“I Quit An Engineering Job At Orange For A Passion,” Says Ben Kiruthi, an Award Winning Photographer

Would you leave your well paying job to start a business? What if it fails? Do you just give up or keep marching on.

Meet Benjamin Kiruthi Kanyambu. He speaks of his journey into the photography business after leaving formal employment.

Born in 1983 by a Kenyan father and Ugandan mother, he was bred in Zimmerman in Nairobi.

“I spent my childhood outdoors sitting by the roadside with my friends choosing which car we would own when we grew up. My greatest drive to succeed was to become the best,” he says

He describes his high school life at Moi Forces Academy in Huruma as an experimenting stage remembering how he recycled postage stamps with Colgate.

When he was only 15 he lost his parents within a period of three months from HIV complications. He describes it as a very painful and trying moment for him.

They were later taken in by their uncle and he gathered a major life lesson: ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees. You have to work to make a living.’

His love for mathematics and sciences brought life to his engineering career. In 2002 he enrolled to JKUAT to pursue a degree in Electronics and Computer Engineering.

In 2008 after finishing he worked for one year at a smart can company in Upperhill. He later on pursued an MBA in entrepreneurship from Kenya Methodist University. He was employed as a Network Engineer at Orange. He was displeased with his job and that is how he started his photography business.

“I decided that if photography makes more money more than my monthly net salary of Ksh.30,000 I would quit,” he says.

After shooting two weddings in a month and making as much as his monthly salary he decided to quit his job

“The next Monday I went to my computer at work and I drafted a resignation letter and handed it to the boss. When my boss asked I told him I was resigning. I then walked out and I have never looked back,” Mr. Kiruthi says.
This was his greatest risk as most of his friends thought he was crazy because he had a job they would die for.

“I was used to a constant salary every month. Leaving formal employment to get into business is very blurry. Sometimes you have money and sometimes you don’t,” he adds.

As a trained engineer he had zero skills in photography but he believed he could learn and grow his skills in photography.

“I went to You Tube and tried to download as many videos as I could. The next challenge was to get equipment. Photography equipment is very expensive”

He then made a list of people who would support them. Very few people supported them but they got a few funds and bought their camera.

“For the first six months I worked for free because they were practice sessions. I also worked overtime to become good,” he says.

He shot at burials, birthday parties, sports events, concerts, weddings and fashion. The award winning photographer then decided to specialize in shooting weddings.

“It was very hard to get people to pay since there were no specialized photographers in weddings. The jobs were few and in between. It was very hard but I stuck to it and our clients began trusting in us,” the 31 year old narrates.

If you thought that his business was so smooth, it wasn’t. Mr. Kiruthi talks of his greatest loss of losing two cameras when the job had not picked up very well.

They charge between Ksh.150,000 and 200,000 per wedding and they do an average of 36 weddings a year.

The persistent and perseverant photographer has one perk though; he hates being called paparazzi.

His advice to booming entrepreneurs?

“Even though it does not work the first time, it will be better the 7th time. Keep God first and he will guide your path. Follow your passion develop your skill and talent and the world will applaud and pay you for whatever price you ask for.”

He concludes by saying, “Be patient. Everything takes time.”

Courtesy: K24

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