Terry Mungai is a renowned entrepreneur in Kenya’s
beauty industry, running a chain of high-end salon and
beauty shops, a training institute and a beauty pageant.
She ventured into the industry in the 1990s after a
purchasing a salon in Nairobi.
Mungai says the salon was
supposed to be a “side business” as she worked her way
out of the corporate world and into self-employment. She
had borrowed Ksh.800,000 (US$9,000) which she planned
to repay in two years using both the salon’s income and
her salary from working at a bank. But just two months
later the bank went bust and employees were sent packing.
A rough start
Although Mungai was retained to help collect the bank’s
outstanding debt she still found herself stuck between a
rock and a hard place. Other than money she had borrowed
to buy the salon, she also had a house mortgage with years
to run.
“In just two months my plans started crumbling pretty
fast. Interest rates hit nearly 30% and it became obvious
that I was not going to be able to keep my house. I had to
sell it and pay off the outstanding debt,” Mungai recalls.
And having a good job one day and being jobless the next
motivated her to approach entrepreneurship seriously.
“That experience was motivation enough. I wanted to be in
charge of my destiny.”
She decided to sell her salon to pay off more debts and
moved to a better location in Nairobi where she started
Ashleys beauty salon. She recalls when setting up her first
outlet she ran out of money and even had to sell her car to
complete the project.
“I did not have a choice because the salon was now going
to be my livelihood. I figured I could always buy another
car in future. Unlike the first time when I bought an
existing business and had to continue using its name, this
time around I had the opportunity to start something from
scratch that could be associated with me. When we finally
opened Ashleys, people really bought into the idea,” she
says.
Mungai explains she started Ashleys to cater for career
women.
“Having been a corporate lady myself I had visited lots of
salons an could see there was a gap. There was nothing
different, and attendants treated all customers the same
way. I could see an opportunity to invest in a salon that
treated the corporate woman differently, in a particular
way, pampering her.”
Ashleys now operates 11 centres in Nairobi and Mombasa.
Mungai says Nairobi’s notorious traffic jams and limited
parking space motivated her to start expanding the
business to bring the service closer to clients.
“People don’t want to look for service, they want service
to go to them.”
Other business interests .
Mungai also holds the licence for the Miss World Kenya
and has organised the beauty pageant for over a decade.
In addition she started Ashleys Hair and Beauty Academy,
mostly out of her own frustrations with the industry. At
the time there were only a handful of such beauty training
centres in Nairobi. Many people did not consider beauty a
professional career hence there was limited expertise in
the industry. She would spend months training new staff
because although many had some technical skill, they
lacked confidence and would get intimidated by some
customers. But ironically, as her staff became more
confident and mastered customer service, other salons
would poach them.
“What hurt me the most is that I was investing in training
my people and other salons would be waiting ready to
poach them. This frustrated me for two years then I
realised people respected the training I was giving. It
occurred to me that if I trained people for a fee I would
gladly let them go (after training) to create room for other
students. We have now trained more than 7,000 people.
“It is now a career of choice.
People come in to get a
diploma in cosmetology because they have a passion for
beauty, not because they do not have other career options.”
Taking on a man’s world
Mungai has now ventured into property development
through Temus Holdings. The company has completed its
first development, a Ksh. 210m ($2.4m) project of 32
units comprising two and three-bedroom apartments, and
is set to embark on its second venture.
“I have run service-oriented companies which are good at
creating employment. However, I couldn’t really say that I
now had enough for my retirement. In this business you
can manage a big turnover but by the time you are finished
with your overheads, you are left with just about 5% or
10%. We have always had to borrow to open new outlets
because we wanted to remain relevant.
“So I knew this would not give me a decent retirement.”
Mungai “thrives on challenges” and was thrilled by the
idea of taking on the property industry, traditionally
perceived to be “a man’s world”. But she also believes that
success has no gender.
Although a rise in interest rates affected the expected
outcome of her first real estate project, she is determined
to give it another shot.
“I am a risk taker and more importantly my faith in God
propels me. I work hard and I give it my best. I don’t
believe in failure.”
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