HOW A BUILT A MULTI-MILLION COMPANY FROM A SALARY OF JUST KSH. 6000
All this time, Esther had been documenting her tribulations in a journal. Without a job and with no savings to kick-start her own venture, she would go through her journal which dated back to her childhood, and with time she became suicidal. She became suicidal because her whole life had been difficult and going through the journal only reminded her of how hard it had been.
One day, she took a bunch of painkillers with the intention of ending her life and subsequent suffering.
“Unfortunately it did not work,” she laughs. “My friend found me unconscious in the house and rushed me to hospital. The doctors gave me at most two hours to live due to the damage the drugs had caused on my body.”
She left the hospital a week later.
In December of 2013 and after much encouragement from her mother, things started looking up. Someone suggested that she open a Facebook page to build traffic to her tours and travel website as she started seeking her own clients. And just like that, the Facebook Page Bountiful Travels was born. It currently boasts of over 62,000 likes. “My big break came when I booked a particular group for an excursion in Mombasa and they referred me to an embassy that was looking to have a similar excursion,” she says.
“They wanted to deposit a million shillings as part of the payment immediately so they requested that I send them my bank account details- I didn’t even have a bank account!” she adds.
She called a friend who worked at a bank and was able to open a bank account immediately, successfully jumping the first hurdle. The second hurdle was when the clients said they wanted to come to the office, which she also didn’t have. Again, another friend came to her rescue by allowing her to use his office in up market Kileleshwa. She would use the office for the next two months until she was able to set up her own office in Westlands.
“My elder brother paid my rent for the first three months, and that’s how Bountiful Safaris was born,” she says exuberantly.
Due to the hardships she endured in employment, Esther strides to make it better for others behind her and especially women.
“I now have 12 employees and I would never put them through what I went through”
She, however, admits that it hasn’t been smooth sailing ever since.
“I remember approaching tour destinations and they would brush me off. Some said I was too young and inexperienced while others said I was too new to the market.”
With time now, she has built a name that commands respect from the same tour destinations that brushed her off as well as her competition.
Other challenges she continues to encounter is when prospective clients assume that holidays are a reserve of the rich.
“While many people assume it’s a costly affair to go on a holiday, our work at Bountiful Safaris is to demystify the notion by offering affordable holiday packages available for either domestic tourism or otherwise.”
Over time, Esther has learned to be more persistent and now goes out of her way to mentor others of the importance of pushing on.
“Nothing is impossible as long as you have the drive, and trust in God.”
Looking back, she couldn’t be gladder she pushed on.
Esther is set to travel to London in November to receive an award in which Bountiful Safaris was feted as a unique tour operator in the Luxury Tour Guide awards.
“God’s grace has been sufficient,” she beams.
Esther plans on growing her business by opening several other branches outside the country.
SOURCE: DAILY NATION
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