Trust yourself and build credibility with employees and partners: it is key to your business success.

One of the problems women face in Kenya is how to store the grain they grow. Usually they sell most of it to pay for school fees and medical bills. But they keep two or three bags to feed their families until the next harvest. Many women say that their unemployed sons will secretly sell this for pocket money, while still demanding to be fed.

I realized that my company could help these women, by offering them proper storage. We encouraged women to come together in groups and to bring their grain to a community store.

I founded my company, the Kenya Promotions and Marketing Company, KPMC, in 2003 because I wanted to encourage Kenyans to use new technology and to help them bring their produce to market. We managed to get an East Africa-wide distribution contract from a US-based hermetic storage producer called GrainPro.

This proved really successful with the women farmers, and our work was talked about to the extent that we were offered a contract by East Africa Malting Limited to grow white sorghum for brewing. There is a huge market for this, but very few farmers were willing to get involved in contract production because they are so poorly funded. Banks will not offer farmers the cash they need to start without collateral.

So we thought about what was needed and we offered farmers in Tharaka Nithi County kits to grow sorghum. The kits include seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and crop insurance. To get the kit, farmers give some of their produce as a deposit. The remaining cash they owe is deducted from the profit they make from growing sorghum.

KPMC sets up collection centres for the produce, offers drying tarpaulins and threshing services, uses electronic scales to ensure farmers get a fair price and provides a collection truck to deliver the produce in good condition to the malting factory.

Because the financial burden is eased, thousands of small-holders want to take part. This increases our company’ sorghum volume and capacity to meet the brewing company’s needs.

Now we have begun to look at other sectors, including dairy and horticulture. We are transforming the way communities produce goods, and we want to help them develop sustainable ways of doing this. This is so important to people’s lives. A woman who has a producer’s contract is able to promise her children’s school that she can pay the fees in instalments, allowing her children to remain in class throughout the year.

KPMC is on track to reach the goal of working with 40,000 households by 2017. With continued support from our partners, hard work from our staff and with God’s grace, we will make it.

Being a woman entrepreneur has taught me a lot and I feel privileged to share my knowledge with other women entrepreneurs. Below are some of the most important lessons I learned on this path.

Questions to the reader:

1. What actions have you taken to be a good role model for your employees, partners and customers?
2. What actions are you taking to build and protect your business’ reputation within your community? How is it impacting on the sustainability of your business’ operations and finances?

Did you know?

Credibility is a feeling of respect and trust that you can inspire in other people. There is no single way to build credibility. It is a combination of your character, expertise, openness, honesty, the way you communicate and your control of emotions, among other things. And, it takes time, patience and consistency to create it. All entrepreneurs and business leaders need credibility to grow their businesses. Customers do not want to buy from a business that they do not trust.