By DERRICK SILIMINA
They say that money does not grow on trees but perhaps it does sprout on grass, hence lawn manicuring has become a growing business sector.
Since plenty of middle to high income households love well-manicured lawns but lack the time or the skill, people like Gravy Kajilo, 37, are giving it their best shot.
Kajilo of Solwezi in North-Western Province started the lawn mowing business in January 2021. More than just dream about owning a business someday, he took decisive action by purchasing a lawn mower started earning cool cash for himself.
“After realizing that the lawn mowing business is very lucrative, especially during the rainy season when the business can make up to K800 per day, I started the business in January 2021 after purchasing a lawn mower at Radian Stores at K4000,” Kajilo explains. He also bought a 100m cable at K6 per metre, in all K600.
Although the pros and cons of running a lawn mowing business are obvious, Kajilo’s big worry was profitability.
Some fly-by-night ‘entrepreneurs’ have predicted that a lawn manicuring venture can make you thousands of Kwachas a month and for Kajilo, who runs the business in partnership with his brother, did recover his costs in the very first month.
Monthly operational expenses include K2000 petrol for the machine, and today he rakes in more than K19,000. After operational costs, he records a profit to a tune of K16,000.
“Although I started this lawn care business with only K,000 when I started small, it’s a five-figure business now. For instance, sales during the wet season (five months months) is calculated as follows: K800 per day x 6 days per week x 4 weeks: K19,200 per month. Less than K2,600 expenses, I get K16,600 profit,” he notes.
During the dry season business gradually drops to K300 per day and he makes approximately K7,200 per month. Less than K2,600 expenses, he gets K4,600 as profit.
Apart from the lawn mower, Kajilo is a versatile entrepreneur who has been supplying stationery and making date stamps since 2019.
Prior to attending the Fortune World training programme courtesy of the Kansanshi Mining Plc, Kajilo’s businesses had challenges due to his insufficient knowledge. He was also unknown to many institutions.
“I enrolled for the monthly business training in December 2019 and acquired knowledge in marketing. Further, I used the marketing knowledge to woo more customers.”
Kajilo managed to acquire contracts with Mufumbwe town council where he supplied eight stamps at K800 each, and Mutanda school where he supplied seven stamps and raised capital for his lawn mowing business.
Despite his business being slow, Kajilo says it has great potential to grow.
In a bid to diversify, another business tactic learnt during the business training, Kajilo thought of supplying cleaning chemicals and disinfectants, another business he started in March 2021.
He took advantage of the Covid-19 outbreak and his target areas are schools and hospitals including Solwezi Trades Secondary, and Mufumbwe hospital.
One of the challenges faced in this business is that most institutions source products from bigger businesses, hence narrowing their market mostly to boarding schools.
For this reason, Kajilo will diversify further to farming, where he will grow soya beans, sunflower and potatoes at his newly-acquired farm in Mufumbwe District.
During one of the training workshops, Fortune World brought in PACRA officials who came to make a presentation and to conduct business registration.
As a result of that, Kajilo registered his business and opened a bank account, a move that has helped him seize opportunities with government institutions. Kajilo now utilizes receipts, delivery notes, quotations and invoices as tools of record keeping.
“Prior to the training, I did not have regular business opportunities but now I have regular business because of the application of knowledge acquired from the training such as marketing,” he adds.
Kajilo hopes, given an opportunity, to attend a computer training course as well as a procurement course. His eyes are on membership with the North-Western Chamber of Commerce to increase chances of joining the mine supply chain.
“I sincerely thank KMP for the good gesture of sponsoring the training programme and I urge them to authorize the resumption of classroom training to capture target beneficiaries who would benefit from a change of mindset by shifting from looking for employment to creating and seizing business opportunities.”
