Buying basins and scrubbing brushes for laundry service

Entrepreneur

About Me

I am a single mother born in Nairobi. I do not know my father, but my mother told me he was from central Turkana. I cannot remember him, but I grew up in Doonholm Estate of Nairobi, where my mother used to live in a tin shack beside a high building known as Kasha Apartments. We survived with my mother and brother by washing clothes for the people who lived in the apartments.

As much as I remember, I attended school until class 4 when my mother died because of tuberculosis. Me and my brother were taken in by a neighbor and we moved around with her. She moved to Embu town, where we did not continue with school. (I resumed my schooling at the age of 14 and even managed to get a pass in my primary school exams.) I did not manage to join high school, but my foster mother Mrs. Njendi helped pay my fees to attend some training in a local institute called "Embu Technical Institute" and I trained in tailoring. I did my best in saving money for my education, helping my foster parents by buying and selling fruits on the roadside and even continuing with washing people's clothes while saving the money.

I had my child and his father denied being his father, so I have marched on my own. She is a dear and I love her so much. She and I moved out and we live in a two-room house in Embu and we go to the nearby PCEA church where I am a Sunday school teacher.

I have not gone to bed hungry and I thank God for that, but I have seen enough ups and downs in life to make me never want my child to pass through the hell I have seen. When you wash clothes for some clients, especially bachelors, they almost always want sexual favors, and I have had an incident where, at the age of 16, I ran out of a man's house when he almost raped me as I washed his clothes to make the $2 for the day's work.

My baby girl is bright and is leading her class, and I have a savings account for my fees and hers, and I know I will see brighter days. My girl Angela wants to be a doctor.

My Business

I wash clothes for around 2 to 3 dollars per wash per day. I usually take my bucket and stand at estate corners, especially on weekends, and wait for clients. Some drive by and ask how much I can do, while others call me and ask me to come to their homes and see the wash loads. I usually do about five or seven customers each day; it depends on the loads.The ladies who are graduates or who are socialite types do not wash their clothes nor dishes, and they pile them up and pay to have me wash them either every two days, or some wait until the gross pileup lasts a week.

My weekends are busy, since most people are home and they would like even their houses mopped up and dishes cleaned. Therefore, if I meet a good client I can walk away with about 5 dollars if I do the extra work. I use the money to pay my girl's fees (about $10 a month), my rent ($20 a month) and my fees, which varies from term to term. I usually spend $2 on buying soap and either use my own basins or the clients' to wash the clothes. I am usually left with about $300 at the end of the month, which i save.

Loan Proposal

- I will buy three scrubbing brushes, two of which cost $2 each and are for scrubbing jeans and hard clothing.
- I will also buy three other brushes that cost $5 and are for scrubbing carpets. (I miss out on those jobs since I have not had the equipment.)
- I will also buy a stock of detergents and bar soaps worth $20 for the garment washing and $50 for the more expensive carpet wash detergent.
- I will also buy 3 extra-large wash basins and 10 boxes of pegs worth $5.

I will use another $5 to print leaflets and flyers that I will use to give potential clients and give out at estate gates to advertise my business. I have also taken some money and bought a twin SIM phone, which I will exclusively use for my business.

With the above I hope to at least increase my income by 120% as I build my business. It will also enable me to eventually open an office in the town and buy a bicycle, and employ someone to ride around to client's houses and pick their laundry, deliver them to the office and, after washing, deliver them to the clients again by bicycle -- that's my vision.

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