Profitable Business ideas in Kenya

*HOW TO START A PROFITABLE COURIER BUSINESS IDEA IN KENYA* Delivery service is a booming business in Kenya that gained momentum from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals, entities and businesses relied on delivery services to bring documents, parcels, and goods to their destinations, minimizing movements. The business is accelerated by trends in technology, youthful population and increased disposable income from a Kenyan middle class growing at an average annual rate of 5%. There is no doubt that Kenya‘s business environment has improved over the years and many investors have set up shop in all major towns across the country. This has further created fresh demand for speedy delivery of goods and packages – a need that has not been properly met by the national postal service. The few big courier companies that rule the industry on the other hand have not been able to match the efficiency that most clients are looking for. According to research, clients are looking for courie...

*ONCE FORGOTTEN, SWEET POTATO IS NOW HOT CAKE* The popular sweet potato is well known for its great source of fibre, vitamins and minerals such as beta-carotene that acts as powerful anti-oxidants in the human body. According to Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro), sweet potato has a number of varieties for both food and feed.  Kalro orange fleshed sweet potato are for commercialization, income generation and health improvement.  Sweet potato varieties vary depending on their flesh colour, maturity time and recommended growing areas. Some of the common varieties are Kenspot 1, Kenspot 5, Kabode, Vitaa and Mugande according to Kalro.  Festus Omogi grows sweet potatoes on his farm in Siaya County and shares vital lessons.  *Land preparation* Choose an area in full sun, till the land and add compost manure to make it fluffy. “You can plant on a flat land or make ridges, let the land warm up before planting,” says Omogi. *Propagation* He says s...

*BUY A COW AT KSH.18,000, SELL IT DOUBLE OR TRIPLE THE PRICE - BEEF CATTLE FATTENING BUSINESS FOR QUICK PROFITS* With this population, Kenya being a ‘nyama choma’ nation, every Kenyan consumes an average 15 to 16 kgs of red meat annually. Cattle farming is one of the most practiced agripreneurship, especially in the ASAL parts of the country where crop farming is undoable. Most of the cattle kept in these areas are primarily for beef. It is estimated that the ASAL areas account for about three-quarters of the estimated 14 million beef cattle reared in the county. The Boran cattle breeds are the most reared owing to their superior characteristics. They have the ability to withstand periodic shortages of water and feed, the ability to walk long distances in search of water and feed, and the ability to digest low-quality feeds. Picture this on beef farming in Kenya: A Maasai herder could have a herd of 200 animals, keep them locally for 5 to 10 years with attachment and not sell them to r...

*WHAT IF I FAIL?* Well, what if you succeed? Why have you chosen to see this half-glass of water as ‘half-empty’ instead of ‘half-full’? The fear of failure is the most crippling reason why many of us will never start a business in our lifetime. We admire successful entrepreneurs as if they knew from the beginning that they would succeed. You should know that they had the same doubts like you do. They all feared for an uncertain future, an irregular income and total failure. What if you fail? What if your business idea doesn’t sell or work? While these are very important questions, you may never know the answers unless you try. In the world of entrepreneurship, success and failure live in the same house. If you’re afraid of failure, there’s a very thin chance that you will ever taste success. How do you win a boxing match if you’re afraid of entering the ring? Business is, and has always been, about taking risks. That’s why entrepreneurs are known as ‘risk takers’. There is always an e...

*HOW TO RAISE MONEY FOR YOUR AGRIBUSINESS IDEA OR ANY OTHER BUSINESS IDEA* You have a great agribusiness idea but you need money to actualize it. This is usually the problem that faces many young farmers in Kenya. This is the problem that I faced when I started out.  Let’s face it, it’s never easy to raise money to start a farming business in Kenya. Farming start-ups are considered as high-risk ventures and everyone who has heard the sad stories that happen on the farm are afraid of it.  Banks are afraid of them. They can only give you money if you have already started something and a stable cash-flow can be seen trickling into your account. If they cannot see any evidence to this, they will not listen to your wonderful agribusiness idea. Farming is just any other business and should be treated as such. The only difference is that farming has more risks involved, and many beginner farmers who get into farming usually don’t get out alive (Succeed).  This is why everyone is...

10 WAYS YOUR SKILLS CAN EARN YOU MONEY FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME. Until 2 years ago, Grace Wangari worked as an accountant for a well-known company based in Nairobi. “I was convinced that my job was safe, I worked hard and all my superiors were happy with me, I was even on course to get a promotion soon,” she says. What she did not know was that things were about to take a drastic turn. In 2019, she was laid off from work as a result of the biting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. “I was confused,” she says, “I did not know how to do anything else, accounting was my life,” she adds. Finding employment became as difficult as grasping a shadow, in her words, she was lost with no hope for the future, but was that really the case? One day as she was taking a walk, just to clear her mind, an idea hit her, an idea that would change her life, for the better, forever.  You see, Grace loves candles, scented ones to be exact; her house is full of them. She thought, why not turn my love f...

*FLOSSETS SHOUT, ASSETS ARE SILENT* We all have different goals in life and so we all journey differently. Basing your self-worth or your value on certain standards which other people with different priorities and goals than yours are doing is a completely unfair way to treat yourself.  This is not to say you shouldn’t support your friends or get jealous of them when they are excelling (especially on social media), just do not get carried away, allowing your self-esteem to be tampered with along the way.  You have got different life goals and aspirations, more so, most things you see on social media are not real, and they are mostly photoshopped. Back in college, you used to be the most confident guy around. Always attending all lectures and getting top grades. By third-year, you had managed to get yourself a part-time job which meant you were above most of your classmates (financially-speaking).  And on top of that, you managed to get a full-time job just a few days befo...

*MAKING KHAKI BAGS BUSINESS IN KENYA* Stay at home mum and anyone looking for a side hustle; here is a lucrative business. Learn how to make khaki packaging bags at the comfort of your home and resell them to the readily available and insatiable market. Now that the plastic bags were banned; general shops, stores, cereals, pharmacies, hospitals, supermarkets, fast food joints and hotels. No machines or special equipment required. Capital of Ksh.3,000 is enough to buy all the raw materials needed to get started and the profit margin is high. Its very easy to make the bags and you don't need to rent any business premises. As Kenyans struggle to make ends meet, Charles Kimani, a graduate from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, was struggling to venture into something that could not only keep him busy, but sustain him as he kept knocking on employment doors. The Business Information Technology graduate has for years yearned to venture in the manufacturing industry....

*7 UNEXPECTED THINGS YOU CAN LEARN FROM A MATATU CREW ABOUT BUSINESS* Whether you love or hate matatus one thing is clear, the kind of work they do is simply phenomenon. From dealing with moody and sometimes downright unfriendly customers to surviving in an insanely competitive industry, being a ‘makanga’ requires nerves of steel and ability to do what’s beyond the obvious to survive. The rules are not too different in the world of entrepreneurship either. You have to survive against all odds and put your best foot forward in order to guarantee your existence. I have lifted a few practical lessons from the dusty streets of Nairobi and here are some tactics you can take out from your matatu crews playbook on the fundamentals of running a business. *1) Yell About Your Product At The Top Of Your Voice* You are in business to sell; not to sit down and look pretty. And our matatu guys seem to know this quite well. They shout at the top of their voices “Namba nane, Kibera” “Namba nane, Kiber...

*2 SIMPLE BUT MONEY MAKING IDEAS YOU CAN START WITH LITTLE CAPITAL* If you are jobless, you have been tarmacking or you are struggling to make ends meet, this article is for you. You may not have millions of shillings in the bank to start a business, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any options.  Let me surprise you. There are so many ideas you can explore with next to nothing and make serious returns out of them. All that is required of you is to provide the skills, work ethic and a bit of marketing.  In short, that is what is called “sweat capital”.  In the world of start-ups, “sweat capital” is worth more than monetary capital. Enough of vague statement. Let’s get practical. Here are 2 business ideas that require very little monetary capital to set-up but can make you good money.  *1. Distributing Black Coffee* If you live in towns like Nairobi, I am sure you have come across some guys who distribute black coffee in matatu termini.  Have you ever stopped ...