Linda Wambura is the founder and director of Healthy Pocket, a health and wellness business with branches in Lanet, Nakuru County and Kikuyu in Kiambu County.
I started my business with Sh. 500,000 capital in 2017. My first shop was in Rwanda. This line of business was a form of a business continuation that my mother had started. She had raised us around a kitchen that was dominated by moringa, cinnamon, turmeric and black pepper.
With a majority of people now turning to foods and ingredients that promote wellness, I felt that this line of business would be easier to start and operate since I was already acquainted with it.
It took me 3 years to break even. As any rookie entrepreneur quickly finds out, a business on paper is very different from a business at a physical location. When I started and later moved to Kenya, I learned that not too many people were as willing to embrace my products as I had envisaged on paper. This was majorly due to cultural beliefs, mindsets towards herbs and natural wellness, and brand loyalty towards a new business.
In retrospect, I should have gone big and leveraged on social mind marketing to put my business and products out there. Three years on, though, the business became self-sufficient. Five years later, the business now offers psychotherapy wellness services, aromatherapy, and other natural healing remedies using seamoss, bladderwrack, Tongkat Ali, and raw food and alkaline diets.
Whether you’re opening a business with a friend, relative or mentor, always sign a legally binding agreement. I learned this the hard way. I had a mentor with whom we operated a big hotel business in Nakuru. However, when the business started picking, she became too domineering to the point where we started losing clients due to bad business decisions.
It was either her way or the highway. I guess she felt threatened by my personality. In the end, she kicked me out of the business and shut it down. I walked away with zero remuneration for the months I had put in the work. I wouldn’t have been so muzzled if I had a binding contract with her.
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I use mobile banking to save my money and lock in my goals. There are options that allow you to build your saving habits and gain interest by partaking in mobile savings challenges and fixed deposits. At the same time, I can easily transfer cash straight to my formal bank account or make a withdrawal when the business needs it.
Previously, I saved in a sacco. This wasn’t effective for me. My money didn’t grow and work for me as it does today. Shifting to my current mode of handling finances showed me that old school banking isn’t for everyone.
Entrepreneurship will always be a mile ahead of employment. It is the only way you can find a balance between your profession (what you are being paid for), vocation (what the world needs), mission (what you love) and vision (what you’re good at).
I have previously been employed but employment has never worked for me. I always found myself quitting and trying small hustles. I finally settled into entrepreneurship when I founded Health Pocket. It is however not for everyone, which is why you must never quit your job to venture into business if there are no valid grounds for it such as a sustainable market, sufficient startup and operation capital to break even within the first two to five years, and a sustainable cost effective source of goods and services.
In life and business, finding your primary reason for your goals and purposes and being consistent is the fuel that will take you to success. The ‘Why’ and consistency will always pay off. From running a business from a single outlet to numerous branches, I have come to appreciate the hard truth that delay is not always denial as much as delay is tough to take in.
The best results don’t happen overnight. They take time and this time can also include failures and retrials.
A version of this profile on Linda Wambura of Healthy Pocket was also featured in the Saturday Magazine. The Saturday Magazine is a publication of the Nation Media Group.
