Flora Mutahi

"I just want to have fun with tea, Tea doesn’t have to be a home drink."

"“If in your heart you know that this is what you want to do, please do it despite all the pressure from society.”"

"Growing up, I always wanted to be an air hostess, because of frequent travel. Of course my parents would hear none of it. Being good in accounting, I pursued it to degree level and also enrolled for professional courses. However, I found myself skipping classes and James Mcfee, the director of the Accountancy at Strathmore University encouraged me to introspect and be true to myself"

"I quit my first ever job as an auditor after only 9 months where I had audited large manufacturers. In fact, I was so excited I would spend my lunch breaks on the shop floor listening to the machines and asking questions"

"I moved from free-flowing salt to tea blending and packaging in a few months as I noticed that a ton of salt was $100, and thus knew this was never going to make me money in the market as the returns were so low"

"I had no capital, and no savings. Borrowing from banks meant we had to have collateral, which we didn’t. And like I said at the beginning, I lacked management experience while the market was also not ready for innovative products"

"First, I sought business advice from people who had been in in the industry before, I also went to Kabete Campus of Food Technology to learn about food technology and processing. Then I got financial support from family, my Sacco and a few friends. I also found a fund for women which helped with additional capital"

"My mother being a seasoned entrepreneur supported us right through. And we invested heavily in marketing with the team always trying to get into prospective customers’ homes"

"Our product has a health proposition and yes, all the eateries that support this have reached out one way or the other… Being 100% naturally flavored products, our brands have been well received in the Kenyan market and my business has grown over the last 25 years. Especially during this time when the consumer is very careful what they consume we have fond more and more people looking for Melvin’s teas"