The climb to the top for Ms. Wangeci Warui was fraught with difficulties, and she attributes her achievement to her tenacity. She had the conviction that nothing could thwart her destiny and that her future was bright.
Wangeci Warui is the founder, director and Chief Executive Officer of Bright Steps Car Hire Services. She is a director at Vision Institute of Professionals where she heads the internal audit department and is also a tax consultant and a certified auditor at Wangeci Warui and Company.
She was raised in Kirinyaga County and attended Kabare Girls High School after finishing kindergarten in Kirinyaga Township. She continued on to Presbyterian University after that. At the Kenya School of Revenue Administration, she is presently working toward a master’s degree in tax and administration (KESRA).
She experienced a difficult upbringing and had to overcome many obstacles.
She was in class four when her parents divorced. She had to stay with her grandma because her mother had abandoned her and her father was an alcoholic. The financial issues made it difficult to pass class eight. She was the top student in Kirinyaga County after taking the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, but she lacked funding for her school expenses. She came to Nairobi to work as a house girl after her attempts to enroll in a school were unsuccessful. Her employer’s family made the decision to support her education and got her tale printed in the newspaper.
Many people responded to the story, and many of them helped fund her schooling. She completed both high school and university thanks to the donations from well-wishers. She was so talented that after she earned her degree, she received a call to an interview for a position teaching management accounting or quantitative analysis at the same university. Her job as a professor started when she informed management of her interest in taxation.
In June 2018, she began her career in automobile rental. Following her tenure as a lecturer, she started working as a self-employed tax counselor without an office. She met a person running a car rental company throughout this procedure and learned that the demand was difficult for the person to meet because it was so high.
She made the decision to try her hand at this business, but many people talked her out of it. They informed her that women couldn’t be successful in it. She decided to do some study after making up her choice, and discovered that most automobile rental companies in the nation don’t survive past their third year. She hired a system developer after doing some research, and they came up with a solid contract, ready to begin.
Wangeci Warui lacked an office and furniture at the time. Since she completed her CPA there, the entrepreneur traveled to Paramount Plaza to speak with the owner. While there, she observed the large quantity of room. After several conversations with her, the landlord decided to offer her a place and made a commitment not to charge her for the first month. She searched for furniture and launched her company with just one vehicle, a Suzuki SX4. She spoke with a friend who owned a single vehicle and began advertising her car-hire services on Facebook and by word-of-mouth. She had four automobiles by the end of the month, had paid the rent, and had persuaded the landlord that she was deserving of the space.
During the pandemic, she ventured into the wholesale business. At this time, there was a lockdown and people couldn’t travel out of Nairobi except for cars that were carrying essentials like food. She had employees to pay and car owners who needed their money, hence a business idea developed. She started a rice mill and would go to Kirinyaga to pick rice, mill it, and deliver across the city. The demand became high and they delivered the rice using their vehicles. The customers began asking whether she had other things, like sugar and flour and this gave birth to the wholesale business.
Wangeci Warui assists many people in business and believes in uplifting others. She prays every morning, exercises at least three times per week, sees a psychologist when she needs to unburden herself, and has a mentor in order to live life to the fullest. One of the most crucial elements for any successful individual, in her opinion, is having a mentor. She has several ideas in mind and wants to keep developing her business knowledge.
Original story by WhoOwnsKenya
