Stephen Kinyua a Kenyan businessman who runs a successful watermelon business encourages Kenyans to be willing to take risks to achieve great life goals.

The businessman supplies watermelons in Tharaka Nithi County thanks to the increased demand for the fruit in the region.

Narrating his entrepreneurial journey, Kinyua revealed he quit employment due to low earnings that denied him his dream lifestyle.

Having been ambitious since his youth, Kinyua wanted a better income to improve his family’s lifestyle and even visualized being an employer himself, given the many advantages of being own boss.

“Why continue serving as an employee to someone else? Employment has a limitation in how much one can achieve in life and this was not the kind of life I wished to live all my lifetime, ” he told KNA.

“Besides, who knew a calamity like Covid-19 would come leading to huge lay-offs in the employment sector? Although businesuus has its ups and downs, the wise will save enough to cater for difficult times. But with employment the remuneration is restricted,” he says.

Move to a cheaper house, use matatus instead of living on debts to please people

Kinyua credits his success in entrepreneurship to his willingness to take risks, patience, and financial help from Saccos.  He notes that his business has purely been built on loans.

“I would like to tell the youth that life is about risking. To expand my business, I had to take a loan from Sacco. It was a bit scary, but I trusted my instincts. No risk, no gain,” he says.

“Sacco’s are very helpful. They have low interest rates and give sufficient grace periods for repayment. They also listen to their clients in case of a delayed loan payment,” Kinyua adds.

He, however, admitted to experiencing uncountable challenges in his line of business.  Kinyua says just like most businesses, his business also took some time before breaking even.

To dominate the watermelon market in Chuka town, he had to be patient to create a loyal customer base that sustains him in the business.

The businessman adds that getting good suppliers was also a major challenge and would at times end up acquiring unripe watermelons which would enormously eat into his profit margin.

He, however, persevered, and through the business, he has been able to build himself a house, buy a piece of land for watermelon farming in the Tharaka area, and acquire a lorry for transportation of his watermark commodity.

“I have watched my life change since I got into business,” he says.