Timothy owns a spare part business in Kisii.The businessman has been owning the shop for more than 4 years. He shares his testimony on how he started the business and what motivated him to start the business.
“I started bodaboda spare parts business in 2017.Before then I was running bodaboda business. I did the business for 4 good years and during that time I had difficulties getting reliable source of spare parts. I would go from one shop to another and never found quality parts.In 2017 a friend of mine advised me to shelve the business of running bodaboda over spare parts business.I took the idea, but again I didn’t have enough capital for launching the business.Here in Kisii,to get a good spacious house requires rent of more than Ksh200,000.I sold two of my 4 bodabodas and went to Equity where I took a loan of Ksh 1.5 million. I used my Title deed as collateral.
One morning, I decided to stop ferrying my customers as usual and started looking for a good house to rent.I got one near Uhuru Plaza where I set up the business. I spent Ksh 1.2 million to stock, but again the stock was not enough.
At first it was hard to know a reliable source of those spare parts.Nobody was willing to reveal to me where they obtained theirs from.It forced me to go to Nairobi and inquire. My brother who lives in Nairobi took me to River Road and Industrial area where the spare parts are sold in wholesale.I talked with most of those selling them in length and we agreed.
In August 2017 I launched my business. But since I never had experience of operating business of that magnitude, I was nervous. For 6 months, I was learning a couple of things about bodaboda spare parts business, one of the challenges I got was transportation from Nairobi.But eventually,I managed to get a reliable transporter.
I started with a profit of Ksh 100 per day,it grew gradually and by the second year,I was earning in excess of Ksh 100,000 per month. Nowadays I make up to Ksh200,000 per day by selling spare parts only.
I can confess that this is the best decision I ever made—I can’t look back.