When Macrine Kajuma walked out of her human resources job to start Ciala Limited, she only had Sh. 1, 200 in her bank account, but having limited capital has not hindered the steady growth of her business
“Running a business is like being married, each day is different, it comes with new lessons but even when it’s tough, you do not let your man go,” Macrine Kajuma sums up her experience running her own design and printing company.
Being a business owner was something she stumbled into. As a little girl growing up in Naivasha, Macrine loved to work with her hands; she sewed, weaved and crafted.
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But she also loved big houses and she admired a mansion that a female neighbour, who worked in human resources, lived in.
She resolved to pursue a career in human resources so that she could also have a big house of her own. After high school, she took up a job selling cooking gas and used the meagre earnings to take herself through college.
‘DREAM JOB’
Soon after, she got what she thought was her dream job in human resources, at a public relations firm. It was good for a while. “I enjoyed learning new things and the pay was good,” she recalls.
Over the next six months she found herself chipping in when there was design work to be done in an effort to get the projects done on time.
She thought little of this until her boss told her bluntly that she was bonding too much with the employees and that she was too compassionate to do her job in human resources management well.
“Being ordered to fire an employee for lateness was my turning point. I felt that she could be let off with a warning but my boss didn’t. Feeling so strongly about it was how I knew that this job was not working for me,” she says.
Reluctantly, she fired that employee and then walked out of her job. She had only Sh1, 200 in her bank account.
She knew that she wasn’t going to take a job in human resources management again and since that is what she had trained in, starting a business seemed like her only other option.
While helping put together events for clients at the public relations firm she had met and talked with people they contracted to design and print many times.
Now, she remembered being told that it was not hard, plus she had a little experience in design she had acquired helping out here and there. Perhaps because she was afraid she’d get doubts if she waited, she set the ball rolling immediately.
FIRST CONTRACT
Armed with only a business idea and a laptop, she went to a friend, Dorothy, who held a management job and asked for a design and printing gig. Dorothy gave her the first contract making 100 business cards. This she did successfully after two failed attempts and the client was happy with the results.
Dorothy referred her to her friends and those friends gave word to yet other friends, and in December 2013, Ciala Limited was born. Ciala means tree in Dholuo, reflecting how her company grew like tree branches.
For months, she ran the business from her house in Kitengela. It was tough being so green especially in a field that was male-dominated. Moreover, when they found out that she was starting without capital, most clients were reluctant to trust her with a down payment so that she could begin the job.
Then there were those who refused to pay her even after the job was done. “The hardest part for me was going without the assurance that a fixed salary brings. Luckily, I had friends who stuck with me and who told me when my work was substandard. My mother also gave her blessings,” she says.
The turning point for her business came when a friend introduced her to BNI business network. Through the network she met successful business personalities as well as potential clients and her client base has steadily grown since.
From the first order of 100 business cards, Ciala Limited has graduated into designing attire for promotions, doing office branding as well as signage for corporate clients which includes banners and billboards.
Macrine shares that it’s not easy being an employer as she has had her fair share of difficult employees but she delights in the fact that she is able to change lives on a daily basis. She now employs five full-time employees.
In her industry, deadlines are everything and she often has to work late to meet them. But she insists that even the long hours can’t take the shine out of being able to design her own schedule and work on her own terms.
How she did it
- She didn’t wait until she had enough capital to start and she reckons if she did, she would still be waiting.
- She didn’t go in expecting to make a lot of money in just a short time.
- She chose something that she was passionate about and this has made it easier to hold on during the hard times.
- When she meets a client for the first time, she thinks about not what she can get, but how long she can work with them.