Several business ideas have appeared on different Niabusiness.com articles. There’s one particular article that has been on the site for a long time: Start any business in Kenya with 5000 shillings – 13 ideas for you.

What is the article about?

Apart from the 13 ideas, this article is inspiration in less than 1000 words.

It’s an article that shows you that you have what it takes to start and turn your new business (over time) into a success with the little you have.

It’s an article that pushes you away from a lot of different obstacles that hold many people from going into business – like spending too much time searching for the best business to start, worrying over capital, difficulty changing a few habits like rising early every day, dealing with doubts, and a lot more – like these ten covered in one of Niabusiness.com free ebooks that you can get when you subscribe via email here.

Why did I write it?

1. To show you that it is possible to start a business with 5000 Kenyan Shillings

Many don’t believe it.

But it can be done, though there’ll be a lot of patience needed and several challenges to overcome.

In all this, there are a lot of lessons that are very hard to get from anywhere else apart from the real experience you get when running your business.

2. Because I know you can do this

One of the things that can make you doubt yourself is this: you look at your dream business and wonder how a mere five thousand shillings can get you all the things you need to make it a reality.

But you don’t have to climb so fast – and miss a few important lessons that gives the entrepreneur in you stronger muscles that can come in handy.

Muscles that can help you through tough times, increasing your likelihood of coming out of the other end of the tunnel energized and ever more ready to keep pushing and making things better for your customers.

3. Because the little money can lead to more creativity

When you have capital that doesn’t seem enough, the brain will, in most cases, work extra hard, filling your head with ideas you can explore – ideas that compensate for the lack of the amount of capital you want.

You may want, in an ideal situation, to have more money to spend telling people about your business and showing them what it can do for them.

But things don’t work that way in every case.

Not being able to afford an ad in a platform (or location) that can win you more customers now, for example, doesn’t mean that the little capital, your time, creativity and all that you have now can’t lead to a successful business that can put you in a position where you can easily access the money to make this possible.

Use the ideas your brain puts in front of you to make every shilling out of the five thousand count. I mean every shilling.

Success may not be guaranteed but your chances of growing the business and turning into a more profitable company will obviously increase.

What should you do when you read the article

The idea is to start some kind of business with five thousand shillings.

It doesn’t matter what kind of business, so long as it is good and legit – and gives the customer more value for the money they pay you.

You are to create a product or service that solves a problem and do your best to get customers through the door.

You are, with your KSH 5000, to create something people willingly pay for. Something that gets very few requests for a refund from your customers (if at all some of them aren’t satisfied with what you are selling).

What if you have more than KSH 5000? If you have more capital, that’s fine – use what you have and make sure every shilling counts.

Have you tried doing this?

If you read the article, found some money and used it to start a business that now has paying customers, congratulations.

I’d like to hear your story – the challenges you experienced when you started and those you are experiencing now, what’s working for you and what’s not, and what finally made you take action.

I appreciate the fact that this is not an easy thing to do, especially if a lot of your day hours are spent doing something else, for example, working a full-time job that brings in the bulk of your income each and every month.

If you have tried doing this and failed, I’d like to hear you story as well.

Share with me what worked and what went wrong. And definitely share with me what you’d do differently if you had another five thousand.

If you haven’t tried it, what’s stopping you?

To those who have read the article but haven’t taken any kind of action, I have one question for you: what’s stopping you?

Is it discouragement from people around you, lack of capital, the thinking that 5,000 Shillings is too little, little time, fear of losing the money or doubt in your abilities to make this work for you and your customers?

Know that you can do this.

If you want to give this a try, but something is holding you back, please share what it is in the comments.

You can also go further and explain why you think that particular thing is holding you back and even think of ways of dealing with the obstacle.

I’ll be here with suggestions you can use to inspire action.

PS: 10 Things to Look at if You Are Thinking of Starting a Business in Kenya  >> Download this free PDF ebook here.