Impact Award winner: Ann Gitari

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Sinapis entrepreneurs are impacting their communities through creating jobs, tackling corruption and sharing their faith in the marketplace. We started the 'Impact Award' feature in order to share more of these stories. The first winner of the impact award is Ann Gitari. Ann is the Managing Director of The Writing Agency. We asked her a few questions about what she does.Here is what she had to say:

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‍Please tell us a little about The Writing Agency

‍The Writing Agency is a full-service, content creation agency based in Nairobi, Kenya. We support small and medium enterprises in the areas of content creation and content marketing. Our core purpose is to help businesses engage with their customers in a clear, simple and interesting style of communication. We are set to be the benchmark for content development, against which all other content creation agencies in Africa measure themselves.

‍What inspired you to start this business and why are you passionate about it?

‍My parents tell me I took to the English language very easily. I read a lot of books too and that helped me hone my writing skills over the years. I’ve carried this passion for well-written words all through my schooling years where I took part in a number of writing competitions. When I joined university, I chose to major in print journalism, hoping to work in the magazine industry. But life has a funny way of directing you into a different career from the one you studied for. In my desperate search for employment, I found myself working in sales & marketing. That didn’t stop me from writing. As my life was taking shape in the 90s and early 2000s, the internet was creating opportunities in areas of content writing and content marketing. Websites, blogs, e-commerce etc were growing increasingly popular. Seeing an opportunity to merge my passion in writing and my experience in marketing, I founded The Writing Agency Kenya.

‍What has been the biggest impact that the Sinapis Academy course has had on you or your business?

‍I joined the Sinapis Academy at a time when I was at crossroads. I had just left a good job, rather painfully. In the months that followed, through a business coach, I discovered I had neglected my writing business. Clearly, I had lost faith in my capabilities as a marketer and didn’t value my writing skills. Even worse, I had convinced myself that The Writing Agency couldn’t survive as a profitable business; only as a side-hustle.However, by the 2nd week of the Sinapis program, I had a complete mind-shift and a renewed sense of energy. And it all started with Kingdom Business framework that addresses ones calling from the creator. I can’t tell you how much this topic bothered me. I meditated on it for quite sometime, only to chance upon this bible verse, "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Romans 11:29). Irrevocable means they cannot be changed or reversed. They are final. That was it for me. This writing thing was my calling from way back. I had no choice but to embrace it, make it work and use it glorify God.

The other thing I realized was that my detour into marketing was no mistake. If anything, it was to help me better understand how various businesses operate so that I can help them better market themselves using written content. The Financial aspects of the Sinapis program helped me take stock of the business in a way I hadn’t done before. I realized that not only was I building the nation by paying the business’s taxes every month, I had created employment for my contracted workforce. Overall, the Sinapis Academy restored my purpose. I’m proud to say that The Writing Agency is no longer a side-hustle, but a profitable, thriving business that keeps growing every day.You can find out more about The Writing Agency on its website by clicking here.