My Name is Victor and I want to share my business success story with your readers.Okay,I have owned a car wash business in Nairobi for 12 years, making profits year after years without a single loss.
Here is how I started.
It was in 2001 when, straight from high school, I came to Nairobi to school from my cousin’s house in Huruma.At that time, I was very young, shy and naive. I didn’t know Nairobi, not even fending for myself.
I stayed at my cousin’s house for six months, and in those six months I managed to find a college, Technical University of Kenya (formerly Kenya Polytechnic University).I was admitted for a course in Electrical and electronics engineering.
After starting attending school, I would struggle to make ends meet due to financial constraints. My cousin was for construction companies and didn’t have enough money to pay for my matatu transport and pocket money. I had to look for a source of income.
My cousin introduced me to his friends, who ushered me into the world of hustling in Nairobi.I could wake up earlier in the morning,go to a construction site, beg for work and at the end of the day I could walk home with Ksh250,which was good at that time.
I did the construction site jobs for around 1 year while schooling until another friend, who had opened a car wash in Donholm told me to work for him. That’s where I learn’t that there is money in car wash business. Unlike in construction jobs where I was getting Ksh 250 per day, here I was getting at least Ksh700 per day.
I could see my friend pocket Ksh 3,000.I was so motivated that I told myself “this should be me”.
Saving after saving, one year later I had Ksh50, 000.That’s the money I used to start my own car wash in 2004 in Umoja Nairobi. At that time, the washing machines and water was easy to obtain, competition was also not stiff.
Unlike most business where you have to wait for a while before the first customer comes, my business got the first customer 1 hour after opening it.I remember it was a Toyota Prado that was driven into my car wash and after 20 minutes, I was Ksh 300 richer.
It’s now 12 years and am still going strong.I have managed to make a total of Ksh 20 million from the business. And about my college education, I deferred for a while but I completed in 2012,but I haven’t used it anywhere.
What I can say is that car wash business is lucrative in Nairobi. If you manage to set it up near a busy shopping centre, you will not go home with less than Ksh 4,000 per day.
What I have also learn’t is that customers want excellent services. What’s important here is how your customer feels after your service. He comes in as a patient and once his car is treated well, he will come again.
My business has grown and I now have another branch along Ngong Road and another one in Thika.
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