Nairobi Hustle: How I left my job as procurement officer to start selling liquor
Twenty nine year-old Anthony Maina was for two years employed as a procurement officer where he would rub shoulders with liquor suppliers.
It was from sampling bottles given to him by suppliers that his company The Liquor Tap was born.
He started soon started selling his own stock an advertised in movie shops, kinyozis and butcheries suing posters.
“Back then I was still employed so I did that for a while as my side hustle but slowly I learnt from the suppliers where they were sourcing their liquor from and so with time I opened my first shop in 2016,” Maina told Nairobi News Hustle.
NOT BRINGING PROFITS
As a start-up, The Liquor Tap was not bringing a lot of profits but Maina took a risk and quit his job as a hotel procurement officer.
“The returns as compared to what I was earning in employment weren’t much. I saw there was great potential in the liquor business and so I jumped into it and started approaching hotels to supply them,” he explained.
As a procurement officer, he had a cordial relationship with the suppliers and it was the same people who helped him start his business.
“The bigger suppliers were nice to me and so when I went into business they would give me a credit period because of our relations back when I was procuring for hotels through them,” he explained.
COMPETITIVE PRICES
Maina advices budding entrepreneurs who want to engage big clients like hotels to first get their licenses and tax returns in order, then confidently approach big companies with guarantee of genuine products at competitive prices.
“First I would advise young people not to be too choosy and take the job offers that come after campus however unrelated they are to the businesses you want to engage in. I got countless skills from my salesman, finance and procurement jobs and this has enabled me approach big clients and go straight to procurement officers and close huge sales,” he said.