Jacky Kamau is the founder of The Laundry Lady, a laundry business operating from Nairobi.
Jacky set up her business after losing her job ahead of the controversial 2017 General Elections.
While starting up, the entrepreneur started with a team of four ladies, and she was working from her house in Langata.
Here is Jacky’s story as told by WoK.
The Laundry Lady
The laundry business was initially started in September 2018, but Jacky later partnered with her brother to set up The Laundry Lady.
In an interview on NTV, Jacky noted that even though the journey has not been easy, she has enjoyed every step of it.
“We came together with my brother who is also my co-director and we put our money together to be able to start the business
“It was easy to do that since I started my business from where I lived. Since I had a washing machine, I was able to just get a drier,” she explained.
With a washing machine and a drier, the two set up the business and reinvested money from their sales back into the business.
The company works with families, hotels, AirBnBs, hospitals, schools and small establishments among other clients.
“Our clients are from very different areas within Nairobi, we have clients from all over. We let them know when we’ve received their laundry and when it will be ready,” Jacky explained.
Job loss
Jacky lost her job in the run up to the 2017 General Elections.
While desperate for a job, she started looking for the ideal business to venture into before settling on laundry.
“I thought about laundry, it was not east but because it is something that I was passionate about, it makes it easier to push through,” she said.
Jacky also explained how they managed to sail through the COVID-19 pandemic period even though the hotels and schools which they depended on had been affected.
“We took advantage for that because what happened is that we found most people who relied on Mama Fua and house helps for laundry had to let them go
“We positioned ourselves in the market as an on-demand laundry service provider. We had people call us, we collect the laundry and clean them. We weren’t really affected during that period,” she said.
Jacky works with social media influencers to market her business.
