For those wazuans who've started businesses of their own, what has been your biggest obstacle to success? Mind has been getting people to take the business seriously. I don't know whether Kenya has self esteem issues as a country, but it seems like its so hard for Kenyans to appreciate fellow Kenyans endeavours. What has been your biggest obstacle?

Cash Flow.

Out of cash... Out of business.

Cash. Not profit.

... to pay bills or loans.

What made you run out of cash? Mistakes with inventory? Hiring? What?

Employees stealing and diverting customers.

Potential customers really undervaluing your product. Ati ..si hiii ni CD tu? You get sucked into time consuming cultivation efforts, long meetings where the guy will want a system to manage something, say inventory, a backend heavy site, he/she can clearly see the benefits, then at some point they say ..can't pay more than 15K. Near last minute arm twisting that is really infuriating. Now I prefer people who have had previous experience with well integrated systems and know that stuff does not come cheap.
Luckily for me, these are side jobs. On rare occasions, you get to pocket a neat bundle of cash.

Several Reasons. I will give you just one.


When new in business you do not get credit facilities, neither do you get good deals from your suppliers - they don't 'trust you yet'

Your customers do not 'trust you', so would like some assurance that your product is similar + competitive... and will want the some insentive as well eg credit facilities/delayed payments.

if you do not offer this, you are not in business... as your competitors (more established) are offering this.
Your competitors have the credit facilitiies from the supplier.

You then get more orders than you had anticipated... so you will need more cash around.
You approach your bank who tell you
"Aaii chief, you've only just open your business account? ... Si kwanza you do 6 months, we can 'trust you' with credit?"

Basically whatever you had budgeted is never enough....
.... and before you ask, yes I have heard the word 'contingency'.

"words of wisdom" ... ... I wish.

Sales

Selling

This is very true. Last month I couldn't account for 11,000/= I thought I could keep track and just record at a later date. I managed to track most of the purchases but 3,400/= has just vanished.

Luckily it's my own small business so I wasn't beaten to a pulp.