Money guides for Kenyan businesses.

Working capital is the cash you have to run day to day once short-term bills are covered. It pays for stock, rent and wages while you wait for sales to come in. Too little and you cannot restock; too much sitting in dead stock and your cash is frozen on the shelf.

Look past the M-Pesa balance. Take your sales, subtract the cost of the goods you sold to get gross profit, then subtract rent, wages and other costs to get net profit. A shop can be busy and still lose money if margins are thin or costs creep up.

A loan makes sense when it funds something that earns more than it costs, like stock that turns over quickly or equipment that lifts sales. It is risky when it covers a cash-flow hole that keeps coming back. Run the repayment against your real margins first.

A POS shows real numbers instead of guesses: daily sales, gross margin per product, which stock is dead and how cash moves through the week. With Veira those figures feed working-capital and cash-flow tools, so decisions rest on data, not on a feeling.