Enterprise

Gift watch opens door to promising business idea

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Susan Mueni, founder and proprietor of SUED. PHOTO | COURTESY

When she received a watch from her mother as a gift, she had no clue that it would mark the beginning of an idea that would usher her into the world of entrepreneurship.

Meet Susan Mueni, 24, founder and owner of SUED, probably one of a few firms if not the only company, in Kenya that specialises in designing wristwatches.

Operating from her home in Umoja estate, Nairobi, Ms Mueni has made a name for herself thanks to her creativity.

She designs and gives specifications to manufacturers on how the product should look. The next procedure involves designing the exteriors which include the straps. She says all her raw materials are local.

“My raw materials are locally available except for the mechanical parts of the watches. Our leather straps are purely of Kenyan leather and the beads are also locally sourced. Creating a livelihood for local artisans is a great achievement for us,” she notes.

She has generated employment for nine people who work with her in production and distribution process of the business. She has also partnered with manufacturers in China who mechanically assemble the watches.

Ms Mueni says her customers are mainly those “who like to think out of the box and who are fascinated by extra-ordinary, sophisticated and stylish products.”

Her desire, she asserts, is to bring back “the good old days” when watches were a necessary accessory to complete the look.

“With a changing world in technology, most people don’t wear watches as mobile phones have clocks. It is for this reason that I wanted to blend technology, fashion trends and watches in the most unique way as a fashion statement, and that gives me an edge,” she adds.

The uniqueness of her products have won her fans as well as customers here in Kenya and abroad, selling between 15 and 40 watches a month.

“My products have also attracted customers from outside Kenya having sold some watches in Canada, America, Australia and France,” she explains.

Her prices range between Sh3,500 and Sh5500. To market the products, she uses social media, particularly Facebook, as well as her website, seud.co.ke and her blog, sued.co.ke to market her products.

Ms Mueni didn’t always wanted to be in business. Initially she yearned o study law, but she failed to attain the required grade.

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Some of the products made by Susan Mueni, founder and proprietor of SUED. PHOTO | COURTESY

“I fell short with two points, and I chose to study business management,” she says.

Even as she pursued the business management course, she was not sure that was the career path she wanted to take. But the watch, a gift from her mother, drove her to start to develop an interest in business.

“To most of my peers it was an out-of-this-world watch. In fact there was a friend who insisted on buying it from me, a plea that I gladly accepted and sold it and got a good profit, and thus my business in watches officially began,” she says.

Ms Mueni used the money she got from selling the watch to buy two fairly priced watches and sold them again making some good money. Business was looking up, she thought, and this was something she would like to pursue.

“I used the money I saved from Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) as capital. I also got a boost after participating in the BLAZE Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) competition last year,” she says.

What gives her an edge is her business management degree, which she says has become an asset especially in decision making.

Nonetheless, she still faces a number of challenges common to all businesses operating in Kenya.

“I have had to deal with stereotypes that associate local products with mediocrity,” she says.

However, such hurdles have not deterred her from realizing her ambition of making it big in this rather new venture in the country, with her main focus being to make SUED a brand that represents Kenya in the world of watchmaking.

The firm’s monthly profit is between Sh75,000 and Sh80,000.

She works with a certain manufacturing company in China which she does not want to disclose its name.

“It is not like they are my partners. I’m just their customer. I come with specifications on what I want and they create it,” she says.