October 2007. She registered her company – Kezy Designs – in November and by December she was in business with her first client. “We rented out chairs, draping and decor to weddings,” she says.

The New Year seemed promising for Kezy, what with two weddings already booked. But the post poll chaos swept in and put the country at a standstill. Kezy was jittery during this lull. Business resumed at a slow pace in late June. Kezy continued with the rentals for that year and the next two years that followed.

DEFINED NICHE

There would also be the weddings, home functions and corporate events she would manage, but the truth was, this business was not sustainable. “How far would I go offering a service that a thousand and one other events companies in the city were offering?” says Kezy. “I needed to stand out.”

As the business ploughed on and its vision morphed, Kezy saw a gap in how the industry was managing events. “The client’s expense of running an event wasn’t delivering a return or contributing to the company’s bottom line,” says Kezy.

And this is where Kezy defined her niche: Kezy brought strategy to events. “We started to use events as a platform to tell a brand’s story. Events became a communication tool, a marketing arena. How we did it is, we develop and customise concepts that are particular to a brand; these concepts control the brand’s narrative. Planning events was now no longer the core of our business. Our business is to manage brands.”

Last year August, the business rebranded to Zuri Ignite.

Kezy had partly achieved what she had set out to do when she walked out of the law firm: she had proved that she could turn an idea into a thriving enterprise that supported livelihoods. But was she making an impact to the society outside of her?

Impact followed the recognition she received for her work. “In 2015,” she says, “I was selected amongst African leaders to join the Mandela Washington Fellowship. The fellowship is a flagship project of President Obama’s YALI, Young African Leaders Initiative.” Later that year, “I was selected amongst women entrepreneurs across the globe for the Vital Voices Global Partnership fellowship.” In addition, “I sit on the board of OWIT, the Organisation of Women in International Trade. And I’ve recently been selected into a pilot programme of Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Women.”

These programmes work with women entrepreneurs – locally and globally – to increase their capacity in business through mentorship, networking and access to capital.

Getting Kezy for this interview took some reschedules. The first time I called her, Kezy told me, “I am attending a workshop at USIU.” Second time she said she was taking time off work to go recharge. “I’ve been feeling unwell since yesterday,” she said in a text. “Fatigue, I guess.” The next week she said she was participating in a YALI conference at Safari Park. “Can we reschedule to next week Wednesday?” She and I eventually met at her office in Ridgeways.

Kezy believes her two degrees greatly fed into the entrepreneur she is today. “My mum felt that I was wasting my degrees. But I told her I would not be where I am without the education she gave me. I advise women to complete their degrees.”

KEZY'S INSIGHTS

  • In the first year of business, you will likely suffer an identity and esteem crisis. People near and dear to you will wonder why you are struggling and what your business is all about. It is here that most entrepreneurs lose their footing. Don’t lose yours.
  • You will scale up faster if you identify the subject matter of your business and fully understand your product.
  • Invest in your research and development: I work with teams of young and creative professionals who we train often.
  • An entrepreneur must remain growth-oriented and community-focused: Grow as you uplift others.