When trust is what it takes to make good profit

While working as a front desk operator at a Nakuru-based hotel, Jeremiah Maina identified a business opportunity.

He noticed that the hotel often experienced shortages of food items whenever suppliers failed to deliver on time, when commodities ran out quickly due to high customer traffic, or when sudden conference bookings increased demand.

In such situations, the hotel was forced to source supplies from the Wakulima Market because regular suppliers could not meet the required quantities within such a short time frame.

Maina then took the idea and presented it to the hotel manager, who liked the proposal.

He then returned to his rural home and shared the idea with several farmers.

 In addition to allocating part of his family’s land to vegetable farming, specifically growing kales and coriander, he encouraged the farmers he had approached to grow the same crops in large quantities.

Within three months, the produce was ready. He would arrive in his employer’s pickup truck with gunny sacks, fill them to the brim, and pay the farmers after an agreed period.

Over time, this arrangement helped him build trust with the farmers.

Some later began supplying milk in bulk, with payments made on specified dates.

To his employer, Maina acted as a supplier. From each bag of vegetables, a litre of milk, or a crate of indigenous chicken eggs supplied, he retained his profit margin and passed the remainder to the farmers. The trust he built functioned like business capital.

Like Maina, there are ways to earn income with minimal financial investment. Below is a look at different marketing approaches.

 Different marketing

 You may already be a regular customer who has built mutual trust with a main supplier. Now imagine that this supplier is a large-scale manufacturer, either locally or in China.

The manufacturer may have stock that is not moving as fast as it is being produced, creating storage challenges and space constraints.

If your own sales are strong, you can help ease congestion in the manufacturer’s warehouse by taking some of this stock.

By leveraging the trust you have built, you could negotiate a deal to receive goods on credit and sell them on the manufacturer’s behalf.

You would then agree on a payment cycle, such as remitting a certain percentage after a certain period while retaining an agreed portion as your profit margin or commission.

Ideally, you could make a partial down payment for the stock and settle the balance once the goods are sold. Many large businesses operate using this model.

For example, East Africa Breweries Limited works with outlet operators under similar arrangements.

Likewise, it is not unusual for a manufacturer in China to supply a trader in Brazil on credit, relying on long-standing trust to minimise the risk of payment default.

Dropshipping or influencer

Think of leveraging that large following you command on social media platforms and turning it into a serious business. You can approach a business and, say, do a marketing clip, take pictures of their brand stock, and splash them on your socials.

Your pitch should meet a certain threshold in marketing before they gauge you for that deal.

For example, when what you’re marketing gets that potential customer a referral code, and when the referral threshold is met, you can agree on the terms of work.

 You don’t know if you’ll end up as the brand ambassador of that business and get more deals with others, as you build on your brand.

This could be your way of earning and raising capital for that dream investment plan you have in mind.

Outsourcing services

You have expertise in things like web design, remote booking for clients in an organisation, or can handle calls on their behalf, but you’re unemployed.

Why not approach an organisation and offer to do any of these for free on a trial basis?

 You’ll look like you’re their remote employee with time and as trust builds in, you’ll find yourself on their payroll for service rendered.

This way, you build your personal brand and with time, what you’re earning gets you to establish yourself independently as your own boss. Think of registering and selling a domain business website or

Designing for startups?

 There are ways you can use the trust invested in you by others and capitalise on it.

Think of your neighbourhood where farmers don’t sell milk to a cooperative or a processing factory but through an exploitative middleman.

 How about gaining their trust and helping them find a good market for their product, and being the go-to between them and the market?

You may realise it wouldn’t need much capital other than trust, with payments pegged on specific days while keeping your agreed margins.