Cover Story
Shahid Yakub, Doing Everything with Honesty and Integrity to Succeed in Business
This article and story featured on the cover of Inversk Magazine January 2021 Issue. Download your FREE copy here.
Entrepreneur Shahid Yakub is not only inputting superhuman hours in Moto Moto Africa Limited but a philanthropist at heart. He has repeatedly distributed foodstuffs to vulnerable members of the society and even helped in the building of mosques. His outstanding work as a businessman led him to be the Founder of the year 2020.
Yakub started doing business a decade ago by selling phones and accessories while coupling up as a high school student. After completing studies in 2011, he got an attachment at First Community Bank, where he discovered that employment wasn’t his niche…
“After that small attachment, I kept that in my mind that I’ll never do an employment,” he told Inverk’s Kimani Patrick. “At a certain point in life, you’ll get to realize what your actual potential is.”
Shahid told Kimani that his father is his mentor and he shared his sentiments about being employed with him. “What I’m doing in the bank is a waste of my time,” Yakub said to his father. “I can do a lot more outside there when I’m independent and doing it for myself. Not being told what to do.”
At that moment, Yakub says, is when his father realized his son has just as much as an entrepreneurial mind as he did. Same year, 2011, his father fell ill to a point where they closed down one branch of the restaurant and was about to close the other. Before that, however, Yakub quickly thought on his feet and he decided he can take over the business. “Your exit is going to make a loss, so give it to me because either way, it’s a loss.”
Yakub planned to cater to the restaurant’s expenses with his savings for 2 to 3 months and after that is when he could decide whether or not the business will still run.
At this time, Yakub was 20 years old and that is when he says his business training officially began. Taking the restaurant from his father as the manager in 2012, he says he did not know whatsoever of running it.
Soon after taking over, he began with what he calls “minor transformations” such as incorporating food deliveries to “re-attract” their customers. At this point, Yakub also joined the University of Nairobi, Lower Kabete School of Business to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree. His days were torn between school and the restaurant, where he would retire at late hours of the night and wake up early in the morning. “My work was to come to open the restaurant then go to uni, come back, spend most the time here (at the restaurant).”
Yakub’s vision was that in the next 3 to 5 years of managing the restaurant, it would generate profit enough to expand it.
By 2015, Moto Moto Fish and Chips, the family restaurant, had gathered enough profit to make a decision which was to transform it into a modern fast-food restaurant. Yakub also began investing in an IT company which started to pick up. Despite studying business in school, Yakub said his interest had always been in safety and security as well as green energy solutions.
He looked for ways in which he could incorporate his younger brother who was interested in IT into the business and expands. In 2015, the two of them started Moto Moto Africa as an IT company. Yakub opted to retain the name Moto Moto to continue his father’s legacy that had been built for the past 25 years. By 2017, they managed to expand the business to encompass safety and security as well. Later they got into a blue economy, green energy solutions and interior decor.
Philanthropy: Yakub’s philanthropy life started even before his business life. He involves himself in charity work partnering with others to assist those in need. During the Holy month of Ramadhan, it is routine for him to participate in the “Feed a Family Program” whereby they distribute food hampers and on Eid al-Adha, they distribute meat to families. He is also actively involved in building mosques throughout the country. These acts have led him to win International ACFE outstanding achievement in community outreach and service award.
Yakub believes that by doing good, goodwill also comes his way, “I can speak personally that each time I have left for charity work, I may not have reached halfway and received a business deal.” He said.
Yakub believes in aspiring to inspire others and means it. Getting into the business world at a young age, he shares some great lessons he learned with time. He believes that these lessons will benefit anyone in business and upcoming entrepreneurs. Here are seven of them;
- Knowing the business doesn’t matter, but how to run one that counts:
Yakub says he got into the food business without knowing how it works when he took over the restaurant from his father. “I didn’t have the know-how of the food industry; I didn’t have the know-how of running a business.” He, however, added that he later got an idea of how to run a business from the knowledge he gathered in school. “What I learned is how a business should be run theoretically, from a finance, accounting, sales and marketing perspective.” He is grateful for the fact that he had his own business where he could apply all the principles, he learned in school practically.
Later on, Yakub proves further that it is knowing how to run a business that matters when he expands the company to a modern fast-food restaurant, IT, Interior décor, blue economy and green energy solutions, all of these being industries he did not know about.
His knowledge of running a business is what enabled him to venture into other sectors. “For me, it’s not about knowing the business, it’s about running a business. I know how to run a business.”
- Your business strategy should be to find a niche, not be a cliché;
When getting into business, you need to think about solving a problem that no one else is, or solving a problem that another business is facing. This means that originality is key and Yakub stresses this. “If someone came to me today and told me they want to start an IT business of selling hardware, I’ll tell them you’re stupid,” he says. “If you take a walk-in town, every second to the third shop is selling the same thing. So, what are you going to do that is unique?”
He says instead of jumping into a business that is saturated, figure out what problems those businesses undergo and strive to solve them. That way, you would have discovered a niche you can specialize in.
- Be prepared to make a loss, not a profit;
To make high profits, you have to take high risks and the high risks come with big losses as well. According to Yakub, a true businessman or entrepreneur walks into a risk prepared to “take a hit” and not make a profit. “If you are mentally prepared to take a hit, you look at the worst-case scenario together with how you’re going to recover,” he said.
He adds that when investors come to him, they are bothered more about the extent of the risk as opposed to the amount of profit they will make. He stresses that one has to assure the investors that there are ways they can recover from the loss for them to trust you. “If you can guarantee protection for the investors, they will invest in you.”
Yakub further adds that many youths go wrong in business by being too optimistic and later get heartbroken and discouraged when they incur losses they had not prepared for.
- Focus on what you will save, not what you will make;
If you spend more than what you make, you have not made a profit. To truly earn, you need to save, that is when you will see the difference. Yakub says that one thing the food industry taught him was to not look at how much he makes, but at how much you save.
“When that fryer is on and no chips are being fried, that is electricity paid for nothing. That’s wastage and where my profits are going down. If I save that, that is where I’m making money,” says Yakub. According to him, the “crème” of profit is not in the margin, it is in the savings and therefore, one needs to avoid wastage as much as possible.
- It’s not just about you, empower those around you;
In 2015, when Yakub began investing in IT, he decided to leverage his brother’s IT knowledge to get the company running, thereby empowering his brother as well. The idea here he says is about “partnering with like-minded people and those who are masters in those other industries. It is to start something small and empower a person in an area they are good at.”
Yakub also admits that despite his success, he drives a salon car and not a Range Rover-like what most people expect. “I’d rather invest that one Range into a business so three or four other people can get their saloon cars. That is a mindset that people don’t have.”
- You need to give to receive;
Yakub is a strong advocate for charity work which was taught to him at a tender age by his family, culture, and religion. He believes that “in giving, is receiving.”
Often, apart from business, he engages in acts of charity such as building mosques, offering food relief, and visiting orphanages. He further adds that the only way to appreciate what you have is to look at those who don’t have it. “We have seen drought; floods and we have seen almost every situation that requires help. What we have seen has made us appreciate life,” said Yakub.
- Do everything with honesty and sincerity;
When Yakub’s grandfather passed on, those two words were what he left in his will; honesty and sincerity. From a very young age, these two words have been a principle in everything that Yakub does. He strongly believes that earning an honest living will make you content with everything you have, while a dishonest one will never satisfy you.
“If you make Sh 10 profit, with honesty and sincerity, you will appreciate it, but if you take it illegally, it will never be appreciated.”
These lessons are what made Shahid Yakub the man he is today and what he attributes his success to. He also believes that consistency and persistency is the key motivation for any entrepreneur. Lastly and most importantly, he adds that if you strengthen your relationship with God, your parents, and your kin, nothing will stop you from excelling.
These business philosophies have enabled him to network and collaborate with different associations and branches of Government. Shahid Yakub is a global player, making vital moves in networking and linking various global companies with local ones in order to establish growth. He has been one of the frontrunners for a revolutionary transformation of the Safety and Security industry. In addition, he has played a key role in the formation of innovative policies for the regulation and progression of the industry. This has been made possible by being parts of organizations and agencies like the International Police Association (IPA) and the Protective and Safety Association of Kenya (PROSAK), among others.
“I don’t need to impress. That is the mindset: “Aspire to Inspire.”
