Failure is part of the learning process

“Benta, I won’t buy your bags. They are not elegant, they are not functional and the stitches are way too big.”

Benta Wangui, 28, will never forget this blunt statement, even though it was said five years ago, but not because she felt dejected when she heard it, but because for the first time, someone had told her why no one was interested in the bags she was trying so hard to sell.

“Starting out as an entrepreneur was tough. I made many mistakes and went back to the drawing board many times, but I did not give up,” she says.

Thanks to her persistence, today, she can proudly say that she is the brains behind BagWorld Leather, a company that produces leather articles such as bags, belts, leashes and dog collars. Her company is based in Embakasi, Nairobi, and at any one time, she contracts at least three casual workers.

What motivated her to consider entrepreneurship?

“I grew up in Mombasa where most people believed that if you wanted to succeed in business, Nairobi was the place to be. After working for two years as a lab analyst whilst acting on the side at Little Theatre Club Mombasa, I decided to resign in December 2013 and move to Nairobi, my aim to start a business with the Sh50, 000 I had saved.”

She put up with a friend she had gone to school with at Mombasa Polytechnic, where she studied for a diploma in Analytical Chemistry.

“At the time, Ankara fabric was very popular, so I decided to take advantage of the craze to make some money. My idea was to accessorise women’s sandals with a flower made from the fabric. Following YouTube tutorials, I learned how to make the pieces and got someone to supply me with the sandals. Without carrying out extensive market research, I invested Sh40, 000 into the business, but within two months, it had gone under,” she explains.

It turns out that the sandals were of poor quality, a factor that her customers kept complaining about. Eventually, she closed shop after just two months and decided to start acting again. That was in April 2014. After numerous visits to the Kenya National Theatre in search of acting gigs, she landed acting roles in local productions Naswa, Mother-in-law and Mchungaji. Mchungaji, where she plays the role of a house girl to date, and which airs on NTV, was her saving grace because within a year, she had managed to save Sh200, 000, which she intended to revive her business with.

“I still wanted to design shoes, but this time round, leather shoes.”

Still smarting from failure, she sought advice before investing her money in the venture.

“I had a chat with a designer at the Kenya Industrial Research & Development Institute (KIRDI), who dissuaded me from investing in leather shoes because I would have to import the soles. He instead suggested leather bags, and after training me at a cost of Sh7, 000 for about four days and watching stitching videos on YouTube, I made my first bag. He thereafter showed me where to buy buckles, locks and other accessories I would need to make the bags.”

With Sh150, 000 of her savings, Benta ventured into the business, only to make another costly mistake - she bought a machine she was promised would make her job easier using Sh75, 000, only to discover that it was not fit to make durable leather.

“Besides buying a non-functional machine, I also bought poor quality leather valued at around Sh30, 000,” she says.

Determined to succeed despite the misfortune that seemed determined to follow her, she taught herself hand stitching, but still her sales remained discouraging. She stubbornly refused to give up.

“In November 2016, I participated in my first exhibition and although I had paid Sh5, 000 for the stand, I didn’t make a single sale. For some reason, nobody was willing to buy my bags yet no one told me what the problem was.”

Her defining moment came in May 2017 when she got a chance to train with MbuguaRosemary Foundation, a non-profit organisation that mentors young entrepreneurs. It was here where she met a woman who later became her mentor. She is the one that told her the truth everyone else had kept from her.

She said, “Benta, I won’t buy your bags. They are not elegant, they are not functional and the stitches are way too big.”

“That was the first time someone had said something negative about my bags, but it was those words that helped me get back to the drawing board and rethink the future of my business,” she says.

With another Sh200,000 savings from her acting job, I decided to import hand stitching tools from Japan in September 2017. They included hole chisels, hole punches, wooden hammers and stamping tools.”

It is around this time that her business made a turnaround because she was finally able to make products that met customers’ standards. She would go on to diversify, producing other leather items such as belts, laptop bags, book covers, kitenge backpacks, totes and men’s wallets. Laptop bags, she says, are especially sought after.

Despite not having a big space to run her workshop – she operates it from her rented house in Embakasi, BagWorld Leather has expanded from making bags targeting women to those that appeal to men too.

“The number of people working  with me at any given time depend on the number of orders I have,” she explains.

Currently, there are two stores in Thika that stock her products, and on a monthly basis, she supplies 50 leather belts, leashes and dog collars to two security firms in Nairobi.

Benta, who has sold more than 80 bags since she launched her business in January 2017, makes about Sh50, 000 every month. She classifies the bags in three categories; Platinum bags, which go for Sh10, 000, Gold bags, which sell for Sh5, 000, while Silver bags start at Sh2, 000. All her bags are made from original and high-quality leather, which she sources locally. The price of a bag is determined by the quality of leather.

She points out that even though she is still far from where she would want to be, she is firmly on the way there. Check out her products on

Facebook: BagWorld Leather and on Instagram: @bagworld_leather