Osumo Brad: How A Single Social Media Post Changed My Kibanda Into a Multimillion Business
Any entrepreneur’s formative years are considered to be the most important, but they also carry untold tales of joy and sorrow. Osumo Brad’s entrepreneur journey was no different.
Osumo is a fishmonger and the owner of BigFish, a restaurant chain that has become one of the biggest in the nation.
It wasn’t always easy for the businessman who, just after graduating from high school, opened a kibanda, or casual restaurant, with his sisters.
While working at the small company location on December 21, 2019, Osumo made the audacious decision to make a funny post on his Twitter account.
“On that Day, being a Twitter fan, I decided to post one of the images at 1:23 pm (EAT). Coming back, I was astonished to find that it had blown up in proportion with comments of orders.”
The post became the gold mine for him as it changed his establishment with orders from clients in the digital space, something that has left him astonished till now.
BigFish’s first location sitting restaurant was at Roasters, Nairobi, that had started in August 2018.
The target clientele was the informal sector “Jua-Kali” working in the area and who came looking for meals during work breaks.
“We used to sell Nileperch “Mbuta” that we would slice for our target clientele since they could not afford a whole one,” Osumo added.
So far they have three outlets with the latest one being at Churchroad, Westlands which started operations in July 2021.
“When starting a business, you have no guarantee of its success. The business came to pick up two years later but the returns were low at that time with each one having personal needs,” Osumo described his entrepreneurial journey attributing its success to the social media post.
According to Ajira Digital 2021 Report, 1.2 million Kenyan adults are working online.
It is from this that he urges entrepreneurs to use social media to advance their business reach regardless of the number of followers as he shared his post to 300 followers.
His restaurant has come to be most sought after with prominent figures becoming his clientele- such as Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Nelson Havi.
