My business saved me - Gathoni wa Muchomba

At one point, Kiambu County Women Representative and Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (Kewopa) chairperson was a radio presenter at a local vernacular station.

Although she had no clue of her next move, she was sure of one thing; she would never be employed again. She wanted to be free from the hustle and bustle of formal employment.

After soul searching, Gathoni wa Muchomba ventured into media business. Today, she considers herself successful in her own league.

“My journey was long but very successful. I can say I have never failed. I may have had challenges here and there but I can sit back and say I never failed,” said Ms Muchomba.

The Kiambu MP was sharing her business experiences during an April 19, virtual conference of businesswomen organised by Women in Business Network.

“And even today, because I am still in business, I can say I am one of those successful in my own line of business,” she added.

She is the founder of Smart Media Colleges and Utugi TV.

She started off with one college in Nairobi and later opened branches in Naivasha, Nakuru and Meru. Had her business been unstable, she would not have not been successful in her candidature for the Kiambu County Woman seat.

Heavy capital

“My platform for politics could not have been as comfortable as it was if I was not in business because politics require quite heavy capital,” she said.

She reckoned fear to be the greatest enemy to women’s professional, personal and business growth.

“One thing that really pulls women down is fear,” she said.

“It makes them ask, ‘what if I take a loan to start a business and I don’t have money to repay or don’t have managerial skills to run my business?’ Fear is a dragon. It drowns you.”

For any woman to succeed in business, she must deal with her fears, she said.

“If you don’t zero down on your fears and deal with them, you will be a woman in business and you will be going round and round,” she said.

She challenged women to stop the self-defeating mentality even before their started off the business journey.

“Some say I cannot start a business because I don’t even have a house to start in (but) have you started it in your backyard? ...what effort have you put?” she asked.

In her political capacity, Ms Wamuchomba said she is more inclined to assist the people who have already taken the leap of faith in their preferred business.

“For me, I appreciate when you come and tell me, I am jobless but I have identified a business I can do and I even have a business permit from the county government. Now assist me by calling the public health officer and tell him to give me six months to pay for the public health licence,” she said.

She said business is like “farming on a virgin land” and so it takes patience and investments in its preparation to gather impressive yields.

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