Before Buying the Lorry: How Chris Chebii Built a Business Beyond His Car

Through Strathmore University Business School –  Africa Economic Development Hub, personalized business advisory is supporting entrepreneurs to strengthen business performance, make informed investment decisions and build sustainable enterprises.

For Chris Chebii, growing his egg business meant buying a lorry worth KSh 430,000. But after working with a business advisor from Strathmore University’s Africa Economic Development Hub (AEDH), he began to see a different path to expansion.

Through its enterprise development mandate, AEDH supports enterprises to strengthen their business capabilities, improve competitiveness, and pursue sustainable growth. Its approach combines practical capacity building and personalized one-on-one business advisory through the Small Business Development Centers  (SBDC) Model.

This support is being delivered through Tukuze Hub, an initiative led by the Financial Inclusion Fund (Hustler Fund), where AEDH is providing tailored business advisory to entrepreneurs across Uasin Gishu, Nyeri and Mombasa counties.

For years, Chris Chebii ran his egg business from the boot of his car in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County. Whenever his stock ran out, he would drive 40 kilometres to replenish it before returning to the road to serve his customers.It was a routine he had grown accustomed to. Through hard work, determination and strong relationships with his suppliers and customers, Chris had built a business that earned him an income.

But he was thinking about the years ahead. With retirement approaching, Chris wanted more than a business that depended on him being on the road every day. He wanted to build an enterprise that could provide a sustainable income and continue growing even when he was no longer personally handling every sale and delivery. He had a plan. He would buy a lorry worth KES 430,000, expand his distribution network into new markets such as Iten and eventually diversify into chicken meat sales.

To Chris, the lorry seemed like the natural next step. But in September 2026, an opportunity to receive personalized one-on-one business advisory support began changing how he approached that decision. The conversations began with something Chris had rarely had time to do: sit down and examine the numbers behind his business. Together, they reviewed his transport expenses, pricing, customer locations, profit margins and plans for expansion. One finding stood out. Transporting a tray of eggs cost approximately KES 18 against a margin of about KES 40 per tray.

For someone who spent considerable time driving to restock and deliver eggs, transport was taking up a significant share of his earnings. As they examined the proposed lorry purchase, another possibility emerged. What if, instead of spending KES 430,000 on a vehicle, Chris invested in a permanent shop that could serve walk-in customers and provide a central base for his distribution business?

It was a different way of looking at growth. Chris and his advisor visited four potential business locations around Eldoret, comparing rental costs, security, customer traffic and proximity to his existing buyers. After weighing the options, Chris made his decision. The lorry would have to wait.

On 24 September 2026, using his own resources, he opened his first retail shop. Reflecting on the change in his approach to business, Chris’s experience can be expressed in these words:

“I knew how to sell eggs, but I had never really sat down to understand my business. I thought I needed a lorry to grow. Through the advisory sessions, I started looking at my costs, my customers and where my money was going. I realized I could grow the business differently. That changed how I make decisions.”

For the first time, his customers had a permanent place where they could find him. Chris also had a central location to organize stock, coordinate deliveries and manage the business.

But having a shop was only the beginning. He still needed to make it work. With continued support from his advisor, Chris began introducing changes to how he ran the enterprise. He started keeping sales and inventory records, developed a customer database, and opened a Buy Goods account to track transactions and separate business finances from personal spending.

He also discovered something important about his customers. For years, he had spent much of his time driving around looking for buyers. Yet when he mapped his customer base, he realized that several of his regular buyers, including supermarkets and minimarts around Junction, Sogomo and Jerusalem, were located relatively close to his new shop.

Instead of spending hours moving from one place to another looking for sales, he could now organize deliveries around customers he already knew, plan restocking trips and reduce unnecessary travel. He also began making more deliberate financial decisions. When a new customer proposed paying by cheque, Chris negotiated a 50% upfront payment, with the balance payable within three days. This helped him protect the working capital he needed to keep his business running.

Gradually, Chris was moving from simply selling eggs to managing an enterprise. As demand grew, however, a new challenge emerged. Chris was still responsible for deliveries, serving customers at the shop and attending to his other daily commitments. The business was growing, but much of its day-to-day operation still depended on him. Through continued discussions with his advisor, he began looking at his customers differently. Supermarkets, minimarts, and hotels needed reliable wholesale deliveries, while households and smaller traders wanted the convenience of buying eggs directly from the shop.

By organizing the business around these two customer groups, Chris established separate wholesale distribution and retail sales channels. He then recruited his first employee to support deliveries and later hired a second person to manage the shop. For a man who had spent years doing almost everything himself, this marked an important change. Customers could now be served at the shop while deliveries continued, giving Chris more time to focus on relationships, planning, and business development.

Today, Chris’s weekly sales revenue has grown from KSh 36,000 to KSh 225,000, with egg sales increasing from 80 to 500 trays. What began as a one-man operation from the boot of his car has evolved into a growing enterprise with a permanent retail outlet, two jobs created in retail and distribution, and an expanding customer network serving Ndovu, Sogomo, Jerusalem, Chepkanga and surrounding areas of Eldoret.

The growth in sales is significant, but Chris’s story is about more than the number of trays he sells. It is about an entrepreneur who is learning to see his business differently. He now understands the importance of keeping records, knowing his customers, managing cash flow and assessing whether an investment will genuinely support his enterprise grow. With ongoing advisory support, he continues to strengthen these practices while exploring opportunities to expand his customer base and improve business performance.

His experience demonstrates the value of AEDH’s SBDC model in translating business development support into practical enterprise-level improvements. By combining technical expertise with one-on-one advisory, the approach helps entrepreneurs strengthen financial management, improve operational efficiency, and develop the capabilities needed to sustain business growth.

His journey illustrates an important lesson for enterprise development: business growth is not always about accessing more capital. Sometimes, it begins with understanding how to make better use of what is already available. Chris still hopes to buy that lorry someday. But today, he approaches that ambition with a better understanding of his business, its financial position, and the opportunities ahead.

Chris’s  journey with Tukuze Hub is still unfolding. Through continued one-on-one advisory support from Strathmore University’s Africa Economic Development Hub, Chris is strengthening his business operations, exploring new growth opportunities and making more informed investment decisions.

What began as an egg business operating from the boot of his car now has a permanent shop, two employees and a growing distribution network. For Chris, these achievements are not the end of the journey. They are the foundation for what comes next. And for someone thinking about life after retirement, that is an important step towards the future he wants to build.

For Strathmore University Business School’s Africa Economic Development Hub, this is the greatest value of personalized business advisory: not simply supporting an entrepreneur solve today’s challenges, but building the confidence and capacity to make better business decisions for the future.

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About Tukuze Hub

Tukuze Hub builds on the Financial Inclusion Fund’s (FIF) success by supporting responsible borrowers with tailored business development support. The pilot initiative is in collaboration with  Strathmore University and the African Management Institute (AMI) and currently being implemented in Uasin Gishu, Nyeri, and Mombasa counties by providing entrepreneurs with practical training and personalized business advisory to strengthen enterprise performance and support sustainable growth.

Article by Jane Daniel Mumo