Johanne Sande is the managing director at Adnest Africa, an Out Of Home advertising business that offers customers unique and custom tailored outdoor advertising and signage solutions to help maximise their revenue. Bizna Kenya sat down with Johanne Sande for a chat on her business journey, how she started, and the lessons she has accumulated along the way that you can takeaway:
What inspired you to get into entrepreneurship?
I have always had an entrepreneurial leaning. In my university and early employment years, I was the person that spotted business ideas and opportunities while in observing people going about their day. I always knew I would become an entrepreneur. However, then trigger moment came when I got to the end of the line with a toxic manager in an organisation where the culture enabled abusive management behaviour by looking the other way.
What’s the most unpleasant thing about entrepreneurship?
On the personal front of compensation or remuneration, it is the uncertainty of my own remuneration, while simultaneously being responsible for ensuring certainty of my employees’ remuneration. On the business front, it is the uncertainty that comes from external factors outside of my control to avoid or eliminate. A glaring and very present example is the global pandemic that had businesses reeling in its wake.
How do you handle failure?
I espouse the principle of failing forward – embracing failure as a stepping stone to success by taking the lessons and applying them to future endeavours.
What’s your greatest achievement so far?
Aside from raising a brilliant child? I would simply say, Adnest Africa not closing its doors due to the on-going pandemic. A lot of businesses have had to close shop with many losing their daily wages/monthly income, but we’re still here and growing by the day. Not to discount the difficult decisions that had to be made as a company along the way to weather the storm. We had to make a number of drastic changes operationally which have helped Adnest Africa weather the storm and position us for recovery.
If you had one billion shillings, how would you spend it?
My focus would be on data-driven OOH (Out of Home) advertising solutions. Currently, the market is still driven by a lot of estimates and assumptions around OOH data with the major hindrance being the massive investment that goes into providing data driven solutions; unlike broadcast and digital media that have readily available numbers. Currently, I am working on providing our clientele with more data-driven Out of Home (outdoor advertising) solutions. The world is moving digital and there’s a lot room to play with this in the OOH space.
What’s your best or worst experience with employees?
Worst experience – a trusted employee made use of company contacts and resources to build his own business. Instead of Adnest Africa realizing sales, this individual abused the trust that I placed in him to divert sales to his own business. I am a big believer and living example of the phrase “never burn your bridges” as my previous employers are currently my biggest supporters/clients.
How easy is it to access to finance in Kenya?
As an SME, it has become extremely difficult to access financing in Kenya. Banking institutions require some form of security, more so in form of a title deed to get access to a mere overdraft or LPO financing. Should you be in a position to access financing from the said institutions, the demands and costs from the bank supersede the actual amount one is requesting. An example is in the recent past, we attempted to take a loan for Sh. 1.7 million to finance office machinery. The bank we approached was willing to give us this loan on condition we commit to them a logbook and all office assets as security which easily surpasses Sh. 8 million. Needless to say, we rejected the said offer. With SMEs sustaining the Kenyans economy, financial institutions need to loosen the noose around the necks of SMEs more so with the support of the government
What’s your best client experience?
There have been quite a number of success stories over the years however I’ll focus on the most recent. During the first half of 2021, my former colleague approached Izwe Loans, a client we had not dealt with prior, to pitch our transit media platform known as StickerRide. At the time, they were not ready to come onboard however several months later, the very same client reached out to me to get a refresher on how StickerRide work and how it would benefit their brand. After a second pitch to them, they opted to give it a go as a trial. The campaign is currently on-going and the feedback from the client so far is nothing but positive. Prior to approaching brands, it is key to research the product/s and link the ideal advertising platform that would be suitable to them. This increases ones odds to winning a brand over in addition to adding value to the said brand.
What’s your parting shot?
I would like to close this interview with one of my favourite quotes by actress Carrie Fisher, to my fellow entreprenuers: “Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it, and eventually, the confidence will follow.”
