To Have and To Sell During A Pandemic: Inspiring Story of How Digital Marketing Sparked Ethical Growth for An Nya’loka’s Agape Fish

Nya’loka’s Agape fish was born in 2017 shortly after Grace’s ceremonious retirement from teaching in 2016. For 3 years now, Grace has supplied fish to drop-in customers and referral customers. The sales would go up to 5 fish in a single day equating a sustainable profit of 10% daily.

However, when the first case of corona virus was reported in the country and the government put in place stringent measures to curb the spread of the virus, the number of sales declined to one fish per day and so did the profit to 0.5%.

Just like many other small and medium sized enterprises, the Covid-19 pandemic threatened to sweep Nya’loka’s Agape Fish to nonexistence. According to Grace, her fish supplier based in Nairobi cut down fish supply to Machakos following the cessation of movement into and out of the city. The partial business crippling saw Nya’loka’s Agape Fish closing down for two weeks. With no fish supply and zero sales, the future looked grey for the enterprise.

Shortly after the World Health Organization (WHO) urged states to treat the corona virus as a pandemic, Grace resorted to reopening her business regardless of the existing conditions putting her at risk of violation of local regulations and an easy target for extortion and demands for bribes. According to her, the uncertainty of waiting for normalcy was a tall order to live through.

But fortunately, Grace is a member of a small and growing group of entrepreneurs tagged the Machakos Compliance Club. So, relying on a few referrals to available fish suppliers, Grace worked out her reopening plan with colleagues from the compliance club.

The Machakos Compliance Club is a group of enterprises drawn from Machakos County led by owners and managers who are keen on fostering growth for SMES, while maintain best practices and integrity in their business operations. The club loosely organized with a clear objective to support ethical entrepreneurship and with support from the CIPE experts in Nairobi, Twi’wane, the club organizes periodic meetings,  training, surveys of focus group discussions for its members. Recently, the group was trained on how to use Facebook and WhatsApp to grow one’s business. Grace Sigu was among the members who benefited from the digital marketing training prompting her to set up a Facebook page for Nya’loka’s Agape Fish.

Facebook has unique features like page and ad option which when utilized, could help connect a seller to potential buyers. Facebook’s algorithm makes use of artificial intelligence which refines and customizes searches for its users. The feature is a big win for business who are seeking to spread wings to new grounds virtually.

About 3 days after an intensive Facebook training session, Grace setup a Facebook page, Nya’loka’s Agape Fish. Two weeks into its creation, the page garnered traffic from buyers and Grace registered up to 50 % increase in profit from one day’s sales. That’s about 21 (twenty-one) fish sold in a single day, up from one to two sales when the business operated solely from its physical location. The business has seen a leap of 30% which has helped improve sales and supplies to customers.

Moreover, the page has helped Grace connect with efficient fish suppliers, who get her fish from the Lake on time. Thus far, Grace is on a path to expanding her business to accommodate more fish products, both fresh and locally processed which she will sell both in wholesale and retail to her customers courtesy of her business digitization success. For Grace this was a remarkable lesson that doing busines ethically is not only possible for a small business but has great business benefits too!