Worst business to start in Kenya 2023/2024

There are businesses you will not attempt to start in Kenya because you will incur losses. Some of the worst businesses to start could be the best but due to government policies and changes in technology, operating such businesses is extremely hard. Below is a list of some of the worst businesses to start in Kenya:

Cyber café

Nowadays people have smartphones, they send emails through SMS, take photos and send them through their smartphones—they don’t need scanners. Opening a cyber café is wastage of money because you will be making huge losses.

Matatu business

Matatu business is another type of business you should avoid in Kenya if you need peace of mind. With a matatu on the road, you will feed the driver, tout, police, conductor and many other brokers in the industry. You matatu will make Ksh 5,000 per day but what you receive is Ksh 500,the rest of the money has been pocketed by the crew and police.

Unless you will be the driver or conductor of your matatu, you will not make enough money.

If you want to make decent profit, register your car with a recognized Sacco for long distance. That way you will leave your vehicle to safe hands. But the profits will be very low because you will pay administration and operational fee monthly.

Wines and spirits

Wines and spirits business can lead to depression. The problem is that there are specific times set to operate this business but you find that customers want to drink beyond the specified time. As the owner, you can’t close the business even when the time elapses. Police use this loophole to extort money from the wines and spirits operators.

Offline taxi business

Nowadays people prefer online taxi business & apps because they are safe, convenient and cheap .Operating offline taxi business may not be profitable. Unless you register your business with an online taxi, you will struggle to get customers.

Political blogging

Political bloggers make a lot of money but they lose it almost immediately due to court cases. Some are always in danger of losing their lives because the information they share to the public is sensitive.

You can blog on anything but regarding politics.

Insurance company

The level of penetration for insurance products in Kenya is low. Starting an insurance company is a bad idea unless you will incorporate other businesses.

Boutique business

Boutique business is difficult to operate unless the products you are selling are unique. This is one of the most difficult businesses to do in Kenya and it always lead to making losses.

Shylock business

When someone approaches a shylock, it means they are broke. More often, they end up not paying the loans back. This forces the shylock owners to sell the items left by defaulters in order to recover the money. In Kenya, over 80% of loans taken from shylocks are never paid back.

Bookshop

Don’t attempt to start a bookshop anywhere in Kenya. Nowadays people don’t buy books, they read online. People only buy books when schools are being opened or when schools demand for specific books to be purchased.

Tender business

Don’t start the business of tendering especially when you want to supply items to the government or county governments. There are many Kenyans who have died due to depression because they weren’t paid after supplying products to counties and government agencies.

Run a football team

Unlike in other countries where running a football team is lucrative, in Kenya it’s very hard to run the same because it’s not profitable. No single team fills any stadium in Kenya.

Operating a general shop

Unless you are own a supermarket, running a general shop is not so profitable. If you make a mistake and take one kg of sugar from the stock, you’ll make a loss.