I ventured into real estate after feeling unfulfilled as an actress

Milkah has a routine that she has mastered over the years. By 5.30 am, you will find her in the office. The next 30 minutes will go into meditation followed by meetings. By 8 am when most employees get to the office, she has responded to her emails and planned her day.

Her face flushed with excitement, she shares that Monday is her favourite day of the week. “We take most of our customers for site visits on Saturdays. At the start of a new week, they are making payments or we are closing deals with them,” she says.

Within a few weeks into the Covid-19 pandemic, many small businesses shelved plans for expansion while others were already on the edge of closures. The lives of many entrepreneurs were knitted with the fear of financial fragility and economic slowdown.

Against this backdrop, Milkah and her longtime friend, Martin Njoroge were finalising on setting up a real estate company at Mirage Towers in Nairobi. More than three million shillings which was the duo’s contribution was going into the business.

“Are you out of your mind?” her friends scoffed at her plans to found a business during such volatile times. Four months down the line, she had not closed a single deal. “It was tough. We all know that bills do not stop piling up just because you are not making money. It’s one thing to hear about it and another to be the paragon. On most lone moments, I wondered if we had our timings right but you know what fueled me?  Promises from potential customers that they will buy soon,” she offers.

Before founding Milikispace, Milkah had worked as a sales representative for a developer. This, she took up after years of being in the theatre industry and having a nudging feeling of being stuck. “My acting career had grown in leaps and bounds and I had starred on films and TV dramas like Demigods, Wash n’ Set, Lies That Bind, and MTV Shuga season 2 that aired in dozens of countries across the world. I didn’t get the fulfillment I was looking for in life, so I shelved the acting career and went into entrepreneurship,” she says.

The idea to establish Milikispace was fostered by many people realisation that they needed a home as the pandemic struck. “With remote working, it meant that one could work from any corner of the country. But, there was also a need for big spaces and privacy thus driving the desire for homeownership. Notably, we were already conceptualising the business idea by the time coronavirus snaked its way to Kenya. We decided not to give up or give it time”, she offers.

Her first sale was to a friend that her partner had casually mentioned about the real estate business. “Let me tell you something that I have discovered in my experience in business, if there are difficult people to sell to, are friends. I remember not clinging much to the hope of this deal going through but when it finally did, I was over the moon.  It opened doors to others and since June last year, we have not had a silent week,” she says.

Milikispace has different projects both in Kiambu and Nairobi counties. They include Vintage gardens, Miliki estate phase II and Nairobi Ndogo estate. “At the moment, we are 50 percent sold out.”

In less than two years, Milkah prides on the fact that the company has created employment for more than 30 individuals who take roles such as sales executives, accountants, and other managerial positions.

“One of our factors of success is the fact that we all own the vision of the business —being a leading real estate company both in Kenya and beyond.  As a team, we also have a clear communication channel and we meet every day for briefing and brainstorming sessions,” she offers.

For their business to thrive, Milkah shares that she and Njoroge, both in their thirties, have had to draw the lines on responsibilities and boundaries. “Our relationship is mostly professional and if you find us in one of the meetings, you will realise that we are not afraid to tell each other the truth.  He will call me out for something and I do the same,” she offers.

 If you walk up to Milcah and ask about the greatest lesson she has learned about being in business, she will probably giggle for a moment, like she did on this interview, and say, “there are chances that you will hit rock bottom but there is no hole you cannot come out of. Also, if you have done extensive research on a particular venture and are passionate about it, forget the naysayers.”    BY DAILY NATION