Woman of passion: Desire for freedom led her to start a pottery business

Nyambura Ndung’u, 47, runs a pottery business by the name Clay Republic, with the main business in Nairobi, and another branch in Bamburi, Mombasa County.

She was previously employed and for 16 years, she had worked with various organisations and held diverse roles including customer and sales coordinator, marketing and executive assistant, brand and administration manager and chief marketing officer.

“My journey in the entrepreneurship space has been marked by a lot of sacrifices. I’ve learnt to exercise patience, and there have been moments of both tears laughter, but I’m happy with the progress,” Nyambura says.

The experience she gained in the corporate world was valuable, as it helped her establish a stable business. She credits the rapid growth of her business to establishing structures to ensure everything runs smoothly – from production, sales, finances and customer relationship.

“Starting a business isn’t difficult, running it is where the main challenge lies. The effort and dedication required can be nerve wracking. Only the focused and devoted can survive. When I started, I promised myself to do everything in my power to make things work. I don’t believe in failure. I take any form of failure as a lesson,” she says.

But what made her quit formal employment?

“I reached a point where I felt I couldn’t take instructions anymore. I wanted to do things my way. I needed freedom to decide what must be done. Nothing was challenging enough in all the jobs I held, yet I needed something that would exercise my mind, and which could make me get sleepless nights. The usual routine became boring.”

Nyambura started small five years ago, by stocking just a few products and reinvesting all the profits. She also took loans to meet the production costs and brought on board various potters, with a bias for women and young adults.

 “I have learnt to celebrate the small wins, and to learn from my mistakes. Patience and resilience are key virtues that every entrepreneur must have. Some things won’t move as fast as we would want. There are so many factors that affect production such as the weather, manpower, the design and the desired quality of the items. Clay products take time to dry and sometimes we have to wait for between three and five weeks to have our stock ready.”

 Nyambura deals in pure clay products which she sells both locally and to international markets. She has two employees, and retains more than 25 potters and some women groups that work on various items, depending on the level of demand.

Her products range from water dispensers, cooking and serving pots, cutlery, grills, pizza makers, energy saving jikos and flower pots.

Managing her time has not been easy, as she sometimes finds herself handling customer orders or queries deep into the night. Other tasks such as supervising the offloading of trucks carrying raw materials also keep her awake until very late, and she sometimes suffers burnout.

 “Even before I started, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I have people around me who need my attention, but sometimes I am not available. I try to make time for them whenever I can, by taking road trips or three-day holidays. I am confident that with time, we shall be able to recruit various people for these positions, but for now, it is what it is.

 “Younger people are purchasing our products, which is very encouraging. They want to have clay pots like their grandparents. With our diversified products, we have something for everyone, although our flagship product are the clay water pots. Schools have also come on board looking for pure clay to use in CBC training. We do our marketing mostly on social media, in exhibitions and at open markets,” she says.

 Nyambura reveals that her greatest challenge is getting someone fit for the job.

 “Getting an all-rounder who can handle production, transportation and storage is a bit hard. We have to train and retrain new hires, which is very time consuming.”

 Getting enough stock to satisfy the market is another challenge, given that hers are handmade products that take close to a month to be made. The process is slow, and she had to make the clients understand why.

“We never tamper with the production cycle, so it has taken us a while to produce items regularly, but we are looking to improve on this,” she adds.

 Pottery is also a capital intensive venture, and one has to place new orders way before clearing the pending ones. Also, the items are fragile, and can crack or break during transportation.

 “Complaints from our clients are always handled swiftly. Most of our clients are repeat customers, which shows that we always meet our clients’ desires.”

So, what differences has she observed since she plunged into the world of business?

 “In employment you are assured of a salary, easy loans with no security, medical insurance, bonuses, many friends around you, and so on. Get into the business and you’ll understand how lonely it is, especially when you are starting out and you don’t have all the resources needed.”

 Nyambura also notes that there are advantages to being her own boss since she has the freedom to manage her time.

 “As a self-employed person, you become street smart, and you get to understand every aspect of your business. I didn’t understand financial accounting very well, but of late I can present numbers that make sense. You get to meet new people, and discover new business opportunities.”

 Nyambura says she hardly has time to engage in other activities because when she is not supervising production, she is doing sales and marketing.

 “I have to do almost everything. I spend about 95 per cent of my time in my business, and I have little time left to interact with family and friends, or even for myself,” she surmises.

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