Start a Business with Only 500 Kenya Shillings

START A BUSINESS WITH ONLY 500 KENYA SHILLINGS

Many people think that capital or seed money is the biggest roadblock to starting an own business. I disagree with them. I have done casual research and can say without blinking an eye that capital is one of the roadblocks to starting a business but it is not the biggest roadblock. You can start a business even with no money only using what I normally call “your upstairs”. If you want to discover what business you could start with as little as Ksh. 500 then read on .....

First let us define a business. It is a legal activity undertaken to earn a profit. And what is profit? Profit is what is earned up and above what was invested. In money terms it is that money that has “grown”. In terms of effort it is that work that has brought rewards. The use of the word “grown” means that to earn profit money is invested and well managed just like a planted crop has to be well weeded if it has to bear fruits.

There are a number of messages I am trying to convey:

1. Business can be a rewarding activity

2. Rewards come after well managed work; call it hard work

3. Profit is earned; it does not come on a silver platter i.e. for free

Many people I have talked to tell me that they do not own a business because they do not have money to start one. When I go further to ask them what business they would have wished to start they get stuck; they have no concrete business idea. And that is their undoing. First you must have a business idea. Armed with the idea you can then start planning about how to turn it into a business and earn profit. During the planning you may realize that the idea is not possible to implement for various reasons including the needed funds to start it. You may therefore scale it down, postpone it or even abandon it all together and think of another one within your reach.

I was once involved in training Kenya’s civil servants to prepare them for retrenchment. This was at the...