Working capital for mobile phone payment service center

Entrepreneur

About Me

I was brought up in a simple, down-to-earth family. Both my parents are teachers, from western Kenya. I was, however, born in South Nyanza, as that is where my parents were employed at the time. Growing up, together with my 3 sibblings, we've had challenging times, especially with finances. This is mainly because, my parents were from poor backgrounds, and one of them was a polygamous family. Most of their finances were, therefore, channeled towards paying school fees for their younger siblings, having gone ahead of them.
One thing I really appreciate about my parents is the fact that they attached much value on education, and hence burnt the midnight oil to make sure that all of us got decent education. In light of my parents' sacrifice, I have always had a longing to make an impact in this life and change the lives of people who had similar challenges we and our parents have been through. This is one of the things that motivated me to desire to be an engineer by the early age of 9. This led to my hard work in school that saw me overcome the challenges I had, and using the little I had to top my class at primary level.
On admission at Friends' School Kamusinga, I touched a computer for the first time, and that is where my passion and love for computers began. I decided to take computer studies as a subject, and with time, the desire to be a computer engineer grew in me. I loved computers, but the only time I had an opportunity to use one was while in school. My dad promised to buy me a cheap computer to be helping me with my studies, but due to other financial commitments, including my grandfather's outstanding hospital bill at the time after he was diagonized with a malignant tumor that led to his death, could not allow him to get me one at the time. Again I had to use the limited opportunity to grow in my programming skills and my passion for IT and computer engineering.
My hard work paid off and in 2009 I secured an opportunity to study Bsc. Electronics and Computer Engineering in JKUAT. While at campus, I not only had an opportunity to study my dream course, but also had an opportunity to get in touch with other people's social lives and appreciate the fact that my position at any given time is not for my own personal gain but for the betterment of other people's lives as well. For instance, through the campus, Christian Union, we had various mission exposure trips to marginalized communities, where I got to see the plight of the underprivileged in society.
This is one of the things that inspired me to come up with a plan of supporting individuals working among such people. An idea of creating a company was birthed in me. Eventually, together with my friend and classmate, with the support of other friends, we decided to register "IDENTITY VANTAGE", an IT and engineering firm that will be devoted to solve some of the problems faced in our society today. Through the company, we desire to mentor young people, and come up with community transformational ideas that will equip young people to be more useful in society. We also hope to create jobs for the young populace in our country. Due to financial constraints, the company has not yet been fully fledged. We opted to start by starting a small shop where we can offer graphic design, printing services, M-PESA services, and sale of stationery, as a means of raising income.

My Business

Presently, I am a freelance online tutor at chegg.com. Through online tutoring, I get to interact with different students from all over the world, and help them in different areas of engineering. My main areas of focus are computer programming, database systems, web design. From my online tutoring, I make an average of $150 per week. I also do graphic design and web design, of which I get between $5 and $100 per project.
My main cost is usually Internet which is about $10 per week and transport costs which amount to about $10 per week. Most of my profit goes towards paying my house rent (as my house has been serving as my office for some time), and my personal effects. I also have other freelance programming jobs that bring in about $200 per month. My current business idea is to develop a web application that will connect wedding service providers to their clients. I feel that at the initial stages of this development, I will need to dedicate a whole month to the whole process, hence the need to have some amount for my upkeep during the period.

Loan Proposal

I would like to add my MPESA float to at least KES 35,000. I also wish to stock my shop with airtime and phone accessories to supplement the MPESA business. Both these are strategies that will help me retain my customers. I will not only be able to handle more customer transactions, but I will also have more customers coming to purchase airtime and phone accessories.

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