How TikTok took off our small businesses

When he thought about starting a business, his biggest obstacle was obtaining financing.
“Banks are not particularly interested in lending to startups. I remember one refused to give me a loan despite my good business plan,” says Mwangi.
This prompted him to start small. With a capital investment of Sh160,000, he set up his salon in a small space on Accra Road in Nairobi.
“Later I saved and with an investment of Sh1 million I managed to move here (in Kenya Cinema) in 2015. In the beginning, I invested every penny I earned in the business. Now the business is profitable and has paid back three times as much,” she says.

Part of this growth is attributed to TikTok.

“Most of our customers come from TikTok,” says Mwangi, who now has four employees.
But to attract customers, consistency is key.

“Every day we must publish a video or a photo, even if that means repeating some of the old ones,” he adds.

One of the challenges of courting clients on TikTok is that you have to post your work, which means he has to ask clients if they can take videos of their hair being styled.
“Most of our posts do not show our customers’ faces unless they allow it. In any case, what we are interested in is showing our followers our services,” says Mwangi.
As a man in a female-dominated hair industry, do you face sexism?
“In reality, it is the hairdressers who face discrimination. When I opened the salon, I mainly hired hairdressers, but many clients believed that men are better qualified when it comes to doing dreadlocks. So, it took a lot of training and convincing that women are also equally competent,” she says, adding, “But the challenge in this industry is that you take time to train a hairdresser and other stylists poach him and then go with my clients.”

Lynn Boke has also grown her business through TikTok. The 25-year-old professional chef is the owner of Lynn’s Kitchen Gallery.

“I cook from home and deliver to my clients, from corporate breakfasts to meal preps and meal plans. I also do private catering and teach cooking classes. Lately, I have been focusing more on teaching,” says Lynn, who cooks from her home in Runda, Nairobi, adding that she named it Lynn’s Kitchen Gallery because “I have so many photos of the meals I have made, so I started a gallery of cook for them.”

He opened the TikTok page as soon as he started the business in November 2023.

“At first, I posted recipes on TikTok and then uploaded the cooking videos to YouTube. Then I started posting videos on TikTok too. I started by posting a preparation I had made for my sister’s birthday. This video had around 10,000 views. Then I made a picnic for a friend and posted it. That’s when everything exploded,” she claims.

He currently has more than 22,000 followers.

Lynn says she didn’t really like TikTok at first.

“I had written off TikTok as a place for trends and dance videos, but then I realized that on Instagram I was reaching the same people I used to reach, so I thought I should expand to TikTok. I post at least twice a week because my job involves being in the kitchen a lot. You might find me cooking from 8am to 4pm,” she says.

His love for cooking arose from a very young age.

“In high school, I was a scout and we participated in competitions once a month, and you had to fend for yourself. I started as an observer, but I began to lean towards the kitchen. Before long, I was filling in for the chef because everyone loved my food,” she says.

Once they traveled to Mauritius and she was the only one in charge of cooking for 30 students every day.

“From that moment I knew that this was something I was passionate about. So before entering university to study engineering, I joined Bomas International to take a certification course. I thought that would be enough, but even after finishing my studies at university, I discovered that I was still in love with cooking,” says the engineer about her passion for cooking.

Lynn, who cooks in her parents’ house and sometimes in her own, had no problem getting kitchen equipment.

“As my mom and I love to cook, we often host families and friends, so there was already equipment such as warming plates and large and small utensils. Sufurias. I’ve been using what’s in my mom’s kitchen. Right now I don’t really want to move into a commercial space,” she says.
When he started, he only had one order.

“I started with one order in December 2023 and now I receive about four orders a week. TikTok has helped me grow. It has exposed me to different kinds of people, including corporate clients. It has also exposed me to people between the ages of 25 and 34, busy clients with families and jobs who are in a position to pay for my services. Most of my clients are from TikTok,” she states.

Negative feedback

Even though TikTok has taken off its business, it still has to deal with negative comments.
“I often receive negative comments. There are foods you can make, like pilau, chapati and biryani, about which everyone has an opinion. Other times, I may quote a price and not everyone will agree with it. Some comments I ignore, but others can be hurtful,” he says.

So how do you make sure you reach a lot of people?

Commenting on your posts, Lynn notes, can help you gain traction and get more views. “The more you comment, your algorithm improves and your video will be recommended to more people,” she says, “I use my iPhone to create the content. I photograph during the day when the lighting is good. My goal is to create the videos before noon due to the orientation of the sun.”

He encourages other entrepreneurs to “post constantly, people are watching. You just need one person to see it and that person will recommend you to the next person.”

Anne Muhia, entrepreneur, attests to the ability to make money through TikTok.

“After leaving my job as a group finance director in 2017, I became an entrepreneur. I started with a small wedding wedding delivery service and then a butcher business. When I started my TikTok channel at the end of 2022, I had just suffered employee theft and lost Sh300,000 in my butcher shop. I felt frustrated and wondered if all entrepreneurs go through the same thing. I thought maybe I was the problem. I wanted to share my entrepreneurial journey. I thought things would be easier since I had been an accountant for a long time and had never stolen, so I figured that’s how it must be everywhere. Now I found myself going back to the drawing board, having to learn and unlearn. Hence my username, ‘Unprepared Entrepreneur,’” the 36-year-old accountant says of her TikTok journey.

“I chose TikTok because I thought no one knew me there. I felt like there weren’t a lot of people talking about how hard it is to build a business; everyone else was talking about success. When I shared the first video, I got 7,000 views and people were reacting, so I kept it up.”

Now, Anne is approaching 30,000 followers.

What started as a site to vent his frustrations recently earned him six figures.

“When I create informational videos, people ask me how to overcome different business challenges. The TikTok community I’m cultivating is made up of people employed with side hustles, small businesses, and even large entrepreneurs. Brands seek to speak to that community through me because my audience trusts me. Recently, I earned over Sh100,000 from one of the brands that wanted to reach that particular audience,” says Anne, who is also the co-founder of Lowaki Eco-Solutions.

Lowaki is a company that facilitates the adoption and access to clean energy solutions in rural Kenya.
“With Lowaki, my target customers are not on TikTok, but my suppliers and people who could potentially give us grants are here.”

Anne, who will soon be creating her podcast, says: “TikTok has taught me that money follows value. By giving value to my audience, I will also get value.”

Their biggest challenge, however, has been consistency.

“Sometimes, you go through a very difficult season in your business that affects your production. If my direct business (Lowaki) is going through a difficult season, I end up reducing my production on TikTok. I started posting once a week and now I want to post three times a week. I just use my iPhone, which has a clear view. I photograph in my car with good lighting,” she says.