Growing up in a home that had flowers saw Joy pick up a love for them, and she grew to open an online flower shop called Kanairo Florist.
For many people, the family they are born into is their first point of knowledge, the lens through which they learn how the world works.
For Joy Wambugu, flowers were a central feature of her life at home.
They did not grow them at their home but her mother loved them and always used to buy a bouquet at City Market in Nairobi’s Central Business District.
That’s how, as far back as her memory can go, there was always a vase of beautiful flowers in the sitting room at their home.
“When my friends or relatives visited, they used to be shocked that we always had flowers. I used to be shocked when I would visit their homes and wouldn’t find flowers,” Joy recalls.
Growing up in a home that had flowers saw Joy pick up a love for them, and she grew to open an online flower shop called Kanairo Florist.
The 20-year-old university student is able to juggle her academic work and run a business as it is purely online. She meets her clients online via her social media pages, and they then move conversations to WhatsApp.
By running it from the house, she has avoided the cost of leasing a shop, fitting it, and then having someone to attend to it.
She orders her weekly stock from flower farmers in Kajiado and Naivasha and has found suppliers who send her the best quality flowers rather than the lower grades usually sold locally after the best is exported to Europe.
Joy then supplies the existing orders and can do a quick sale on her Kanairo Florist pages to avoid the losses that come from having wilted flowers.
Checking out the Kanairo florist pages, Joy isn’t the regular florist who will sell you flowers for a birthday or a function.
She incorporates witty sounds in her advertising videos, incorporating her creativity in the marketing of her flowers.
“I’m able to make TikToks and Reels with sounds that are trending, attracting a certain clientele that would not regularly purchase flowers,” she says.
Joy has also been able to leverage Safaricom business products, such as a till number and the M-PESA business app, which have been beneficial in running her business.
Most of her clients prefer to pay using the till number, while the M-PESA business app helps her track her expenses and manage payments to her staff.
Through leveraging the digital space and using Safaricom business products, Joy has been able to run her business efficiently and continue with her studies. This is no easy feat, but she has made it work and has, in the process, employed three people.
