My Hustle – Chapo Mwitu Business Funded My Fashion Business

I had just graduated from school in 2018 when I started my business. I was also coming off a relationship with one child, had just relocated from upcountry to Nairobi and life was quite expensive. I had to quickly think of ways to sustain myself and raise my child because my teaching certificates were yet to be processed. I got a job to cook and sell chapatis, popularly known as chapo mwitu. My pay was Sh150 per day. In five months, I managed to save Sh3,000 which I used to buy a table. I brought an old sewing machine which I had inherited from my parents and started designing outfits. I was not perfect at the start, but I had to start somewhere. I would post my outfits on social media.

It took me five months before I got my first customer. All this while, I ran my chapo mwitu cooking hustle. When customers started making orders, a new challenge emerged. Many of them were dissatisfied with the type of work I did on the outfits because of lack of experience. Today, I can say that I lost most of the first customers. But months down the line, I got a call from a childhood friend who was holding a wedding. She gave me an order for her wedding outfits. This order not only boosted my capital base but gave me the business confidence and vindication that I craved for.

I had difficulties separating my business money from my salary. I was not able to account for the amount of profit I used to get in a month because all the money I earned from the business and the job went into a single account. To solve this problem, I started by utilising my M-Pesa account. I would keep the money in my Till wallet with a corresponding record of items sold, cost of production and profit made.