I make Sh800 a-day selling sausages and chicken pieces

Sarafina Wanjiku Njihia, 24

I worked for three months with a Nyeri based hotel, then called it quits in the world of employment and decided to be my own employer instead. I relocated to Nakuru looking forward to making it in business, and used part of the saving to invest in a chicken meat and sausage business.

Not every investment is off to a good start, especially in a place you’re new to and where your presence takes time to register. And so it was to this start I began, sometimes with recriminations if I made a wise investment decision.

Whereas raw pieces or whole of dressed chicken stock was moving slowly, the take away grilled and sausages proved a hit, perhaps the aroma of the former serving as the attraction.

There is nothing as discouraging as preparing items for sale and lacking customers. I sometimes end up putting everything in a freezer, and this increases power usage charges.

There is also no guarantee I’ll get stock owing to unreliable supply – today there could be a surplus of dressed chicken and tomorrow a deficit of same as the supplier(s) can shortchange one to a competition.

Not every customer is creditworthy as it takes long to establish good rapport, and so I’m always cautious with whom I extend credit to.

I’m better off than when I was employed and content being my own boss. There’s no clocking in and clocking out. The flexibility of time allowing me space to do other things on the side.

After factoring in the operational costs, I make between Sh600 to Sh800 on a good day.