Video: Kenyan Businessman Moses Mbai Making Fortunes in the US
When 28-year-old Moses Mbai, chartered his journey into entrepreneurship, he got more than he bargained for with lessons along the way especially when it came to establishing his business in the United States.
Mbai, founded the 5th Generation Coffee, an online coffee supply company in his current residence in Dallas Well Fort Worth Arlington area in 2018.
In his second year of business, he was faced with the Covid-19 pandemic that ground many sectors of the American economy to a halt.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the Texas Southern University Business Management graduate disclosed that despite the gloomy economic outlook, the month of May had been the best for his business.
In addition to recording additional sales in the coffee products offered on his platform, he launched a new product, coffee soap with different flavours which he says are selling out fast.
“We just launched our Coffee Soaps which are handcrafted and naturally made with shea butter with organic essential oils on the site and during a pandemic, I kept the faith, and this has been the best month in business. I learned to stay focused and give consumers something that could benefit them at a time like this.
“We are thankful for all our customers supporting our black-owned small business during this difficult time. We sold out this week. We’re restocking our Coffee Soap later this week,” he stated.
Mbai revealed that even though other coffee brands were already established in the US, he had adopted a unique marketing strategy to ensure he stays in business despite Covid-19.
“Our customers make orders online via our website, where they can get a variety of products on offer,” he noted.
Narrating how his grandparents inspired the founding of the company, the businessman stated that he sources his produce from his family farm in Kiambu, Kenya.
“We own a farm in Kiambu, Kenya I would see how hard my family worked on this coffee farm day in and day out. A year or two after graduating from college, I’m sitting a job I hate and realized I wanted more out of my life. I want to be my own boss. I’m tired of being controlled and told what to do in corporate America.
“As I was drinking coffee the idea hit me. Like a ton of bricks to sell coffee from my company here in the states. It had never been done before, so I decided to take a chance and here I am today,” he conveyed.
Starting with a team of two in the US, Mbai had to travel to Kiambu where he visited the farm and learnt the coffee business so as to be hands-on from the planting to the packaging and shipping.
“Our coffee farm is Grade A sustainable. Every order is roasted fresh before being mailed out,” he added.
He added that sustainability was an important part of their business model.
“The majority of our staff is African Americans within this industry there is little to no diversity so that’s something unique about 5G Coffee. We are in a time where people want to support Black Owned Businesses and Small Businesses so that strategy of identifying who we are and really have our customers follow our journey as we grow sets us apart from well-known brands,” he disclosed.
Source-kenyans.co.ke
