Civil engineering graduate who found success in clothes business

Fresh from college and with a diploma in civil engineering, Felix Mwangi, 27, thought he had what it takes to get a job in this lucrative field, but he was very wrong. This is his story.

Engineering is among the most sought after courses. You missed a job with all your qualifications?
After dropping my resume to countless prospective employers, I was called by a few for interviews, only to learn there was one bit of challenge  that stood my way – lack of work experience. Most were looking for a hire with at least five years working experience.

And that dampened your spirits?
It left me with a new question – where does a freshman gain that work experience from?

It has been said that majority of the employed and self-employed are working in careers they never trained for…
I realised that my academic credentials initially looked worthless. There were many like me chasing limited vacant spaces in a market saturated with many qualified but unemployed graduates. It felt like I had pursued a wrong career course as I could not apply the learned skills to better use immediately.

That sounds frustrating…
The closest I came to garnering work experience was while on attachment with an engineering company.

What do you do now?
I am a qualified driver and I got a job as a bus driver with a garment manufacturing company in Nakuru, then later moved to work in the same organisation in apparel making. I learnt the ropes fast. My civil engineering skills came in handy as well in solving the problems as they arose.

I rose through the ranks and was promoted as the Head of Sales and Marketing at the company.

Seems like you learned best from your employer?
I was under contract, and knew a time would come for me to make way for fresh blood. You can't work for the same employer forever. At the end of that contract, I had saved enough to buy machines and materials and register my own garment making company, Menengai Knitters, which is located in Nakuru town.

We make branded attires for different industries and target schools, health and hospitality sector, security, NGOs, sportswear and knitwear(sweaters).

How bad was Covid-19 on your business?
When the Covid-19 pandemic came, our bottom margin sank to the lowest. The lockdown did not help matters and I had to send workers home. More, there were clients who had not cleared their invoices, especially learning institutions, when the pandemic was declared in the country.

We had to rebrand and transition to making personal protective equipment and facemasks as the business took a hit. I had to seek other ways to shore up the dwindling fortunes in the face of the pandemic, including working as a driver ferrying ballast for the metre gauge railway rehabilitation.

On school uniforms, they say cartels control the sector. How true is this?
There's some truth to it. You see, head teachers in collusion with cartels have made the school uniform business their forte, locking out others. Parents have complained about the exorbitant uniform prices and about head teachers directing parents and guardians to specific shops to source uniform from. At times I may stock a certain uniform with the aim of selling it to a given school, put on the school logo only for the school head working with the cartels to interfere with it. They can even change the logo to look different and direct parents on the specific shops to source uniforms from. That way, I'm left with dead stock bearing the old school logo.

Worse, there are clients who place bulk orders, but do not want to commit themselves in meeting the production costs. You may meet clients online who make orders only for them to disappear, and if the orders were already customised, there is no way you can reverse the customisations and you have to count this as a business loss. It pays to know your clients well before engaging with them and in the process, establish a good business rapport with them.

How do you do marketing?
Through social media platforms, on-point sales and referrals from those I've interacted with in the past.

How is the business environment like presently?
It is tough, and instead of hiring, you find yourself downsizing the staff in order to manage on operations. Taxes are squeezing the bottom line, especially given that many businesses haven't recovered from Covid-19 effects. It is like we jumped into a new taxation pandemic!

Do you foresee better days ahead?
It is too early to tell how the business environment is going to look like as tax measures are painful for business growth. Some businesses have already issued profit warning statements.

[email protected]