Terry Muchiri is a director and travel consultant at Razack Holiday Homes. Razack Holiday Homes is a business based in the Mount Kenya region that runs multiple Airbnb luxury homes for local and international tourists visiting the larger Laikipia region including Nanyuki, and Mount Kenya, Meru, Nyeri and Isiolo.
We started this business in 2018 with my business partner Farah Razack. We had visited Nanyuki to install smart locks for a friend who was already in business. Our education background is in engineering and we were offering security solutions to airbnb businesses.
Our experience triggered interest in this business, and we consulted our contact on what success prospects we would face. Luckily, he was willing to lend us a hand, and even gave us two of his units to manage and run to in order to gain firsthand experience.
Our growth has been slow but steady. The challenges we have faced so far are theft and loss of electronics from some guests who book airbnb units with hidden agendas. We have also experienced losses from long term guests who run off without paying.
Prior to opening the airbnb business, I was a director at Girder Engineering Ltd. This is where I still work as I run the airbnb business on the side. We install security features including cctv, biometrics and electric fencing for businesses and households. We also run a parallel steel division that specializes in steel structures through one of our engineering partners.
My biggest money mistake was investing in a parcel of land to build some holiday homes. The seller of the land died before processing the title deeds. This turned out to be a huge problem after we discovered that the land was not under his name by the time he died.
We lost all the money we had paid. In business, though, you either learn or earn. I learned from this experience the critical importance of doing due diligence when buying land. I also learned that there is value in leasing instead of buying.
A few weeks ago, I started a new venture that I have dubbed as ‘Declutter and Earn’. Through this venture, I am helping people to declutter what they don’t use, which I then sell on their behalf and earn commissions. I started this venture through Facebook after making posts that I was selling items that I no longer used including clothes.
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Someone tried to shame the sale and I realized that this was the very reason many people with lots of items to declutter do not do a second hand sale. I wasn’t bothered and went on to close very nice sales. In less than a month since I started this venture, I have decluttered items in over fifty homes.
I currently save my money with my chama and through treasury bonds. I have not always been a saver. Previously, I would reinvest all the money I made. I used bank accounts not as saving vessels, but as a landing for cash on transit.
We are only limited by our minds. I am an engineer by profession, but this has not stopped me from venturing into tourism or starting a fresh decuttering business. All these are income streams which add into my revenue kitty at the end of the month. And this is really the bottom line.
Create multiple sources of income. Don’t rely on a salary alone. An advice that I once got from a senior individual was; make your social capital count. You are defined by the company you keep. If five of your friends are losers, you will be the sixth loser. Choose your circle very wisely.
A version of this profile feature on Terry Muchiri was also published in the Saturday Magazine. The Saturday Magazine is a publication of the Nation Media Group.
