Entrepreneur

About Me

I am a single lady aged 30 year old by the name Virginia Gathoni ,I was born on year 1982 at Rift valler provice Nakuru Disrtict in Maji Tamu location in Kenya.I join my primary education until class eight and completed in year 1997 were I got my primary education certificate in the year 1997,after completing my primary education I joined a secondary school at Wei secondary at Subukia near Maseno town in year 1998 but I did not managed to compleate up to form four due to school fees problem, after that we migrated from Maji to Wiyumiririe farm after 2002 general election due to tribal ethinic,after that I was blessed with four kid my first born being a boy Peter Murage , and my last born being Patrick Gatimu who is now three month old , after my second born I decided to stay with my sister who live at Kiptangwanyi and while I was there I decided to rent a shamba for farming and after two year I was able to raise some money for me to start a business for my self at Ngashura near maili sita of selling cereals which at that time was very profitable to me while being at Ngashura I joined Bright Light self help group where I have been a member till now, and after collecting some money from the bissiness I was able to raise money enough for me to buy a plot (plot number 91) Maseno at a price of ksh60000) where i live in Maseno tranding shopping center which is approximately 7km from Subukia town which is our nearest town. Subukia town is our nearest major town within this area. The shopping center is also 7km from Subukia shopping Center, where we pass as we move to and from Nakuru.I am single and born again Christian and a follower of Full Gospel Church of Kenya which is within our locality at Maseno, After been exposed to the area I decided to start my own business and rented a piece of land (half an acre) near the river Subukia of which I will be producing my own farm product and sell to within our area and its environs, but I lack money to rent a bigger piece of land thus I decided to have some money from our group and applied a loan of 900000 on 17 Feb 2010 which I have fully repaid. I live in plot number 91 at the shopping center where I carry out my business of selling the product I get from my piece of land I rent. My business include selling tomato and othe vegetable like sukumawiki ,cabbage and other in large quantity within Gagumo and its environs.

My Business

My business is mixed farming
My business includes mixed farming,i.e planting of tomatoes and green vegetable eg sukumawiki cabbages ,carrot and maize,my business entail renting of shambas near river bank of subukia river where by many people here usually rent shambas near the river which is well known at our place for production of this product especially tomatoes,where by usally rely on the river in watering their plantation using pumping machine by connecting pipes from the river up to your shamba . I decided to start the business of mixed farming after realize there is a ready market for this product especially tomatoes and vegetable because the place is well know in Riftvalley in producing tomatoes and distributing in various part of our country and there is no season for planting tomatoes even in dry season because we always rely on the river subukia in watering tomatoes and other vegetable and the river is ever with water and have so many small river all of them joining to river subukia thus giving us chance to cultivate and plant all season after season and the place is fertile. The businesses capture 80 percent of the market share in our area and in Subukia in general due availability of many rives thus making our place famous in producing tomatoec, also the business is expected to grow due to the ready market of the product especially for tomatoes because many people from far town such as from Nakuru ,Eldoret and other big town come to buy tomatoes at this area and the mean of transport is available and the climate is favorable They is a lot of demand of the product such as tomatoes,vegetable and maize and fresh vegetable, also so many people here rely on this variety for livelihood because they buy at low price direct from our farm.
Most of the farmer in Subukia relies with maize and beans crop thus making few of us to benefit from our business. The business will be profitable because climate is fovourable to us enabling us to produce much farm produce even in during dry season. The risk facing the business is poor price and tomato diseases during the rainy season which hinders many farmers to plant tomatoes especially if one does not have money to buy chemicals for spraying these kind of plant when affected by a disease ,main challage facing these bissiness is lack of money starting from lenting the shamba up to harvesting time need one to have alot of money . The goal of the business will to get profit and to satisfy the customer needs, the business fall under agriculture industry which has been growing very fast for past few years and it is expecting to have a bright future in term of modern farming. My vision about my business is expand from small farming to large scale farming whereby most of the farmers have been in large scale farming thus giving motivation to practice the type of farming. My typical monthly cost is khs 600000, sale revenue is around ksh 30000 and profit is above 25000 but I am planning to earning more from the business.

Loan Proposal

Dear lenders and all Zidisha team,
I am grateful for giving me another opportunity to get a loan from Zidisha microfinance. I wish to use this loan that I will get to do the following. First, I would like to cultivate an onion and tomato garden. I am timing for the months of November and December when the market for this commodities is usually good. Secondly, i would like to purchase two goats that i will rear and later resell during this months.

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