WOMAN OF PASSION: In the business of events

Lynkie Kang’ethe Mwendwa, the founder and CEO of Lynkie Events Limited. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • My journey to entrepreneurship can be traced back to my third year at university in 2008 when I decided to move out of the hostel and rent my own house.
  • I felt that by moving out, I would have enough freedom and space to start a business.

Lynkie Kang’ethe Mwendwa’s urge to jump out of the employment nest and start her own enterprise was too strong to resist. She speaks to Simon Mburu.

“My name is Lynkie Kang’ethe Mwendwa. I am the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lynkie Events Limited, an events management firm based in Nairobi. I also serve as the Dean of Students at Business Incubation Africa. Previously, I have served as president at Business Network International.

Although I started my business three years ago, I have always been passionate about event management. In fact, before I formally ventured into entrepreneurship, I had worked with both local and international companies as an informal events manager. At the beginning, events management was just a hobby that I practised on the sidelines of my job at Old Mutual, and later at Motion Pictures.

But my journey to entrepreneurship can be traced back to my third year at university in 2008 when I decided to move out of the hostel and rent my own house. I felt that by moving out, I would have enough freedom and space to start a business. After moving out, I suddenly realised that I had so much free time. I decided to start doing events management and selling clothes from my house. I also participated in the Miss Universities beauty pageants as a stylist and planner. This helped me hone my events management skills.

Within months, I began planning trips for different universities. It was not easy. I remember that in one of my business deals, I got an opportunity to plan for a trip to Mombasa for students from Catholic University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and Mount Kenya University. Most of the students who booked had never been to Mombasa before.

Everything went according to plan until the date the students were scheduled to return from the trip. Some decided not to come back, saying ‘they wanted to enjoy life’. The drama almost got me expelled from the university. As everyone around me had expected, I started looking for a formal job shortly after graduating in 2010.

Fortunately, I did not send out too many job applications before I was recruited by Old Mutual in 2011. In 2012, I left Old Mutual and joined Motion Pictures. But three years down the line, I concluded that employment was not the place for me. I had this overwhelming urge to jump out of the employment nest and start my own enterprise. The calling to be an entrepreneur was too loud that I could not ignore it.

In early 2015, I started looking for an angel investor who could buy into my idea of starting an events business. Luckily, I got a start-up loan of Sh500,000 from one of my early customers, who had believed in my small events and fashion hustles. She was also so generous that she allowed my start-up to ride on her already established fashion business brand called Lynkie Fashions. This was a boost and an opportunity that I could only have dreamed of. It helped me erode much of the business administration issues that new start-ups face. I will forever be indebted to her.

Notwithstanding, I struggled to manage the fashion and events management, especially now that my business was riding on my friend’s fashion brand. This did not last long. I got a mentor who held my hand and helped me to create business processes and structures. This ensured that the two businesses did not eat into each other’s cash inflows and interoperability.

Since launching in 2015, my business has managed to serve several companies both locally and internationally. Overtime, referrals have been our greatest source of business. But this though does not mean that we have been immune to losses.

So far, 2017 goes down as the year the business made its heaviest loss. It was during the general elections. We booked a client from the United States, who had travelled in for an event. Days to the event, it was announced that the country would be going for the repeat presidential elections. Consequently, the event was cancelled. We had invested so many resources, time and money into it, and in the end, we helplessly watched as it all went down the drain.

There are also times when I have doubted my resolution to venture into entrepreneurship. Business is a roller-coaster ride. The highs are so high and the lows too low. In those low moments, when heavy bills start making demands, I have at some point wished I was employed. The constant worry over how employees whose livelihoods depend on the business is also not easy to bear. Today, though, my challenges are in ensuring timely deliveries from suppliers.

Over and above, I have kept going, knowing I am in a field that I am passionate about. Each day I rise to go to work, I am inspired and challenged to innovate and offer better services that can ultimately make my business the events company of choice in the African market. This is not just a pipe dream. With professionalism, excellence and constantly exceeding our customers’ expectations, I believe my business will be spreading outside Kenya within the next five years.”