Dr. Nancy Kihara is the co-founder of Sunrise Creameries.
Kihara who has a medical background ventured into the business while she was undertaking further studies.
While she explained that the transition was not easy, the entrepreneur is happy that she has driven her business to its current level.
Here is Nancy’s story as told by WoK.
Background
Nancy left employment to pursue further employment and while at it, she realized how much free time she had.
As a result, she decided to utilize her free time and decided to venture into the business of making yoghurt among other dairy products.
She noted that the business was already in existence although she was not actively involved.
“…but now this time I had a lot of free time and business needs care, that’s how I found myself doing this business,” Nancy said.
The entrepreneur noted that starting off was really difficult because she was previously working in corporate.
“It was tough because I was coming from a corporate, and the transition was not as easy as I would have thought
“It’s a whole different ballgame all together and the mindset has to really shift for you to actually hack it,” she explained.
Diversity
Nancy disclosed that before she started being actively involved with running the company, they only had a milk ATM machine.
When she came onboard, she sought ways of making more revenue by adding value to the fresh milk.
It was then when they started making yoghurts, before they later looked at ways of scaling up the business.
“The quality was good and the consistency, people were taking it, but then I was like, ‘we need to scale’ and for you to scale it means whatever you’re takin out there needs to be in place
“The fact that I’m coming from the corporate world where everything is in place, I find myself in a situation where structures and all the processes needs me,” she said.
Nancy explained that the transition took time but she managed to pull through.
“It was not easy, at many times I thought about going back to employment but then I had to keep going because I had someone who kept me grounded,” she said.
Challenges
Nancy noted that one of the greatest challenges in her business is competition from other industry players.
“That is why while you’re coming into the market you’ll have to do your research and see what is it that you’re bringing that’ll make you standout,” she said.
Other challenges include aggressive marketing, holding the staff accountable and unavailability of milk in certain seasons.
