Small businesses play a great role in the Kenyan economy. For a country that already cannot meet the 50% employment needs of citizens, these small businesses provide temporary and permanent employment for the workforce. Unfortunately, small businesses suffered a big hit from the pandemic. In order to survive a lot of changes had to take place- but change as they say is the most constant thing in life and life has to go on.

Vivian Achieng’ started her online women's bags in May 2019 and things were just starting to look up when the pandemic unfortunately struck and things deteriorated.

“The beauty market in Kenya is as large as you can imagine. But there is always a market as long as you are doing your marketing well and strategize. And I took the time to research the market space well before I got into it. I import the classy bags from China and when the pandemic hit two things happened very fast. " she shares.

Adding "Borders were closed and we could not get goods as before. I had to work on clearing the stock I had. And with people worried about the economy, women just stopped buying bags as compared to before. Everybody was focused on food and sanitation and right out survival. Things got hard, for my personal life I was mentally disoriented. I decided to start a food business. I cook from home, and deliver to people’s homes because restaurant restrictions made this the most available option,” shares the entrepreneur,”   

Bella Zawadi- of Zawadi Cakes runs a small business within Ruaka Estate, Nairobi, she bakes and decorates cakes for all occasions, and she stocks up cake accessories and also does cookies. As she shares, the pandemic affected her emotionally, socially and financially.

“Covid-19 affected us because it took a lot of things back. Emotionally, lockdown brought a lot of pressure and stress. Working from home also made us non-productive and the mind got engaged in helpless thoughts and fears and it was so stressful. It was a torture because you can’t meet your set goals. Missing my goals messed me up emotionally.  With no sales there is no income, the bills are there still. Bakers and caterers make money at events and no events mean no work, but you still have to pay your bills just as before.

 With guidelines and regulations, business had to change. If you are in a small space, you can’t host the same capacity. Initially it was worse because people couldn’t even eat there, then after that the number of people had to reduce.  We had to ensure the sanitations were in place to wash hands and sanitize,``shares the entrepreneur.

In addition, she got into an unrest state. Nobody knew what was going to follow next after the restriction, or when the thing was going to end. She became insecure on whether she would be able to retain her customers.  Wondering what they were suffering on the other end or if they were safe.

“There was a big disconnect, not being in touch with my customers, unable to do business with people I used to, unable to tell if they had contracted the virus or not, there are others who lost their lives and loved ones. So things are just not the same. Depression also hits because of the worry, over and over, not knowing what is coming after it. It has not been easy but things are picking up slowly and hopefully,” she shares.

In order to keep up with the changing times, She has restructured the shop differently, organizing seating to ensure social distancing, and has adjusted costs because prices went high for raw materials so adjusted prices for her cakes too while trying to retain consistency.

Economic Analyst, Odhiambo Ramogi shares that the economic crisis for small businesses is a situation that comes with situations such as what is going on with the pandemic and definitely there is a lot of rethinking that will have to be done. For instance; they will have to either expand their businesses to other areas that they were not exploring, in line with the same businesses, or the other option, which is a total pivot.

“For small businesses which have limited capital, they might have to go for the total pivot, which means they have to completely stop the business they were previously doing, for instance if you were selling women’s handbags…people are in an economical crisis and things like this are seen as luxuries. So pick something completely different but what people need at the moment. Focus the little resources on something that is more beneficial,``says Ramogi.

In addition to that,  the economist advises the small business owners to do strategic linkages in order to survive the hard times.

“When business people work together they become more resilient and generally have a bigger market when they are united. There are a lot of associations like that all over that support groups rather than individuals. There is no saying when the economy will recover fully because at the moment it is at about 6% with most sectors still under that, it will be important for small business owners to think long term rather than short term,” He advised.