This archive report was first published on 27 October 2021.
Jan Okonji: Lessons from a Sh. 30 Million Business Sale Deal ¶
Published on October 27, 2021
Jan Okonji is a startup business consultant and coach who has partnered with the Pan African business support hub SNDBX. He runs his own company, Business Growth Solutions, where he serves as the resident startup expert.
Okonji's journey to becoming a successful business consultant was not without its challenges. In 2013, he lost out on a potential Sh. 30 million sale of a business application. He had just left corporate employment and was looking to make a splash in the mobile app world.
Okonji poured in about Sh. 3 million to develop an interactive smart-home mobile app but his ego consistently got in the way. He did not seek a business mentor, look at better financing alternatives, or think through his startup strategy model. As a result, he lost out on a potential big pay day and a good return on investment.
Despite this setback, Okonji has been fortunate to have had a great 13-year career in the Oil Industry before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey in 2013. He recalls a dilemma between two internal job promotion opportunities during his days in employment. One opportunity involved taking a pay-cut and moving up to an African-wide role, while the other was a country role with an immediate salary increase but no growth out of Kenya.
Okonji chose the latter and got an immediate salary increase, but 3 years later, he knew he would have been doing great in an African role with a much higher salary. He learned a valuable lesson from this experience: view your losses as a lesson and not a death sentence. Within every loss is an opportunity to learn, grow, and become better.
Okonji also shares his approach to saving money, which is to stop spending what you do not have. He advises against borrowing money to buy things you do not need to impress people you do not like. Instead, he diversifies his money in instruments he has knowledge of, such as trusts, policies, commercial paper, money markets, and stocks.
Okonji's mentors have taught him the importance of balance in life and money. They emphasize that spirit, mind, health, relationships, and money should all be balanced out and managed to the level you're capable of. He advises against sacrificing one over the other and to learn to be patient, as true happiness is a journey and not a destination.
