Meet 26 Yr Old Who Makes 100K Monthly Through a Venture She Started As An Intern

Nowadays, many young people are choosing to start businesses as opposed to looking for formal employment. It’s something even the government is encouraging young people to look into and have even come up with funds such as ‘youth fund’ to help the youth start their own enterprises.

This is because the unemployment rate in Kenya keeps rising daily and there are so many unemployed youths which is partly to blame for the cases of youths joining gangs and becoming drug traffickers and users.

It might seem difficult to set up a business especially when one has no previous experience with such things or when everyone you graduated with is busy looking for formal employment. Should you follow the same path as them or should you follow your own path?

Meet Alicia Wanjiku Chege a young graduate who chose an informal job to formal employment after completing a diploma course in purchasing and supplies at Kenya Institute of Management.

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Her Story

She is an entrepreneur who used to sell her imported bedding and fancy bags to her lecturers and friends while she was an intern.

“I did this for a year, since 2012. I just chose to be self-employed,” Ms. Chege told Money adding that “ I sold my goods alongside my older sister.”

Alicia says her sister was her inspiration when she completed her internship. Her sister resigned from her formal employment to concentrate fully on business. A move Alicia says confused her as she was beginning to look for work herself.

“I was surprised and confused by her move at first. I thought it was weird for her to quit her job while I was just beginning my job search” says Ms. Chege

The start of her business

She, however, changed plans of looking for formal employment and decide to import bales from China as her sister imported clothes she would import a bale too, but she chose to specialize in bedding and bags.

“The first amount of money I got from my first sale was sh10, 000. It was rewarding to have money when my peers were still looking for jobs,” Ms. Chege says.

Alicia did not have a shop to sell her bedding from at first and so she took up online marketing on Facebook, OLX and Twitter before she was able to rent her own shop.

“I didn’t want to be like other unemployed youth who were seeking greener pastures elsewhere; I had tried to seek help from the youth fund but there are several targets I had to meet to get the funds.”

In a good month, she makes about KSh100, 000 in profit and she owns stock worth Ksh100, 000

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What are your Growth Plans?

“I will never seek formal employment; I want to own a big company one day that specializes in bedding and clothing.”Ms. Chege says.

“To do this I need about 5 million shillings to import the goods using containers. I am prepared to start scouting for government loans,” says Alicia.

Well if you are a young person out there thinking that formal employment is not for you, young people are making it on the other side of entrepreneurship.

You only need to identify what is unique and what the market out there is looking for, set your goals right and seek for financial help like from the government institutions set for the youths and once you start don’t let anything stop you from becoming the self-employed person you want to be.

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Courtesy: Daily Nation