A successful business in Kenya, Josim kenya Ltd was realised by Saymon Mwawasi and his business partner, John.

Taking a risk is never easy, especially when your future could depend on it. Saymon Mwawasi and his business partner, John, are intimately acquainted with risk execution. In 1999 they bravely resigned from their stable jobs at a local Kenyan company in pursuit of their dream of starting their own auto-clinic. The risk paid off – their business, Josim Kenya, Ltd. is now an extremely successful enterprise which offers state of the art auto solutions at highly competitive rates.

Starting the venture was far from easy due to the financing needed to pull it off. Seemingly small details like paying office rent and purchasing the right equipment, as well as bringing in clients, proved to be quite challenging.

To overcome these hurdles in the early stages these self-starters sought guidance from PUM, a free business training program where African entrepreneurs can ask for assistance from very experienced specialists from the Netherlands. PUM’s support assisted in the raising of working capital that was required to get the company going. On top of this, Saymon would go out personally to look for business.

Saymon targeted companies where he would get hold of their fleet managers or the people responsible for manning the company vehicles to see if they would buy into the idea of doing business with him. Most of them were interested, and they continue to do business with him to this very day.

Josim Kenya Ltd. is now a successful operation owing largely to hard work and quality excellence. Saymon and John understand that you have to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in, offering your clients something which they won’t find anywhere else.

“The difference between Josim Kenya and maybe the others is that we strive for quality. You see, at the end of the day, someone is not coming for service just for charity, that person is paying for that service – so he has to get value for money. We really go down to detail in terms of professionalism, whatever we do, we look with a very keen interest.” - Saymon Mwawasi

Saymon is already looking towards the future, with an eye towards building other branches of the company. As he puts it, “We have big dreams at Josim and we want not only to be here in Nairobi, but we want to have other branches in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and all over Africa. We really understand that vehicles are not only here in Kenya, they are everywhere and people need services… they need our services.”