A rough climb up the business ladder

“I love professional independence. I fancy making my own decisions and being in control of my productivity and creativity,” Beata Otieno says. Shortly after graduating with a journalism degree from USIU-Africa in 2012, Beata got a job with a fashion magazine where she hoped to put her journalistic skills to practice.

“Soon it hit me that as an employee, you don’t enjoy any creative control. Your boss may not share your perspective, even when you are convinced that your idea could be the company’s game changer,” Beata says.

“I had no objections to the scrutiny of my ideas. What I didn’t like is that my concept would be mutilated so much it lost its originality. Other times my ideas would be rejected outright. This hurt my innovativeness and motivation.”

This was never going to work for her. So after two years, Beata resigned from her job to start her own company, Ojwa Styling along Ngong Road, where she had creative control. “I was scared because I was moving from a monthly pay cheque to the (choppy) waters of business. I had no experience running a business,” she recalls.

Beata invested Sh200 000 into the business hoping to recoup it quickly even though she knew nothing about her business. She had imagined it was all glamour and money. But the reality would soon catch up with her.

“I was determined but also naïve. I had not foreseen the hustle of spending sleepless nights to meet deadlines, writing briefs and drafting proposals to prospective customers. When you have your own business, you worry perpetually about losing a client as the expiry of their contract draws nearer. You don’t rest until you have inked a contract extension,” Beata says.

In the first three months, corporates and celebrity clients poured in as the business picked momentum. Things were off to a terrific start. She was prompted to hire 10 assistants to keep up.

“I could not say no to any business offer. I felt that declining a contract amounted to failure. I was also eager to recover my capital as soon as possible. I penned contracts with different clients without a clear plan of how I would attend to all of them.”

Before long, Beata and her assistants were run off their feet. Her revenue, in spite of her many customers, was nothing much to write home about. She was afraid to “overcharge” them, fearing she might lose them.

“I would send assistants across the city to style clients, even without properly training them. A stylist’s job is very personal. It is about the client’s image. Some clients insisted that I serve them myself. I was getting overstretched and barely had time for myself. We lost many clients through poor service,” Beata laments.

Soon, her started leaving. The assistants also started dropping off – the workload was burgeoning by the day, yet their pay was poor. Having started with vibrancy only six months earlier, her business was now on the brink of folding.

“I dreaded the ridicule that I was likely to face among friends. I was also staring at financial uncertainty. But I was more troubled by the loss of my capital,” she says. Luckily, Beata’s business was saved by a contract she had with a local TV station, and only because she had been personally in charge of this client.

This year has been different. The business has stabilised and keeps attracting high-profile clientele. “I have been an image consultant for K24 TV for three months. I have also worked with Coke Studio Africa through an agent. I have styled NTV’s Victoria Rubadiri and TV anchor and radio host Amina Abdi.”

But she has learned her lessons. “I can’t afford to blunder again. I have learnt that styling is not about the number of clients you serve but mainly about the quality of your service. I have since harmonised my fees with what most professional stylists in Nairobi charge,” says Beata, whose monthly is income is Sh200, 000.

“I have a team that includes a graphics designer, a personal assistant and a stylist who work with me to achieve the needs of my clients. My income has increased and pressure reduced. What I used to earn in a month as a writer I can now earn in a day. I am proud of my decision to quit my journalism for business.”

Styling in Kenya is largely unexplored but it has been infiltrated by quackery, which according to Beata, has put a damper on quality work put in by professional stylists. She emphasises that dressing with a flair doesn’t qualify one to be a stylist.

“Styling is an intricate affair. It entails a keen study of what the client enjoys, what suits them, and their budget, to craft the best looks for them.”

Beata notes that lack of proper formal training breeds mediocrity and unethical practices in the profession of styling.

“There should also be standardised market rates for various styling packages to discourage quacks who undercharge for services, driving real professionals out of business,” she says.