The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Profitable Online Business in Kenya

How to make money online in Kenya by starting a profitable business

The internet is the first place that modern consumers go to look for products and services they need. It is where savvy entrepreneurs go to start new businesses in Kenya. It is home to countless multi-million and multi-billion dollar business empires like Google and Amazon.

It has enabled teachers to teach more conveniently online, students to learn from home, even during a pandemic, doctors to prescribe online. Any type of information we need can be accessed in seconds. A world without it is now almost inconceivable.

This article will go over how to start your own online business and conveniently earn money from the internet.

Related: Passive Income Business Ideas in Kenya

How to earn online in Kenya

Step 1: Find a profitable business idea

There are dozens of online businesses that can be started in Kenya regardless of how much capital you have, whether it’s 1k, 5k, 20k or 100k.

Your business should ideally be based on something you’re good at. Take some time to go over your skills and experiences. What’s that one thing you feel you’re better at than most people?

Remember that almost any marketable skill can be converted into an online business, regardless of its nature. If you are a plumber then you can start an online plumbing service where customers book you through a website or an app.

If you’re a writer then you can write an e-book and sell it online, or you can become a freelance article writer on Upwork. If you are a teacher then you can create an online course and sell it on Teachable. If you’re multilingual then you can start a translation service. If you’re good at Photoshop then you can start a graphic design business.

See below 10 online businesses ideas:

Top 10 profitable online business ideas to start in Kenya

1. Sell niche products: Niche products are products that appeal to people with specific interests. For example, workout supplements are niche products that appeal fitness enthusiasts. They are great products to sell online because they generally don’t have much competition.
2. Drop shipping: Drop shipping is a product fulfillment method where sellers don’t own stock of the products they’re selling. Whenever someone places an order through their website, they then order the product from a supplier and ship it directly to them.
3. Affiliate Marketing: The earning potential with affiliate marketing is limitless. All you need to do is to promote a company’s products and get paid for every referral. Many hosting companies, including Bluehost and Hostgator offer up to $100 per referral.
4. Freelancing: A freelancer is a self-employed person who offers his/her skills to other people and companies on a short term basis. Some great platforms to find work as an online freelancer include Upwork and Fiverr.
5. Consultation: A consultant helps people solve issues they are facing. You can build your consultation service around an area that you’re skilled at, for example marketing or HR, and then advertise your services on freelancing platforms like Upwork as well as on your own website.
6. Online coaching: Depending on your experience, you can be a life coach, a fitness coach, career coach, dating coach, etc.
7. Create an online course: You can use online teaching platforms like Teachable to create and sell courses on almost any topic, whether that’s music, art or even cooking.
8. Rent out a room in your house on Airbnb: Airbnb is an online marketplace where people can lease rooms in their homes to short term travelers. It can be a great source of passive income if you have a spare room in your house.
9. Sell stock photos: You can sign up to be a contributor on stock photo platforms like Shutterstock, and supply them with photos of yourself doing different things. Every time someone buys your photos, you get paid a commission.
10. Write an e-book: You can either write the book yourself, or hire a ghostwriter to write if for you, and then publish it on platforms like the Amazon Kindle Store.

Related: 3 Easy Ways to make Money Online Working from Home

Step 2: Research and Planning

Once you settle on a business idea that seems realistic and you’re confident you can execute, the next step is to do some research to determine whether there’s a gap in the market your business can fill.

A thorough research will give you useful insights which enable you to make realistic plans based on what’s happening in the market.

You’ll know how to price your products/services, how to go about your marketing and branding, how to position yourself so that you can stand out from your competition, where to find the cheapest suppliers, how to solve logistical issues like product deliveries, etc.

Research should tell you whether your ideas are worth pursuing or not, and if they are, how to implement them successfully.

Once you have completed your research and the results are positive, then the next step is to start working on your market domination plan.

A common mistake that many entrepreneurs make is not taking enough time to put together well thought out plans. Starting a business without a plan is like going on a road trip without a map. You’ll get lost somewhere along the way.

A plan is what will guide you through the huddles you are inevitably going to face.

You’ll need to come up with a plan on how to package and present your products/services, how to stand out from competitors, how to acquire customers, how to grow your team, etc.

Step 3: Build your platform

Online platforms are where customers find you to do business. It can be a website, an app, an e-commerce shopping store, a social media page, etc. Check out this article to learn how to get a free website, domain, hosting, and business emails.

A lot of people have reservations about starting online businesses simply because the idea of selling on the internet seems daunting and unfamiliar. But it shouldn’t be, there are so many tools that can be used to easily create personalized platforms even if you’ve never done it before.

A tool like Wix enables anyone to build fully functional websites by simply dragging and dropping various elements such as text and images into place. No coding is required. Similarly, Shopify can be used to create a shopping store where buyers can purchase online and pay via credit card or Mpesa.

Here are some examples of online platforms that would be ideal the different type of businesses:

Types of online platforms

If you are selling physical products:

• An e-commerce shopping store
• Social media pages to promote your products

If you are selling services:

• A website where customers can find information about your services
• Social media pages to promote your services

If you are selling an online course:

• A Teachable account to build your course on

If you are doing affiliate marketing:

• A blog to publish about your affiliate products
• A YouTube channel to post videos about your affiliate products

If you are selling an e-book:

• An Amazon Kindle Store account to publish your e-book on

One thing you need to keep in mind when building your platform is that most internet users have a very short attention span due to the sheer number of things constantly demanding their attention. You’ll need to get a reliable web hosting service with a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Your platform simply has to stand out for it to stand a chance in such a crowded marketplace. It has to provide an exceptional user experience. It has to be well designed and easy to navigate.

You literally have seconds to provide users with the information they’re seeking otherwise they’ll leave your page without thinking twice.

Step 4: Marketing

Once you’ve finished building your online platform, then you are almost ready to hit the market. The final piece of the puzzle will be getting your logo.

A logo gives customers confidence that you are a legitimate business. You can get one from Fiverr starting from just $5.

Marketing is probably the most fun part of running an online business. It is when your creativity and imagination can directly translate to sales.

You have two main options when it comes to online marketing; you can either run a paid ads campaign, or you can leverage free advertising platforms.

Paid Ads

Some popular online advertising platforms include Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and LinkedIn Ads.

Such platforms use a model called pay-per-click, or PPC, where the ads are shown to as many people as possible, however the advertiser is only charged whenever people click them. Most of the ads you see on the internet are PPC.

It’s a great model that allows businesses to advertise online even with small budgets. You can start a campaign on Facebook with a budget of just $5 a day and your ads will get served to thousands of relevant people.

If you decide to run your campaign on LinkedIn, you can get up to $100 free advertising credit once you sign up.

The biggest advantage of PPC over almost all other advertising methods is that you get some very precise and advanced targeting options that enable you to reach your most ideal clientele.

For example, if your business deals with workout supplements, and your ideal clientele is fitness enthusiasts, you can set your Facebook ads to show ONLY to people who actively ‘like’ and ‘follow’ pages that are related to fitness.

You can also target people based on their gender, age group, location, profession, etc.

Free ads

If you don’t have the budget to run a paid ads campaign, don’t worry, there are several other ways you can advertise your new business. The only downside is that you won’t have the advanced targeting options that you would get on PPC.

Most people nowadays spend a significant portion of their days mindlessly browsing social media. So that’s the first place you go for free advertising.

You can create pages on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and various other platforms, and then grow the pages by posting regularly and inviting people to follow you. Eventually when business does pick up then you can run a paid campaign on your social pages to get even more followers.

Another great avenue for free advertising is classified websites and online marketplaces such as Pigiame, Jumia and Jiji.

Such marketplaces are great because people who visit them have already have a purchase intent. They are looking to buy something. The downside is that they can sometimes be saturated with people selling similar products, however you can stand out by either by offering better prices or better value than your competitors.

Step 5: Becoming a Big Business

The first year of business is going to be full of challenges and adversities, but don’t get discouraged, they are just part of the game. They are a natural weeding mechanism that filters out people who deserve to be successful from the rest of the population.

If you can withstand the pressure and still keep going, you will eventually become successful.

Use the first year to experiment different strategies. If one thing doesn’t work, try another. If one marketing channel is not returning any business, abandon it and try out another. Don’t just give up altogether.

It takes many trials and errors before finally finding the winning set of strategies for your business. Reinvest almost all the income you generate in the first year back to marketing and product development.

Hire a team if needed for the day to day running of the running of the business so you can focus on the long-term vision. That’s how you turn a small business into a big business.

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