Mark Nuguti is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Spoton Tours and Travels. This is an award winning company that he founded after working in the tourism industry for more than a decade.
The company won the 2022 Leading Travel Management Award at the World Travel Awards.
Since its formation, the company has made millions in turnover and Mark hopes to grow it into a leading company that provides employment to thousands.
Here is his inspiring journey as told by WoK.
Education
The visionary leader graduated from Mount Kenya University with a Bachelor’s degree in Tours and Travels in 2010.
Career
Mark Nuguti has a wealth of experience having worked for different tour companies in the country. He started off as a tour consultant and co-ordinator and interned at the Ministry of Tourism.
The entrepreneur then worked as a sales and tour consultant at Edmac Tours and Safaris before joining The Travelmart Ltd as a tour consultant.
Later, he was employed at Bonfire Adventures as a tours and travel online marketing consultant before rising to marketing manager.
Spoton
The entrepreneur started Spoton in 2019. His wealth of experience in the industry was instrumental as he knew what to do. He started with a Ksh5 million capital.
The money was used to rent office space, designing, purchasing computers and other logistics. Unlike most entrepreneurs, he did not struggle with capital since he had learnt the art of saving.
He lived in a modest rental house even when his salary could afford him much more. He started with one employee, which has grown to about 15 people currently. The first person he employed was someone to deal with IT.
“I had embraced the culture of saving. Even when my salary rose to Sh70,000, I continued living in an informal settlement where my rent was Sh7,000. That helped me grow my savings,” he told Business Daily.
Initially, he acted as CEO and also dealt with the finances. This was until he realized that he needed to hire a professional since things like balance sheets were a challenge.
Today, his workforce consists of a youthful population with women being the highest number of employees as he believes in women empowerment.
The Covid-19 restrictions also contributed a great deal to the success of his business. He told Business Daily that he was the first to start offering tours at the Nairobi National Park before others copied the idea.
This introduced them to numerous clients as he said they did a lot of tours on a daily basis. While a lone traveler pays more to visit the park, groups go for an affordable price.
“We did good business because in a day I could do 40 cars, 100 to 150 Land Cruisers. It was like a matatu businessman just ferrying people to the park. That’s how we became popular,” he told the daily.
The other things that helped boost the company was the curating of packages for families, weddings, Valentine’s day and other special occasions. He also started offering helicopter safaris, which he says is expensive at the moment since very few are doing it.
