One question I’m asked by almost everyone who finds out that I am running a business is, “Which is the best online business I can start in Kenya?”
The next second most question I often get asked is “how do you afford to travel?”
Undoubtedly, these are very good questions.
Well, today I will concentrate on the first question.
The best online business idea to start is one that is in agreement with your core values, takes full advantage of my existing skills and resources, and that in one way or another touches on your passions, whatever that may be.
Evidently, some of these niche online business ideas could make you more money than others.
However, they all are fairly simple to start and are flexible enough to enable you work part time without quitting your day job (if you have one) or eating into your employer’s time.
As you go through this list, ask yourself a few questions based on the ideas:
- What am I currently dissatisfied with?
- Is there’s something missing from the things I already enjoy or use all the time?
- How can I make someone’s life better?
- What kind of business is right for me?
All of these questions will help lead you to the right kind of business idea.
Draw upon skills you already possess and find ways to make them work for you.
Focus on what your potential customer really needs, and then focus on catering to that need.
Don’t waste time waiting for the perfect time.
Done is better than perfect.
No one is going to come along and give you permission.
A lot of people in life are waiting for permission, and that’s never going to happen.
You have to take it! You are qualified, you have permission, and the next steps are yours.
Your online business idea is waiting for you to take action.
But don’t just settle for being inspired.
In his bestselling book, Steal Like an Artist, author Austin Kelon says, “Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”
So take one of these ideas, tweak it and start blogging today!
Following is a compilation of the 100+ Best Online Business Ideas You Can Start in Kenya today.
What's Covered in This Article
Rank a ______nearme.co.ke website and monetize it
Could be post office, bank, TKash agent, M-Pesa agent, hospital, Pizza place, Maasai Market, clinic, courier, etc.
A natural, healthy eating/drinking affiliate website
Affiliate yourself with a healthy foods supplier, make your own, or simply use variations of the term to drive traffic to other health products and offers.
If selling products online is your kinda thing, starting finding your way around Jumia, Olx, Amazon, etc.
A low-cost housing website
With the high cost of living these days, millions of Kenyans are craving to live in their own homes.
However, overpriced properties have rendered their home ownership dreams invalid.
- Get into the affordable housing market and develop lower priced property types.
- Create a directory of people who construct cheap houses and send them leads for a fee.
- Review products designed for lower priced housing e.g. prefab, etc and promote them with affiliate links.
- Create a step-by-step information product on building your first affordable house or home.
- Create an Instagram page showcasing affordable/cheap homes in Kenya, the unbelievably low price it cost to construct them in Kenya, and then sending leads to their contractors for a lead.
GPS car tracking
Just recently on the news, there was a scam unearthed of how car tracking companies are conning Kenyans.
As these devices are apparently fairly easy to install, car owners may as well just install their own trackers so that they’re guaranteed of their cars’ safety.
The’re several business ideas this scam creates:
- Import GPS trackers from China (check out Alibaba), market via Olx, Instagram, etc, finds clients and then go and fit them on their cars for a fee.
- Import the GPS trackers and sell them via Jumia, Olx or your own Shopify store
- Create a lead generation site for those selling the GPS trackers in Kenya then send them leads of people wanting the trackers fixed on their cars.
- Create a website showcasing various GPS trackers in Kenya, then reaching out to manufacturers to see if you could get products to review and then promote them with affiliate links.
Kenyatta National Hospital, the region’s largest referral hospital has been making headlines over the past few weeks for all the wrong reasons.
Ranging from sexual harassment within its maternity wing to performing a brain surgery on the wrong patient, to doctors’strikes, to negligence, just to mention a few.
Expectedly therefore, there will soon crop a large number of people looking for help with legal action as victims of above allegations.
- rank and rent model: either rank a website in the ‘doctor/health institution negligence’ industry and rent it out to an actual legal firm,
- rank to lead generation model: or get in touch with legal firms and ask how much they are willing to pay for leads you send their way.
Directory of reviewed drivers from Mombasa to rest of country
Current new car registrations in Kenya average about 18,000 per month.
With this comes the need to get the imported cars from the port in Mombasa to their inland destination presenting another great opportunity to use the rank and rent model or rank to lead generation model.
It costs about KES 3,500 to get someone to drive your car from Mombasa to Nairobi.
But finding a reliable driver is usually a challenge for most people.
- rank and rent model: Either rank a website and rent it out to an actual driver, or company
- use the rank to lead generation model: get in touch with drivers and ask how much they are willing to pay for leads you send their way.
Bridal shower party ideas website
You see, when some of us got married aeons of years ago, bridal showers began with the bride being literally showered with water.
Thereafter, a group of mamas giving you some words of wisdom to keep your man from developing a roving eye.
But I recently had the privilege to organize a bridal shower for one of my buddies.
Boy, the only thing lacking from the event for it to pass for a wedding was the groom.
Bridal showers are a huge industry in Kenya.
If you enjoy things weddings and could see yourself writing about this niche and sharing photos of these parties with others, this could be the niche for you.
- You could create a Kenyan themed bridal shower party ideas website. Then monetize the site with things like an eBook with details of the best bridal shower party ideas, and then including a directory which takes a commission for leads on things like party sengas etc.
- There’s also the possibility of linking to party props and decorations as a Jumia affiliate.
A Kenyan themed virtual reality stand alone website
- Virtual reality shopping in Kenya
- Virtual reality advertising in Kenya
- DIY Virtual reality in Kenya
- Virtual reality cameras in Kenya
- Virtual reality jobs in Kenya
Create a huge pole dancing directory of all the schools and academies out there in Kenya
For y’all looking at me cross-eyed from your computer screens, pole dancing is not just for Koinange Street women.
It is also a great and fun way to keep fit.
I would monetize the site in any of the following ways:
- Let people to rate and review the various places to get lessons per city, per county, per estate, etc.
- Reach out to the various schools and offer advertising opportunities on the website.
- Promote pole dancing courses / lessons in Kenya, eBooks and membership sites as an affiliate.
The goal here would be get traffic landing on your website and then converting them as a lead to send to companies who can pay big money for the equipment rental for hydroseeds, rototillers, etc.
- Go local and break it down by focusing on cities, suburbs and/or counties research where construction companies and homeowners are more likely to be looking for heavy duty equipment. Areas such as Syokimau, Ruai, Utawala, Ngong Road, Rongai, Kitengela, Bondo, etc, come to mind.
Curated list of the best golf courses in Kenya
Organised by county, and weather based on the time of year
Curated list of most Instagrammable places in Kenya
- For amateur photographs to get their images seen. Organised by county, city, etc,
Curated list of best websites for Kenyans looking to land jobs
Include not only job sites, but guides on improving their CV and interview skills.
A deal site
- e.g. one targeting pregnant women in Kenya
Start a ‘memories of Kenya’ subscription box service
- Target Kenyans in the diaspora, tourists or business visitors to Kenya, etc.
Create a Monthly “Learn Swahili”or “Learn Sheng” club
- Target for foreigners in Kenya.
- Teach the student aspects of the language each month in little brochures.
Kenyan online and mobile membership-free wholesale retailer club
- This would work perfectly now that supermarkets no longer provide packaging for their shoppers and people are also looking for shopping deals.
- Offer direct delivery of bulk-sized grocery packages to subscribers.
Following the government’s move to ban plastic, it has been quite a challenge for most Kenyans to find alternatives.
Thus, the site’s mission would be to find glass and metal replacements for plastic, and to make those products accessible to the public as well.
You could monetize the site in any of the following ways:
- Monetize the site with an eBook detailing the benefits, and how to live a plastic-free life in Kenya.
- Start an online shop ( via Jumia, Olx or your own Shopify store) that sells everyday plastic-free products such as bamboo toothbrushes, stainless steel food containers, cloth sandwich bags etc.
- Create a lead generation site for plastic-free product suppliers in Kenya then send them leads for a commission.
- Create a website showcasing various plastic-free product alternatives, then reaching out to manufacturers to see if you could get products to review and then promote them with affiliate links.
Start a specialized diet blog
Keto diets, vegan diets, vegetarian diets are becoming common place in Kenya today. Unfortunately, most people are doing it all wrong.
They are stuck with beans, sukuma wiki and mala at every meal.
This is an opportunity to start a specialized blog that give meal plan and recipe alternatives and fits the Kenyan consumer and makes use of ingredients available locally.
Visit Ngara Market and Wakulima market for recipe ingredients.
You could also consider starting a specialized Kenyan ingredient-and-recipe meal kit service where you deliver weekly boxes containing ingredients and suggested recipes that are cooked by hand by the customer using pre-ordered ingredients.
A good place to start would be vegan or vegetarian ingredient-and-recipe meal kit service in Kenya for instance.
Childcare and parenting
Just be careful with the advice you give. It could impact someone’s life forever.
To monetise, share with parents engaging content, and make money from partnerships with baby care brands, hospitals, insurance companies, etc.
You can also choose to sell the baby products on the website.
Another option is to sell ad space.
Following are specific child care and parenting blog ideas you can consider:
- Care during pregnancy and after pregnancy
- Care for new borns
- Home remedies for children
- Breastfeeding help
- Help, support and advice for moms undergoing post-natal depression
- Help,support and advice for mothers returning to work
- Podcast on childcare
- Games and activities for children, families, etc.
- Blog with online course for new mothers returning to the world of work—and then find a way to get employers to pay for it.
- Daddy blog
Fashion and beauty blog
- Black/African/Woman of color beauty tips
- Black/African/Woman of color Skincare tips
- African fashion product reviews
- Ideas for contemporary Afro-western dresses
- Where to shop for fashion product deals in Kenya
Finance blog or vlog
- Personal finance blog
- Act as an online financial services/products sales agent for Insurance, Mutual Funds, Loans etc.
- create a product comparison website, to help users choose between alternatives
- Start a KRA return filing service
- A personal finance podcast/Youtube channel
- Auditor
- A Finance-related vlog (video blog)
- Kenya hospitals review website
- Review website Kenyan doctors
- Crowding site for patients who can not afford to pay their medical bills
- Online community for people struggling with depression, Lupus, etc
Education blog or vlog
- Top home schooling website in Kenya
- Help in cruising exams such as CPA
- Online tutorial website for gumbaru students preparing for KCSE exams privately
Food blog or vlog
- Platform to sell homemade food
- Blog about niche specific recipes – e.g. Mushroom Recipes, Quinoa recipes
- Tips on to grow organic food
- Baking techniques
Travel blog or vlog
- Develop local county travel guides
- Share travel deals
- Meet-ups with like minded people who travel
- Review of accommodation – hostel, hotels, AirBnBs
- review of travel tools, gadgets and apps
- How make money for travel
- Lesser known off the beaten path travel destinations in Kenya
- Trip planning tips, ideas and hacks
- Roap Trip ideas, challenges and planning in Kenya
- Camping in Kenya
Did I miss any interesting ways you can earn money online in Kenya today?
Do you have any blog business ideas you can start in Kenya today you’d like to share with our readers?
Let us continue the conversation in the comments below or on the EvaMtalii Facebook page!
If you feel ready to start your blog business while still at your regular 8 to 5, register for my Start a Side Hustle Workshop.
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Disclosure: Kindly note that some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that if you click on them and make a purchase, I will get a small commission and this is at absolutely no additional cost to you.
Every resource or tool that I recommend is one that I’ve personally used and have genuinely helped me in achieving side hustle success.
Feature Image Credit: Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
