IS MITUMBA BUSINESS PROFITABLE?
“I am not going back to formal employment,” Grace Adek says.
She has been selling second-hand women’s clothes since she was a university student.
“I would buy 30 extra dresses to sell to my schoolmates every time I went shopping for myself,” she says. “I would buy the dresses for Sh.50 to Sh.100, then sell them for Sh.300 to Sh.600 bob.”
Four years ago she quit her job as a pharmaceuticals marketer to pursue her mitumba business fulltime. She was 32 at the time. At the time, Grace had been dabbling in the business part-time while she worked her day job.
Now, Grace purchases clothes worth hundreds of thousands a week.
“Every week I buy stock worth between Sh.200,000 and Sh.300,000. I make a profit of between Sh.100,000 to Sh.150,000. I make Sh.20,000 on a good day and at least Sh.5,000 in a bad one.”
In the meantime, costs are low; Grace runs her business online so she has no rent to pay. She has a Facebook page with 29,000 likes, and it is where her customers shop.
Besides two motorbikes and their drivers to deliver her orders, there are no other costs.
The second-hand apparel market is a money-spinner – for everyone involved. Along the import and distribution chain, profit margins more than double as the selling costs dwindle.
Anyone who’s in it makes a killing. And there is a huge market for them, too. According to Ipsos survey, 62 per cent of middle and lower income urban Kenyans buy mitumba.
There is never a fixed amount of revenue that you are expected to get.
With mitumba business, you can make a profit of more than 50% of the buying price with a suitable location with many customers like near colleges, in market centers or on social media.
The startup cost is low and you can start with little capital and grow your business over time.
Its expenses are less since you only need to pay for licenses and permits. You can opt to sell from a store, open market centers or online.
My friend Alex is one of a kind. When I met him, almost five years ago, I was by then living in Thika. If you have been in Thika or any other town for that matter, you know how busy the streets are especially in the evenings, lined up with hawkers merchandizing all kinds of goodies.
Alex was one of them and at that time he used to sell secondhand clothes commonly known as mitumba. He would wake up very early in the morning to go to Gikomba to buy stock.
He no longer sells mitumba but he is the proud owner of two majorly stocked electronics shops in Nairobi and Kikuyu.
He now imports his things from other countries and even has links with the likes of Sayona and Samsung where he gets his stock from.
Most people like Alex, have used Mitumba business as a catapult to something better.
If you don’t have a lot of capital to start a business, I strongly believe that a mitumba business is one of the most profitable businesses you can venture into.
Running a successful mitumba retail business requires you to be flexible. Adapt to seasonal changes and be willing to adjust your prices now and then.
The items you will get will never be the same and you will need strategies on how to make enough from them.
Revenue is influenced by:
1. Type of items.
2. Quality of items.
3. Price at which you purchase the items.
4. Price at which you sell the items.
5. Your location.
6. Target market.
7. Expenses.
Most people shy to venture into mitumba business. They think that it’s saturated but there are a lot of profits in it.
Surprisingly if you have Ksh.5,000, you can start selling mitumba clothes.
With Ksh.5,000 starting capital in this kind of business, you can be assured of at least 500 shillings in profit at the end of the day.
Isn’t it better than just sitting at home waiting for someone to notice your application letter on their desk?
Remember, nothing good comes on a silver platter.
Don’t just sit there, start small and dream big.
Also don’t forget to join our Business Marketing Training to learn brilliant marketing strategies that can make your business more profitable.
We have created a WhatsApp group called *BUSINESS MARKETING TRAINING*
In this group we are going to train and teach you for 21 days brilliant marketing strategies that can make your business more profitable.
Goods and services you are selling are like the body of a car while marketing is the engine that drives the car. Sometimes a car with a bad “body”, but a good engine will outrun a car with a good “body” but a poor engine.
By
Justine Nyachieo
Business Man & Mentor
Timothy Angwenyi
Business Consultant
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