Wangeci Kamau: My journey from receptionist to owner of steel company

A few years ago, Wangeci Kamau did not see herself as anything else other than a diligent receptionist.

She had worked as one for years at a company that traded in steel, unaware that the skills she had garnered would build her a similar company and launch her into a cut-throat sector that is dominated by men.

“The company I worked for imports ready-made steel products, my job mainly involved fielding calls and keeping a note of the inquiries,” Wangeci says.

She would go on to be promoted from front office receptionist to personal assistant of her then boss, but her new position was disappointing. The second in command from her boss would assign her odd jobs, jobs not in her job description. She became frustrated, and out of this frustration she began to harbour dreams of owning her own business.

“In my role as PA, I would get to attend important company meetings, and I slowly started learning about all work operations,” she says.

In 2015, she left the company to work for another steel firm, still not confident enough to venture out on her own. Her new employer gave her more responsibility, such that she credits her time there as a critical factor in her growth to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

“I thank him (her then boss) because he gave me the platform to prove myself. That is where I got the confidence and courage to go out there to meet clients, which really grew my skill as a salesperson,” she remembers.

She got even more exposure when she would often be sent to supervise construction assignments in the field, getting to meet many people, some of them prominent, exposing her to an invaluable network of potential clients.

This added responsibility was just what the doctor ordered because it gave her a front-seat view of how to successfully run a steel fabrication business. Finally confident in her ability and added experience, she resigned, and in 2019, started her own firm – Classic Steel Engineering Limited – which specialises in tailor-made stainless steel fabrication and commercial food and beverage equipment solutions.

 The company makes fabricated steel products such as kitchen equipment, refrigeration equipment and steel staircases. But as a holder of a diploma in front office management, a qualification that fitted her previous job as a receptionist like a glove, entry into the field of engineering was a different ball game altogether, which made it necessary to read widely and learn fast. Wangeci is now battling established big-money firms in the highly competitive steel sector and is relishing the challenge of gradually chipping into their market territories.

But it has not been all smooth sailing for the ambitious entrepreneur. As one of few women in the sector, she has faced numerous barriers, especially with male workers and clients who can’t quite get around her being a strong-willed entrepreneur in an area long thought to be a preserve of men.

“When I go to the field to supervise projects, men sometimes underestimate me and don’t accord me the same level of respect they would a man. Sometimes I am asked to give sexual favours to be awarded a project,” Wangeci says.

“I have had to be bold, I have had to stand my ground to resist the solicitations. It does not matter what the magnitude of the project is, standing my ground has enabled me and my company to gain respect and be taken seriously,” she says. The businesswoman, who now employs 18 people, says shortage and rising prices of the raw materials she needs to run her business, and high taxation are another key challenge that has increased the cost of doing business.

If her career journey is anything to go by, it is that the irrepressible steel entrepreneur will utilise these challenges to catapult her to the next step of her well calculated plan of pinching an even larger slice of lunch from the table of seasoned steel magnates.

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