*A short story about landing clients for your website building business* Sometimes getting a client means being in a room and telling people you code. That' how I landed my first client. It was a business workshop pale Westlands. It was a 2 day workshop organised by Mesh. I missed the first day because I was busy. Busy sleeping 😴. The next day, inspired by the guilt I felt missing out on the first day which was awesome from what I could gather from the pictures, I woke up early nika panguza vumbi kwa longi (Struggles za Juja) na off I went to Westlands. At best I was hoping to make a few friends and maybe learn a thing or two about branding. 1hr kwa metro, nilikuwa westlands. The workshop ilikuwa pale Deloitte, na I was dressed up like your average comrade. Nywele mwisho kuona comb ilikuwa after highschool so the watchman was very skeptical about letting me in. After mvutano kidogo, my friend, one of the organisers came through akamshow I was cool Nikaingia. I went onto the workshop where I found corporate guys running the masterclass. A few guys walikuwa pale, normal chaps like you and me and also some gorgeous ladies. Being the late comer tukaanza a fresh shots of intros. *Nikaji introduce kama Robi na I build websites.* After the intros we dove into the workshop where branding was being talked about na corporate lady akatumia Akothe kama a good example of great branding. At the time Akothe was being wedded to her 50th husband. Mimi after kuskia Akothe I stopped paying attention. My attention came back after imefika masaa ya kuserve food. A freaking buffet was in front of me. Nikama sema shukran to the God of Abraham amenionekania leo. Your boy alikuwa ainame that day. Tukamaliza kuserve and we went on kudishi. While tunadishi tukimake conversation, tukaanza kudiscuss ma business ideas Kenya. For context, we were all business guys. Kulikuwa na msee anauza fruits. Alafu kulikuwa na boys anauza furniture, mwingine anafanya prints ya mashati, while your boy alikuwa anaunda websites. One of the corporate guys akasema anataka a website. Alikuwa in the car dealership space. At this point, kuniita beginner was an overstatement. I had never made anything greater than a website ya hello world. Lakini I remembered the pep talk I had with one of my friends. "Wewe form ikijileta sema unaweza then you'll find out later." But the devil on my shoulder was like, we wacha ikae. Unajua hauwezi. Before I could answer, Kamau, the guy who printed shirts, akakumbuka your boy alisema he builds websites. Chap chap akachapia huyo msee, "My guy here anaunda websites si mlink." Na hivo ndio nikaland my first client. Sometimes being in a room and telling people what you do, gets you hired. Of course also attending non tech events takes you there faster as the competition is fewer. Kukuwa devfest na kusema I build websites isn't as impressive as being in an event for chefs and "saying mimi huunda websites". One earns you clout, the other earns you a 'apo ndio pia mimi nilianzia'. Moral of the story: 1. Attend tech events to grow your knowledge. 2. Attend non tech events to hunt for clients. That's two minutes. See you in the next one! 1️⃣ Cheers 🥂