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By MARGARET WAHITO, NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 13 – When I meet Julius Mulei, 30, at his shop in Nairobi Central Business District, he is busy packaging fruits to take to his customers. The employees are partially the reason he wakes up every day and not give up on the business.
“Sometimes when I face so many challenges especially being harassed by ‘Kanjo’ (county council askaris) I feel like I want to close the shop and to something else away from them. But I ask myself, If I quit, where will these people go?” he says.
Mulei started his small fruit shop with only Sh200 in 2012 and one employee. Five years down the line, he has a reason smile. At the moment he is able to buy stock worth Sh8,000 every morning, pay his employees at least Sh500 each per day and remain with a profit of Sh2000 on average. Having studied automotive engineering, employment didn’t go well with him as he had to struggle to meet his daily needs, surviving hand to mouth due to low pay. However, Mulei is proud to have achieved a lot with his business, including educating his only sibling through secondary to college level, as well as start a dairy farming in Makueni. He is also getting married soon. I got the invitation card! In our ninth episode of Respect The Hustle, Mulei tells me how he has managed to overcome challenges as well as his plan to expand his business. He is seeking financial capital from the World Bank to upgrade his small business to medium level. Mulei, who is an orphan, is a boss of eight employees who prepare and supply fruit salads to offices in the CBD.