How I started my thriving gifting business from my campus cubicle

I am 26 and I started off in 2019 while at the university where I offered photography and photo mounting services to fellow students at a fee. I later started sourcing clients from Facebook and Instagram. This shifted the primary source of my clients from physical to online. As the orders increased, I quickly realised that the lack of a physical location was a challenge. Whereas it is essential to have an online marketing presence, it is also critical to have a physical location to build trust and authenticate your venture. I opened my physical location in 2022 with an operating capital of Sh100,000. These funds went into rent, office partitioning and the purchase of office equipment.

It took the business two years to break even and get a steady flow of returns. This is because we relied on online clients and referrals from our initial customers. The main challenge I faced was a lack of trust from online clients. My business is more of an online gift store with a physical pickup location. Many potential clients who couldn’t make it to the shop had difficulties making down payments for order processing. This meant that we had to accept orders without money, a risk since customers may fail to make payments. I learned that running a business this way can be dicey as you have to balance trust, risk and building your client base.

I have been juggling private practice with running a side business. I was at the university pursuing a Law degree when I started the gift shop business. I chose to continue running it even after getting admitted to the bar as an advocate. Besides it providing a secondary income stream, I have a sentimental attachment to it. It was my first serious and successful entrepreneurship undertaking.

When I was starting this business, I had this misconceived notion that it would pick up immediately after I set up a physical location. I had no plan or budget for the first three months. I failed to pay for rent for three months and set aside a digital marketing budget. A few weeks in, I realised that the business was not self-sustaining.  I had to look for money elsewhere and invest it in the business to prevent what would have been an inevitable downfall. Today, the business has grown and now has corporate clients with whom we brand on a retainer agreement.

I save my money in a Sacco. It has been effective for me since I can acquire LPO financing and other credit services to finance my business whenever I have capital-intensive branding gigs. Previously, I used to save my money through M-Shwari but it wasn’t effective for me, especially with affordable and sufficient access to credit.

Over the time that I have been an entrepreneur, I have learned that a mentor is a rookie entrepreneur’s number one need. This will help you spot entrepreneurship booby-traps from afar. I have also learned that there is a lot of business leeway in networking with the right people. Also, with a good product, a good marketing strategy, and superb customer service, money will always find its way to your business accounts.