BY VICTOR ADAR
A 28 year old electrician, Maxie Waweru, is one hard working youth who considered entrepreneurship at a time when many young people are head over heels about having fun, and banking on pocket money and hand-outs from parents and relatives. Waweru’s is an electrical enterprise focusing on day to day electrical problems, offering a wide array of services including generator installation, machines and refrigeration repair, solar panel installation, lighting and designs, just to mention a few.
Popular as Max, Maxie believes that if there is one thing people should avoid looking at as the stumbling block to start off a business, it is capital. Although start up capital always matter, there are cases where when you just sit waiting for the amount to come through from heaven, it will take you a lifetime to do something meaningful. The easy way, he says, is to start at anytime of your life regardless of how much money you have in your back pocket.
“I started with zero cash,” he says. “I used to go on house to house hustle. I made some tidy sum of money out of that, and that’s how I started. And for the five years I have been at it I have gained more from repair works. We have qualified professionals, in every field of electrical engineering, and we are also guided by honesty
With the potential of services involving generator installations, machine repair, maintenance and electrical supply as a lucrative investment option, Mr Waweru is one young guy who is using his professional background to his advantage. The graduate from Industrial Technical College class of 2012 worked in different fields of electrical engineering before finding his path in entrepreneurship.
His business, Maxikatech Solutions, which was started five years ago and now boasts of 12 employees, is located in the suburb of Lavington, on Riara Road. For him, security is important. That’s what informed his choice of location. Secondly, the location also gives the business a greater image. Thirdly, it is about choices, and what matters is not what you started off with but how your jump into business made an impact, he adds. Having started as a door-to-door electrician, Mr Waweru is proof that one can start small and grow in leaps and bounds.
Currently running an enterprise with a sales shop, workshop, and consulting office, business seems to be flowing. He has achieved a 30% growth in terms of income since the entrepreneurship bug bit him, and is able to make an estimated figure of Sh100, 000 at the moment. He says: “We used to make fairly good returns. But because of the slowed economy, this all goes to adding little stock, and expenses… With political temperatures high no one knows what will happen next.”
On the domestic front, he mainly deals with sockets, water heaters, switches and even lights. They also do industrial installations, which touches on heavier machines with greater power rating and designed for a high voltage supply like ovens, deep fat fryers, electric barbecues and 3-phase motor pumps among others.
A client would make a choice on the type of installation he or she will require. After installation his firm works on an agreed period of free inspection and maintenance while also providing a brief tutorial on how to deal with minor situations like starting the generator engine and simple maintenance mechanisms as well as electrical safety measures. His enterprise offers two installation methods: automatic and manual change over.
For generators, they do wiring and connection for both industrial and domestic installations, with as many provisions as required by a particular customer while also offering advice on the best machine to buy according to the type of load used in an area of installation. Since it is a business that is based on actual selling and installation of equipment, it requires a broader scope of marketing. The willingness to offer after sales service and instructing his staff to offer free consultation to potential customers are working for him. He says: “The venture is good and I would advice anyone to consider putting money on the same. Our services involve generator installations, machine repair, maintenance, and electrical supply. Right now machine repair is doing very well.”
If you went to school with individuals who really made money by hustling around, literally repairing spoilt radios, phones, or even doing minor electricity connections around the village at a small fee, you have seen an enterprising lot. Serious parties, as always the case, would go ahead to train and become professionals once they have realised that that’s what they are passionate about. And just like that, a small idea grows to become a lucrative venture. Mr Waweru can relate to this just too well.
Focused on things that work and not on making self-employment just look colourful, he believes that entrepreneurs will be the next big boys and girls of this country if they will remain focused. Most of his customers come through online platforms (sometimes through Facebook, Whatsapp groups and their website). Referrals are also working wonders. Amidst the good progress, certain things that bother him, though, are many and diverse.
“Challenges are many especially before you are established. On some occasions, you might have difficulty with rent; jobs won’t be there everyday but staff will count their day as at work and will ask for their days’ salary. Again, this election year has really affected my business. The last two months have not been very good. Business is very slow,” he says.
