Money Matters: How I make Ends Meet As a Low Income Earner & Still Save & Invest

By Florence Mukunya,

Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. This is a mantra that Peter Muchiri has learned to leave by so as to make ends meet with his small scale business.

He owns a small shoe business that he operates between the hours of 5:00 pm to around eight in the evening.

“I deal in selling second hand ladies shoes on the streets in town, it’s a business I settled in after being unemployed for too long. .

Starting the business was not easy, Mr. Muchiri talks of his mistakes that pushed him to do business. “You know when you are young you sail through life as if there is no tomorrow and in the process you make so many mistakes and that’s what I did, once my girlfriend announced she was pregnant I wanted to disappear but as an afterthought I saw what my friends were doing, some were peddling clothes to earn a living, I stopped running and thought if they could do it why not me?”

“From my very little saving I started with a capital of Kshs 8000/= and bought the multi coloured plastic shoes that ladies loved so much,” says Muchiri

“I conduct my business in the evening hours because that’s the time most people are leaving work and the city askari are a bit lenient at these time of the day,” adds Muchiri

Muchiri says that at the beginning of his business his encounter with the city askari was not a good one.

“You know the askaris know the newbie on the streets and if you don’t know what happens you get yourself in a lot of trouble. I have been locked in their patrol vehicle for so many times I cannot count. Eventually I understood their language and I now don’t run into a lot of troubles, actually we now laugh and shake hand when we meet.

But what made Muchiri change from the plastic shoes to the second hand shoes?

“Dealing with the plastic shoes was getting so competitive, everyone shoe seller had them as the money for the stock was not much but now when you get to the market you find that because of the completion you don’t make as much as you would want.

I did a research and we organised ourselves into a group of five guys and we would contribute and buy second hand shoes in whole sale, that allowed us to get them cheaper thus a bigger profit margin,” says Muchiri

For peter Muchiri it has not been all smooth sailing.

“This business of ours has some disadvantages aside from the city council askaris, you find that a client may come looking for you but due to the fact that you sell on the streets and there are many of us another trader occupied your position, so you end up losing that client to another person,” says Muchiri

Also the drama that the askari cause when chasing us from the streets cause us to lose money sometimes. You find that once they ambush us we sometimes have a client fitting a pair of shoe, when the running starts the client will not stop to remove the shoes first, some run with the shoes on , running for their lives and others do it deliberately these causes us to lose a lot of money sometimes.”

So many young people give up on their business when they encounter hurdles, for Peter Muchiri he had to endure because of his unborn baby, but he advise the youths saying that

“You don’t have to wait until you get yourself employed to start investing, if you have a little money saved up and you find yourself without a job look for away to multiply that one shillings to make it two, “ujana ni kama maji ya moto” it will soon cool off, so invest when you are young. Even if its through small wares such as selling paper bags or sweets as long as it brings something more than you did to begin with. ”

On a good evening, Peter makes Kshs 1,400. Muchiris says he is now thinking about his son’s school fees and wants to multiply his stock with around Kshs 25,000/ with future plans of  saving up enough money for a small stall where his clients can always be sure to get him unlike in the streets.

Well if you are out there and thinking that your saving is too little and you cannot afford to start up a business now you are empowered with information.

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