Terry Muchiri is the co-founder of Razack Holiday Homes, running multiple Airbnb luxury homes in Mt Kenya region.
The company offers accommodation services to local and international tourists visiting Nanyuki, Mount Kenya, Meru, Nyeri and Isiolo.
Before venturing into the business, Terry was working as an engineer offering security solutions to Airbnb businesses.
Here is her story as told by WoK.
In 2018, Terry and her business partner, Farah Razack, joined hands to establish Razack Holiday Homes.
Before then, the two were pursuing a career in engineering, and offered security solutions to Airbnb businesses.
The duo ventured into the Airbnb business when a friend who was their client offered them two units to manage and run.
“We visited Nanyuki to install smart locks for a friend who was already in business. Our experience triggered interest in this business
“Luckily, our contact gave us two of his units to manage and run in order to gain firsthand experience,” she explained.
In an interview with Nation, Terry noted that the Airbnb businesses is his side hustle as she still work as a director at Girder Engineering Ltd.
The company installs security features such as CCTV, biometrics and electric fencing for businesses and households.
“We also run a parallel steel division that specialises in steel structures through one of our engineering partners,” she said.
Terry recently established a new company dubbed Declutter and Earn where she helps people sell what they don’t use and earn commissions.
“I started this venture through Facebook after making posts that I was selling items that I no longer used including clothes. Someone tried to shame the sale and I realised that this was the very reason many people with lots of items do not do a second-hand sale,” she said.
Since its establishment, Terry has decluttered items in over 50 homes.
Despite the business growing gradually, she explained that they face among other challenges, loss of electronics.
“The challenges we have faced so far are theft from some guests who book Airbnb units with hidden agendas. We have also experienced losses from long-term guests who run off without paying,” Terry said.
On the other hand, Terry also disclosed their biggest money mistake.
“My biggest money mistake was investing in a parcel of land to build some holiday homes. The seller of the land died before processing the title deeds
“This turned out to be a huge problem after we discovered that the land was not under his name by the time he died. We lost all the money we had paid,” she said.
Terry urges people in employment to look for other ways to supplement their income instead of relying on a salary alone.
“I’m an engineer by profession, but this has not stopped me from venturing into tourism or starting a fresh decluttering business
”All these are income streams which add to my revenue kitty at the end of the month. And this is really the bottom line,” she said.
