While other university students keep pressuring their parents with rent, school fees and pocket money, a group students from different campuses have recently started up a bicycle hiring business- DAECHA Cycles- around Maseno University to help raise their personal upkeep money and school fees.
Arry Ochieng’- Moi University, Collins Oduor- Moi University, Ian Ogenga- JKUAT and Kevin Ochieng Kisumu Polytechnic who have been friends since their primary school days used their personal savings to raise the business capital that was around Sh130,000 which was used to purchase the first 13 bicycle each going for Sh10,000.
Their target market having been Maseno University students, the quartet is receiving customers both from the University and the neighboring community where apparently they all grew up in. The conditions for hiring a bicycle is that you leave your national ID or the student ID.
Just like any other business, the bike business has its peak season and the low season.
“As much as we spent a lot to start the business I feel it’s catching up and the returns are so good. Unlike the weekends where we get around Sh6000 daily income, weekdays are a bit tricky because the students are busy with classes but we still make around Sh1000 to Sh2000,” said Arry.
The money they have generated so far will contribute towards paying Kevin’s school fees who differed from the polytechnic due to fee balances.
The bikes that go for Sh2 per minute are hired by students for various reasons. Some to just have fun riding, some for exercise purposes while some get the bicycles in order to rush to classes.
The fear that someone could rent a bike and disappear with it happens to be a great challenge though they’ve never experienced such a case. Also the fact that they have to stay dirty the whole day repairing and washing the bikes, is quite a challenge. The current rainy weather also hinders them from getting many customers as usual considering the roads around Maseno University are in poor conditions making it difficult for someone to ride in the mad. In a comic way, Arry also adds that students bargaining power is so high that they end up charging them less than the normal amount.
“You know students’ language in bargaining happens to be so convincing. Someone takes a bike for three hours that’s around 360 shillings and they come back and saying that they only have 200. So I have to take it because I don’t want to lose my customers,”
DAECHA Cycles' future is promising as the group plans to venture even more into businesses associated with the transport sector in the next five years.
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