The baby gift idea that birthed a business

Mercy Ngumi Kariuki during interview at Nation Centre on January 19, 2016. PHOTO| CHARLES KAMAU

What you need to know:

  • Then, just a year after she was promoted to managerial level in 2008,  her husband, Samuel, was posted to South Africa for work. Mercy wasn’t overly-invested in her job, so it was easy to leave with him.

  • Her visa prohibited her from working, so she became a stay-at-home mum.

  • “In 2010, while looking online for baby things after I got pregnant with my third child, I came across a company that was making diaper cakes. It was an interesting concept and I asked the owner to teach me,” she says.

Passion isn’t always something you always knew you were good at or that burning desire to venture into a certain industry that just won’t go away. Sometimes it is something you pick along the way, so you might miss it if you do not pay attention.

For Mercy, it was something she found as a mother in a foreign land.

She holds a mathematics and economics degree from the University of Nairobi which led to a career in banking.

“I loved interacting with different people, but hated the routine. I knew I didn’t want to be a career banker from the beginning,” she says.

Then, just a year after she was promoted to managerial level in 2008,  her husband, Samuel, was posted to South Africa for work. Mercy wasn’t overly-invested in her job, so it was easy to leave with him.

Her visa prohibited her from working, so she became a stay-at-home mum.

“In 2010, while looking online for baby things after I got pregnant with my third child, I came across a company that was making diaper cakes. It was an interesting concept and I asked the owner to teach me,” she says.

A diaper cake is a colourful arrangement of an assortment of baby stuff including diapers, bibs, towels, flannel sheets, socks and other items. It is put together to look like a multi-layered cake. The diaper cake company happened to be on sale when Mercy’s

family was coming back to Kenya in 2011. She used her savings to buy the remaining stock.

Back home, she promptly registered her company Zawadi Tele. Then she realised how hard it was going to be to sell the diaper cake here.

“Most people wondered why they couldn’t just buy cheaper diapers from the supermarket instead of my diaper cake,” she says.

When she couldn’t make a sale, she began giving them to friends who were having babies. It was one of these friends who came back and bought a diaper cake worth Sh3, 000 for another friend who was having a baby.

“I slowly began making sales but I wasn’t sure that it could be a business.“

What boosted her confidence was training at the British Council and the Growth Oriented Women Enterprise (GOWE) programme. She began seeing her craft as a business and put up the necessary systems and structures in place. She also promoted her

business aggressively online and expanded her skills to include beadwork and baking.

She also expanded her clientele to include corporates. She now has a number of clients in the diaspora who come to her when they are looking for customised and uniquely Kenyan gifts.

“A gift doesn’t have to be an item, it can be an experience. I offer simple baking lessons for children and beadwork classes as gifts from their parents. I find that they enjoy this more than an item that costs the same amount of money,” she says.

What she loves most about running a business is that she is in charge of her time. This allows her to put those things that matter to her most, first. Last year, she finally finished her flute lessons and even played at a concert, something she doubts she would

have been able to achieve while in employment.

MERCY’S NUGGETS

  • Passion isn’t always obvious. If yours isn’t, pay attention as you go along and you will find it.

  • A business start-up needs patience more than anything else.

  • Be active in the online space. That’s where you’ll find a large share of clients.