Successful entrepreneurs embrace digital

In the rural suburbs of Kenya’s Kitui County, in ‘the land of untapped abundance’ as they like to call it, resides County Chemicals, a medical supplies, and equipment company. Just after the pandemic hit, Catherine Mutia, the Managing Director of the company joined AMI’s Survive to Thrive programme with the hope of finding a solution that would help them continue running the business. 

“Before the pandemic hit, our core clients used to be walk-ins who would visit our shop and buy goods – pharmaceuticals and non-pharmaceuticals. Through this programme, we have learnt how to adjust our business model to help boost our sales. We started advertising online and we now offer consulting services. By offering consultancy, we have been able to further grow some of these relationships which have now translated into more business. Some of these clients now visit our shop and buy goods,” she said. 

Being part of the programme not only opened up opportunities for County Chemicals to explore and adopt digital marketing. It also gave them the opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs, learn, and grow. “I met a gentleman known as Mr. Walle through the AMI programme. As we speak he currently supplies us with hardware products whenever we need to make renovations. Generally, I also appreciate the opportunity I got to interact and connect with other entrepreneurs,” she said.

Together with her team, Catherine also managed to improve how they manage their finances. They are now able to consistently calculate profits and losses at the end of every month. They also learnt how to improve their customer service and they now send clients monthly statements which have helped improve sales. They now have a clear picture of what is in stock both on their side and on their client’s side which has enabled them to be more proactive with most of their regular clients leading to an increase in sales.