The following profile was first published in the Saturday Magazine.
A breast cancer diagnosis turned Eunice Muriuki from an accountant to an entrepreneur who owns and runs Simply Me Boutique, a shop for bras and prosthetics.
A cancer diagnosis completely changed the course of Eunice Muriuki’s life. It turned her from a charming accountant cum marketer into an entrepreneur.
“I imagined that a cancer diagnosis was the worst thing that could happen to me. While there was a period of several months riddled with pain and fear, the whole experience has given birth to a very exciting venture,” she says.
Eunice is no stranger to hospitals. She was diagnosed with urinary reflux, a condition that has urine moving up to the kidneys from the bladder instead of draining downwards, as a child.
She was in hospital a lot. Her condition was all she paid attention to. However, a positive cancer diagnosis was utterly surprising.
“I was found with a very aggressive form of cancer in my right breast. I was booked for a full mastectomy the same day I got my diagnosis. Everything moved very fast,” she recalls.
WOMAN WITHOUT ONE BREAST
In a few short days, she went from being a carefree 28-year-old to a woman without one breast. The surgeons conducted the surgery and sent her on her way.
She had to learn to live with her new self on her own. “A little research showed me that I could use prosthetics to make my chest feel normal again. They were easily available abroad so I had a friend living in a Western country buy some for me.”
Her business idea was first sown in her mind following a conversation about her prosthetics. In 2012, a year after her mastectomy, Eunice encountered a woman in a doctor’s waiting room who was curious about how normal her chest looked.
Eunice told her about the prosthetics and she was so excited about it that she asked Eunice to order some for her.
“I made an order for her. While it crossed my mind at the time that this could be a business opportunity, I was still going through radiation which usually left me too exhausted to think about anything else.”
Eunice holds an arts degree in accounting from St Paul’s University. During the period surrounding her diagnosis and treatment, she worked as a marketer at a company in the fire industry.
She is a people person, so she did well at her job. In 2013, several months after that conversation in the doctor’s waiting room, there was a management shift in the company and she unexpectedly found herself out of a job.
That was when she began thinking about selling bras and prosthetics to other breast cancer survivors. In retrospect, she reckons that the idea of becoming an entrepreneur had always been at the back of her mind.
ADMIRED DAD’S ZEAL
She grew up with a serial entrepreneur for a father, whose zeal for business she admired, but getting white collar jobs was what her peers were doing when she graduated from university.
“Using my savings, I made an order of bras and prosthetics worth Sh35, 000. When I got the products, I started going to the clinics and support groups to sell and within just a few days, all the stock was gone.”
She now had cash to make an even bigger order. When she sold her second order, she saw the potential that the business had. But to realise it, she needed to put her finances in order.
It had been a while since she practised accounting so she got an accountant for her business. With the finances under control, Eunice concentrated on the marketing side of her business.
“I have been in and out of hospital since I was a toddler and I thus have good relationships with doctors and nurses. I relied on these relationships to grow my business.”
She meets most of her clients either at clinics and support groups. Most of them are newly-diagnosed cancer patients who just lost their breasts.
She sees herself in them. Other than selling them bras and prosthetics, Eunice has learnt to offer encouragement and a strong shoulder for the women to lean on.
“They do not just need bras. They are usually in need of someone to hold their hand and tell them that all will be okay. I refer the new ones to support groups.”
From just Sh35, 000, Eunice’s business has grown to bigger monthly orders. The prosthetics range from Sh4, 500 to Sh30, 000 a piece.
The more expensive ones are stick-ons which make a woman feel as close to natural as possible.
“My dream is for Simply Me to grow big enough such that rather than importing, I make my own bras.”
EUNICE’S TIPS
- Know your product. This way, you will be a more confident and a more convincing seller.
- At the very beginning, get your finances in order. If you can’t, get someone to do it for you.
- Business is tough, you have to be courageous.
- Network. Every good entrepreneur does.