I started off as Mama Fua but now I own a laundry firm

Fiona Sampeyian, Founder of Abbey Laundry. [Courtesy]

From being Mama Fua to owning a laundry business, it has been a dream come true for Fiona Sampeyian, the director and founder of Abbey Laundry.

While studying biochemistry at Egerton University, Sampeyian was known for her entrepreneurial skills of washing people's clothes.

She was named 'Mama Fua' (laundry woman) by her college mates, who loved the fact that she would hand-wash their clothes.

To many students, she was dedicated, and her work spoke for itself. She became so good at washing clothes to the point where people would queue for her services.

In the process, Sampeyian earned good money from her skill and used the money to pay her college fees and cater for upkeep.

Her dedication and hard work saw her set up a laundry business, Abbey Laundry, located a few kilometres from the Egerton Njoro campus.

The winning strategy

She told Enterprise that she understood the market needs earlier while in college, which has since helped her manoeuvre the industry smoothly.

"This is a story of a dream come true turned reality through the power of love, unity and family. In 2014, while in campus, I would clean people's clothes to raise my tuition fee, which challenged me to start my own company for laundry solution," she says.

Sampeyian says the laundry dream was conceptualised in 2014, and the main agenda was to support her single mother in raising tuition fees.

Being from the Maa community, she wanted to choose her own path to venture into business. University wasn't a choice, but her mother insisted on the importance of education and that she should make her proud to be the first to get a degree in the family.

At campus, she would wash clothes on weekdays, and his clients understood her plan to avoid fighting over space with other tenants on weekends.

At the time, she would charge Sh200 per bucket, which many sometimes struggled to pay. But she never gave up.

"It was tedious work because I used to clean the clothes, then ensure that they are dry before availing to the owner," she says.

She says her goal was to turn the cleaning into a business.

Sampeyian says when she started, she noted that many clients wanted to ensure that their clothes dry within the same day as a way to attract clientele and generate revenue.

When she cleared campus in 2017, she was clear about the trajectory her life would take.

After doing market research, she started Abbey Laundry in 2019 with Sh47,000 savings she and her husband had.

At some point, Sampeyian got into the soap-making business, which she has since complemented with laundry.

To aid in service delivery, she bought the first washing machine at Sh32,000 and would only clean clothes with heavy beddings such as duvets.

Initially, when she received duvets and blankets orders, she would wash them manually, which was a labour-intensive exercise. Like all businesses, there have been good and bad times.

Cold days

"We have had good moments where clients have trusted us over the years and been able to deliver. The challenge that set us back was on cold days when clothes failed to dry, and clients needed them. To address that, we had to import a commercial dryer," she says.

The commercial dryer machine became the game changer for the business as they could now dry clothes the same day. To widen her clientele base, she started doing laundry for hotels, banks, and Airbnbs and supplying detergent to institutions.

"I'm a business-oriented person. I advocate for self-employment as the way to go. Even in campus, I used to sell jewellery to supplement my laundry business," she says.

Every day is a new experience. Learning to show up in life has been her philosophy when doing business.

She took a course in communication to sharpen her skills and know how to handle customers professionally.

Being dynamic and innovative, Sampeyian has invested in digital marketing.

Social media

"With technology, it is easy to market your business beyond your area of locality. I'm using social media space to ensure that I reach my audience and clients within Nakuru and beyond," she says.

She has employed five people to support her with the business,

Abbeys receives at least 20 orders of duvets daily, while on a good day, it overflows to the next day.

When she started, the people around the area where she located her business were judgmental and wondered why I was engaging in such a business.

But with time, it gained momentum due to existing good rapport with some of the locals.

For those interested in the laundry business, she says one needs a solid plan.

From the onset, she was able to figure out the potential hurdles and how to overcome them.

She says it is also important to embrace bank financing to expand the business.