BUSINESS NAME REGISTERATION IN KENYA

By Masta Media Invests----- (A taxpayer in Kirinyaga County)

Business Names are more commonly referred to as Sole Proprietor, BN2, or Partnerships, and is registered under the Business Names Act.

1. NAME SEARCH –The proposed business name must be reserved pending (30 days) registration.  Application for reservation should be made in writing and accompanied with the prescribed fee.

2. FORM BN 2 - Once a name is approved the applicant(s) should complete a statement of particulars form (BN 2) obtainable from the Registry

3 Certificate of registration BN 3 is processed thereafter.

Any change in particulars of a registered business should be notified to the Registrar on the prescribed form i.e. Notice of change form - BN4 and in case
of cessation, Notice of Cessation Form.

A Business Name registration will take at least 5 days. To register a business name in Kenya is compiled and documented under Business Names Act (Cap 499 Laws of Kenya) It is generally a smooth and simple process except for the fact that you have to travel to Nairobi Sheria House for the services. There are few merchants who try to help those not willing to travel by changing for the service on top of the normal official charges.

To register a business name:

1.       Choose or select one or more names you would like to submit for the search in the Records. (Selecting more than one name helps for security if the preferred name is not available for registration.)

2.      Write a short printed letter addressed to the Registrar General requesting that your names be searched and confirmed available for registration. This is called the search; it requires you to submit the letter to Sheria house with 100 Kshs for each name chosen to search. You get a blue receipt for the same.

3.      You will be required to wait at least three days for the search results. Then head back and get your results and if successful you’ll receive a BN2 form to fill for your business particulars.

4.      Fill out Form BN/2 completely and get a Commissioner of Oaths sign on the back for full filling. If you are registering a sole proprietorship, the part where it says “Particulars of proprietor or partners” will bear only one name, otherwise you can put in up to 20 partners (for a partnership).

5.      Go back to Sheria House and hand in your completed Form BN/2. You will need to pay Kshs 800/-. After a week or so, you will go back to Sheria House to collect your business registration certificate.

6.      You have just completed registering your new business and ready for the next part now. Earning from it!!!

The process adds up to 900 Kshs Government levy plus advocate stamp cost.

On Partnerships
The process of registering a sole-proprietorship and partnership is the same; you go back at Sheria house.
A partnership has some more details; it is recommended that one also registers a partnership deed that clearly defines rights, duties and obligations of all partners.
A partnership deed once drawn up is supposed to be registered as a public document at the Ministry of Lands.
Hope this is useful! Leave us your collections, comments, questions or additions.

STARTING A BUSINESS IN KIRINYAGA COUNTY

By Masta Media Invests----- (A taxpayer in Kirinyaga County)

Considerable years ago, it was so hard to start a business or a company on your own even with all the capital you need. It was both taunting and scary process to go through so everyone felt good in the comfort of another person (read brokers) who can do it for you at a fee, copious fee. I lived among these people and many of them decided to serve without identity or brand names. Gone are the time we never cared to advertise , and we only aimed at that person who passes by and sees your office or shop, this only counted by the number of people who can pass the word of mouth.

In today’s age there is both necessity and means to advertise, and this starts after you register with the necessary authority. I will tell you though I was not born until Kenya had recovered fully from the 1984 famine, way after; I have managed to listen to enough stories and advice to conclude that we must accept the information age and embrace it for our future survival.

 I am bitter because even the current advancement in technology, intelligence and information media an in Kenyan context a new Constitution the public information has not yet been made public. I will air anyone’s views if I write that if people got a way to access the full, accurate and detailed information about these public service departments  so much confusion, disillusionment and corruption would be a past reference.

Most of the information is hidden in dusty 19^th Century files while ironically it’s meant for the common mwananchi to know and use not for the people in hose offices to keep. They should be using those files and books to educate the common Kenyan on those fronts.

The main aim of these is a brief overview of how you can register your new business under the requirements of the law Business Names Act (Cap 499 Laws of Kenya).We have developed so much technologically that the information flow can be availed in the comfort of our phones, qhy isn’t it happening? I’ll try to make it happen here:-

Before I rant and rave more I’ll highlight a few procedures which I happen to know, this will be:

1.      Business Name registrations in Kenya

2.      Company Registration in  Kenya

3.      Business Permits for a small Business

4.      Adopting Rapidly the information age

5.      Kirinyaga County and technology

6.      Youth’s role I Kirinyaga County Development.

Follow up my complete details on the process here.

A city with no traffic signs

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Dennis Githinji Mwaniki                                                                                                             

Who in Kenya hasn’t faced the mayhem of being caught up in the cities road madness? My guess is everyone reading this piece has. I know of myriad problems one can associate with Kenyan traffic, so I’ll talk discriminatively of what you haven’t considered as a solution to solve one problem in particular- safety. I mean everything from over speeding, overtaking, competition for space, and independent decisions-making.

  You probably don’t know who Hans Monderman is, or more to the point, was; he died of prostate cancer in January 7^th 2008 aged 62. He was a Dutch civil engineer, a specialist in road traffic designing.

In his time as a Dutch road traffic engineer and innovator he managed to place his name in more than a few people’s mouths for radically challenging the criteria by which solutions for streets designs are evaluated. His work compelled transportation planners and highway engineers to look afresh at the way people and technology relate to each other.

He is particularly known for his “Shared Space” design approach, also known as designing for negotiation or shared streets. Monderman found that the efficiency an safety of urban streets improved when the streets and surrounding public space was redesigned to encourage each person to negotiate their movement directly with others. Shared space designs typically call for removing regulatory traffic control features, and replacing intersections with roundabouts.

Anyone who has being in  Kenya long enough can relate that to;  imagining Nairobi without kerbs, lane markings, signs and lights and traffic police. I like the sound of that but just figure it out in your head and let me know any way it work.

At the centre of Monderman’s philosophy about traffic was a desire to force drivers to take responsibility for their actions, to make us drive as if we walking down the streets, not driving. To achieve this, go ahead and remove all the traditional road signs and markings and replacing them with none at all.

Doing this creates a ‘shared space’ in which everyone- old ladies with walking sticks, Ferrari drivers, schoolchildren , hairdressers- is on an equal footing. Lets be clear on that first:- if you are with me still you’ll figure that this means no one has the legal or physical right of way, everyone ends up behaving more responsibly- driving more slowly, looking at other people rather than just other cars, sharing the space available in a civilized manner.

Surprised? Wait, there is more! I know what you thinking, “ that was so nuts of him, it’s impossible,”  and all that; I’ll tell you this wasn’t merely an idea. Monderman’s first experiment in shared space traffic took place more than 20 years ago in a village in Holland, where the residents had become fed up with it being used as a daily thoroughfare for 6000 speeding cars. Within a fortnight of the signs and markings being removed, speeds had dropped by more than half.

Since then, this method of traffic calming has become increasingly popular and is genuinely beginning to make a difference. You’ll be surprised that more than seven countries in Europe have already signed up at government level to undertake in the endeavor-shared space road design. On initial inspection this intersections are always in anarchic mess but within weeks the speeds reduce drastically and the number of accidents always end up vanishing from these scenes.

A few places with this kind of design implemented are:-

v  In Denmark, the town of Christianfield stripped the traffic signs and signals from its major intersection and cut the number of serious or fatal accidents a year from three to zero.

v   In England, towns in Suffolk and Wiltshire have removed lane lines from secondary roads in an effort to slow traffic - experts call it "psychological traffic calming."

v   A dozen other towns in the UK are looking to do the same. A study of center-line removal in Wiltshire, conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory, a UK transportation consultancy, found that drivers with no center line to guide them drove more safely and had a 35 percent decrease in the number of accidents.

This man literally disliked traffic signs, yes. He could put up with the well-placed speed limit placard or a dangerous curve warning on a major highway, but Monderman considered most signs to be not only annoying but downright dangerous. To him, they were an admission of failure, a sign - literally - that a road designer somewhere hasn't done his job. "The trouble with traffic engineers is that when there's a problem with a road, they always try to add something," Monderman says. "To my mind, it's much better to remove things."

A picture of Hans Monderman.

I write this with Kenya in mind because of the lifes we are loosing on our roads these days. Now, can our Kenyan drivers heed to the call of responsibility required in this method of traffic calming? Would they by any chance watch the other and scrap the unending tread of,  “me first” on our roads? Will a Kenyan driver wait and watch the pedestrian on the road as an equal user?

My answer is yes; I look at it as a method that gives every humane driver a no choice kind of a situation and thus the resulting smooth, slow and safe traffic. No one will watch the lifeless signs and lights to decide what to do on the road; rather you will be forced to watch closely on each other for a safe drive. A motorist will look upon a motor-cyclist and a cyclist, and a cyclist will look upon the pedestrian and in the end everyone looks on the safety of the other.

By anyone’s analysis of the same, we are able to predict a safe traffic with very few accidents. On a scale of 1-10, I give it a seven, so 70% pass.

It’s plainly simple, my remaining three points go to the following inevitable:-

1.      Machine failure

2.      The hard-core arrogant drivers on our roads.

3.      The rude Kenyan pedestrians trying to test the patience of motorists.

My verdict is, it can work let’s try it out on our Kenyan roads or what…..!?

Missed Answers to our Prayers

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car.  Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called  him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box.  Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man's name embossed in gold. Angry, he raised his voice to his father and said "With all your money, you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to  him.  He had not seen him since that graduation day.  Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things.

When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.  He began to search through his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago.  With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages.  And as he did, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible.  It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss Spirit's blessings and answers to our prayers because they do not arrive exactly as we have expected?

Kenyan: Small Businesses Library

I would not dare fail to share this amazing articles I have read today. This apply to business starters, mostly on sales, pricing and customer loyalty, ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://likechapaa.com/category/small-business/

http://conversionxl.com/17-lesser-known-ways-to-persuade-people/

http://conversionxl.com/how-to-increase-sales-online-the-checklist/

I will be sharing all the pages I find very important to the present day entrepreneur, especially in Kenya.
 Cheers!
My Website: http://www.mastamedia.co.ke