Top 20 Small Business Ideas That You Can Start With 1K, 5K, 10K, 20K & 50K in Kenya in 2024

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Which are some of the best small business ideas that you can start in Kenya with 1K, 5K, 10K, 20K &/or 50K in 2024?

In today’s post, we list and discuss all the small business ideas that did well in 2023 and have the potential to do even better in 2024.

Beginning with: –

Business ideas that you can start in Kenya with 1K.

What business can you start with 1k in Kenya?

With only 1k as the starting capital, there can only be so many business ideas that you can start to make profits.

But, what if I helped you narrow down to at least 5 business ideas that have been proven to be profitable in 2023, would you jump on that opportunity?

If your answer is yes, then consider picking a business idea from this list.

1. Maize roasting business in Kenya.

While this may seem like a low-society business idea, it is one of the best business ideas that you can start with 1K.

Cost breakdown for starting a maize roasting business in Kenya.

1. Cost per maize stalk – Ksh. 10 average price (buy 30 pieces for start).
2. Cost of charcoal – Ksh. 200 would be enough to start.
3. Wiremesh for grilling maize – buy secondhand for Ksh. 100
4. Miscellaneous – 300
5. If you have a joke, use it to reduce the cost. If not, buy a second-hand one cheaply.

Find a nice spot closer to where you live.

Doing so will help you reduce the costs of moving to and from your business premises.

Profits for maize roasting business.

While it is easy to assume that selling maize isn’t profitable, doing it and clearing your 30 stalks stock may prove otherwise.

Ideally, the cost per stalk averages Ksh. 25 and 30.

Meaning, that if you sell for Ksh. 25 per stalk, you can easily make Ksh.750 gross profits and Ksh. 250 net profits.

And if you sell at Ksh. 30 per piece, you will easily make Ksh. 400 for the same stock.

The trick is to sell smaller potions if you want to achieve margins for Ksh. 20 per stalk sold.

2. Online Trading in Olymp Trade.

Online trading is also another money-making idea that you can try in 2024.

Like the maize roasting business, you would only need Ksh. 1,000 to start this venture.

For someone who doesn’t know what trading is and would like to learn more,

What is online trading?

This is the act of purchasing and selling financial products on the Internet.

As a trader, you will buy or sell these financial instruments through a trading platform.

Should you buy or sell financial instruments online, you will be known as a trader.

And what is a trading platform?

A trading platform is an online platform where traders track the quotes of different kinds of assets and make trades using the services provided by a broker.

One of the best brokers where you can start trading with only Ksh. 1,000 deposit is Olymp Trade.

Why should you trade with Olymp Trade?

Since this section is about business ideas that you can start with 1k, and Olymp Trade’s minimum deposit is only 1K, this should easily pass as the first reason to pick Olymp Trade.

If starting to trade isn’t a reason enough, then you should pick Olymp Trade for these other reasons: –

1. Easy start. The minimum trade amount at Olymp Trade is an average of 100 bob.
2. Free education. Olymp Trade offers free education for its traders. You don’t have to worry about where to get all the necessary information.
3.  Round-the-clock support. You can contact Olymp Trade at any time and get help in 15 different languages.
4. Demo account. When you create a new account in Olymp Trade you get $10,000 demo units which you can use to practice on the real market, risk-free.

How much money can you make trading in Olymp Trade in Kenya?

It depends.

But with a starting capital of 1K and a 100% winning, you will get an 80% rate of return

Assuming you place 10 trades per day, do the math.

You can make so much.

3. Egg selling business.

A tray of eggs goes for between Ksh 290 and 320.

Meaning, you can easily start an egg-selling business in Kenya in 2024 with less than Ksh. 1K.

Do you need the cost breakdown for that too?

Buy two crates of eggs for 720 shillings maximum.

Go boil those eggs at home and use the rest of the cash to buy tomato sauce, tomatoes, onions, and pepper for kachumbari.

All done, you can go ahead and start hawking those eggs on a clear bucket.

Profits.

Two trays of eggs will fetch you Ksh. 1,200. Gross income.

Sell more trays per day and you will earn more money.

4. Sweets hawking business.

How much do packets of sweets go for wholesale?

1 packet of sweets goes for less than Ksh. 75 either in wholesale or retail.

And, each packet can sell for as little as Ksh. 300 in retail.

If you are aggressive enough to hawk 10 packets of sweets in a day then you will be surprised to make Ksh. 2,000 or more out of this small business.

5. Data entry business.

There are lots of free content milling sites on the internet.

Some of these sites include guru, Upwork, freelancer… you name it.

As a creative, you can set up an account on either or all of these sites to begin working online.

Find jobs that deal with data entry and do them to make money every day.

Ideally, you will only need to have a laptop or a smartphone with an internet connection.

For convenience, buy 1-month data for only Ksh. 1k and you will be sorted till you start getting consistent jobs.

5K business ideas in Kenya.

There is a separate post that we have done in the past about business ideas that you can start in Kenya with 5K.

In case you only need business ideas to start with Ksh. 5,000 then I’d recommend you read it at your earliest convenience.

Otherwise, you can also: –

1. Start a blog with 5K or less.

To start a blog you will need to be skilled in content creation.

As a blogger, you can either write content, do video content, or record and share podcasts.

If you choose to go the podcasts’ way, then your only uphill task would be creating content and paying for the site to host them.

Most sites that host podcasts will charge you between Ksh. 300 and 900 a month.

You can spend the rest of the cash to buy good microphones and to pay for other costs related to podcast productions.

Video content production on the other hand is easier.

Just open a YouTube account and only pay for video editing services and/or graphics design if your 5K has to be spent at the onset.

Lastly, you can also start a self-hosted blog for your content.

If you choose to go this route, then you will need to pay for a hosting service that should not be more than Ksh 3,000 a year. Especially if you are just starting out.

And a domain name that also costs 1k only a year.

Do you want to learn how to start a blog in Kenya with 5K or less?

Read this post.

2. Mtumba sales.

While Ksh. 5,000 will not be enough to buy Mitumba bales, you can still use the money to buy Mitumba clothes and resell them for profit.

On average, a good mitumba cloth is bought at Ksh. 100 can still resell for double or even triple the cost.

Plus, instead of having a shop, you can hawk your clothes or sell in the streets in the evening.

3. Sell second-hand shoes.

Ever walked in the streets of Nairobi in the evening and saw street vendors selling shoes at Ksh. 200 per pair?

How much do you think they got those shoes for wholesale?

Ksh. 100?

Well, that could just be the price if you go for them at gikomba or if you buy bales of shoes in wholesale.

If your budget for starting a business in 2024 is 5k only, don’t worry.

You can start selling second-hand shoes and make just as much profit retailing shoes in a town near you.

The best part, there are shoes that you will purchase at lower prices and resell for higher prices.

It’s all up to you to decide your margins.

4. Become a data analyst in 2024.

There is no denying that the beginning of this millennium came with lots of technological advancements.

In 2021 there are lots of technologies that give results in terms of data output. As such, analysts are required to interpret these results.

What if you don’t have any knowledge of data analysis, can you acquire it? And at what cost?

It is free to learn data analysis skills.

If you are interested, just head to Google’s grow domain to learn.

This training is free and learners get awarded certificates after the completion of this short course.

You can spend your 5k to buy data bundles and to set up your consultancy business for when you are done with the training.

5. Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate marketing is when you sell or promote another person’s products or services for a reward in terms of commission.

In 2023, I made over Ksh. 3.5 million doing affiliate marketing.

In 2024, I have yet to make over Ksh. 4,000,000 promoting other peoples’ products and services.

If you only have Ksh. 5,000 and you’d like to start a small business that pays, think affiliate marketing.

You can spend your 5K to set up a website through which you will be promoting products.

If that seems too much of a hustle, then consider using social media to move products or to recommend services you like.

It won’t be easy though.

So be ready to spend that 5K on advertising if you need fast results.

10K business ideas in Kenya

And if you can dip your hands deeper into your pockets to get an extra 5K, then you can easily start either of these small businesses in 2024.

1. Make liquid soap.

There is no denying that so many people are already doing this business.

And we can’t agree either that the market is so saturated that you would not find clients to serve.

That said, you may want to consider the liquid soap business as a potential business to start with 10K in 2024.

If you don’t know how to make liquid soap, watch this video at your convenience.

2. Blend and vend juice.

While 10K may not be enough to buy a juicer, get fruits, and furnish a juice bar, it is nearly enough to buy a blender and to start a fresh juice vending business.

A good blender costs Ksh. 2,000 or less.

You can use the rest of the cash to buy fruits and to buy packaging materials.

If it helps, cool your fresh juice at home and/or use ice cubes when moving around.

3. Create a course and sell it online.

In 2023, there was a course for everything. And some of those courses were just some basic stuff but they sold way better than you would sell pork in Mecca.

That goes to show that people still enjoy reading, watching videos, and learning new things.

With 10K only, you could launch your course on sites such as Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, Udemy, or LearnDash to make money.

An in-depth course on anything would take you so long to make.

So, if you want to launch your business by January 2024 then you should already be prepared by now.

4. Freelancing.

If you have a skill for anything that you can do online, why not consider becoming a freelancer for your art?

You can use the 10K to upgrade your membership and to source anything essential for your art.

For example, if you are a video editor then it would make sense to invest in video editing software and if you are a graphics designer then you would obviously want to spend your capital directly on your art.

You can then create freelancing accounts on content milling sites like Freelancer or Upwork to upsell your skills.

5. Start a grocery store with 10K in Kenya.

Depending on where you want to start the business and the capacity you want to start at, 10K would be more than enough to start a grocery business in Kenya.

To ensure quick success, make sure you stock fast-moving groceries for your region.

15K business ideas in Kenya 2024.

1. Pig business 

If you already have a pen for your pigs then 15K would be more than enough to get 3 piglets and feeds for the first few days.

You can adjust on subsequent weeks seeking cheaper feed options for the pigs.

2. Poultry farming.

If you like farming ideas but pig farming just doesn’t do it for you, why not consider trying poultry?

With every chick selling for Ksh. 100 only you can get up to 150 chicks. That’s assuming you have an option for feeds.

If you don’t have one then just buy enough chicks and save enough cash for feeds till you cross over to the other side.

3. Boda Boda business.

How much does a bike cost?

100k or more. But, you could get the same Boda Boda by just putting in a 10K or 15K deposit and paying the rest of the cash in installments of Ksh. 300 daily.

4. Lend people money.

Peer-to-peer lending is one of the growing trends of 2023.

In 2024 there could just be more people who need to borrow money without having to go through a rigorous credit score and rating process.

As an investor, you could use your 15K to give people small loans and earn an interest of 5% to 30% within an agreed duration.

5. Agricultural value addition.

Another highly profitable business idea that you can start at a low cost is the value addition business in agricultural products.

For example, you can buy milk and turn it into yogurt, cheese, butter, or animal waste into biogas.

If the above isn’t your forte, consider making crisps (from banana and potatoes), making cricket biscuits, oil pressing, making flower vase spoons, necklaces, bracelets, and candle holders from animal horns, and bones, turning hides and skin into leather for making shoes and coats.

Business Ideas that you can start in Kenya with 20K.

1. Pest Control

Though this is mostly a seasonal business and will only be profitable during such a time as when it is a cropping season if you are serious about having a business in your name then you can go for this.

Your business will mostly be to eradicate destructive pests such as insects and rodents in farms.

And if there should ever be a time when there is a lot of infestation like we had a few weeks ago then you can greatly benefit from the business.

2. Car wash business.

While there are lots of carwash machines that you can buy for under 30K, I would not recommend that you go for those.

But tell you what, if you have a fixed budget of under 30K then other than washing cars manually, you would be forced to buy such a machine as the AICO 2600 psi – (Electric – Single Phase) car wash machine.

And to borrow or use your home tank for water storage.

In order not to get overwhelmed with the budget, try to go basic in the initial stages.

3. Sell cereals 

Cereals are still one of the widely consumed foods in Kenya. And if you know the best places to get rice, beans, groundnuts, maize, and wheat then you could be on your way to starting a new business with low costs.

Ideally, 20K would be enough for starters.

You can scale your business when you start being consistent with profits.

4. Open a coffee shop.

On average, 20K would not be ideal to start a serious coffee shop.

But, instead of focussing on spending more before proving this concept, why don’t you just start with what you have and scale later?

Ideally, 50% of your capital will go towards your rent, and only 10K will go to sourcing stuff for your business.

The coffee business is however one of the best to start especially in the 4 major cities.

5. Setting up a laundry business.

Depending on what you have in mind, you can start the laundry business with or without money at all.

If you choose to start it with money, then you will need to have a premise and pay for a business license.

Those two may or may not cost more than 20K.

Try to keep those costs low in the beginning by doing laundry manually.

Business Ideas that you can start in Kenya with 50K.

1. Mpesa Business.

Mpesa is not just another business that you can start with 50K in 2024 but one of the best.

However, it can also be one of the worst business ideas if you don’t do your due diligence prior to setting up.

Do you want to start a Mpesa business in 2024? Here’s a guide to help you through.

2. Start a manicure and pedicure business. 

This business involves treating and painting nails.

And just like all the other businesses on this list, it can cost more or less. But if you ask me, 50K should be enough for starters.

3. Become a certified trainer.

Instead of spending that money on purchasing physical goods, why don’t you spend it on training?

As a certified trainer in any field, you can easily get employed or get simple gigs for pay.

Some of the best areas that you can seek certification in include: – customer service, safety, and defense, managing stress among others.

4. Start an eCommerce shop.

With an eCommerce shop, you can sell almost anything plus, you don’t have to own all the things you are selling online.

Do you know what that means?

You will use the 50K to design your website and to market your services in the first few months.

Conclusion.

There are thousands of small business ideas that you can start with little or no capital.

What’s on this list is just the tip of the iceberg.

If there is any small business idea that you feel ought to have been in this but was mistakenly left out, feel free to add it in the comments.