It is often said that you do not need a silver spoon to achieve great things in life, and this statement rings true to Paul Kinuthia, a Kenyan Billionaire who started as a hawker.

Kinuthia is the founder of the popular NICE & LOVELY brand that was acquired by a Paris cosmetics company L’Oreal, in 2013, in a deal estimated to be worth over Sh1.5 billion.

Kinuthia built the multimillion company from scratch in what would sound impossible to many. Kinuthia started as a casual worker at the Kenya Planters Cooperative Union(KPCU) before quitting to try his hand at entrepreneurship.

He resorted to hawking perfumes in the streets of Nairobi, a journey that felt uncomfortable for him as he was afraid of coming into contact with his learned friends who were already successful.

On the first day of hawking perfumes, he made Sh600 which was a reasonable amount then. He realized it was a good business and decided to sell the products directly to offices and salons to keep -off friends.

Kenyans Who made billions from selling their businesses 

When some stylists requested him to supply them with shampoo, Kinuthia saw an opportunity for big money and did not look back.

Armed with a capital of Sh3, 000, he started manufacturing his own shampoo and supplying it to assorted salons.

He would purchase ingredients, mix them at a friend’s shop along Kirinyaga Road, and hawk the end product in the streets using a hired handcart.

In a day, he would sell about 40 Jerry cans, making about Sh2,400. It was not long before he introduced hair conditioners and hair gels, with customers growing into folds.

He moved to a bigger space in Gikomba before his big breakthrough in 2001. Kinuthia acquired a bank loan of Sh130,000 for business expansion and moved his company to the industrial area.

He heavily invested in marketing, a move that saw his company gain popularity among players in the beauty industry.

He also invested in professionalism and employee motivation, with the results evident in annual profits, which jumped from Sh40 million to Sh180 million within a year.

Among the major challenges he encountered were multiple police arrests as they suspected he was engaging in contraband as his products were not branded.

The company gradually made its name on the national scale, and by the time he decided to sell it to L’Oreal, it had a turnover of about Sh2.2 Billion annually.