Entrepreneur
Name
Denis
Member since
October 2014
On-time repayments
51 installments • 27%
About Me
I am 30 years old married with three children all are great boys, first born is in class 2 and aspires to be a surgeon, second born is in class 1 aspires to be an engineer and last born is in pre-unit dreams to become a celeb. I love gospel music and we are a christian family and this has helped us, my wife and I to have good morals and extended the same to our beloved children.
I was born in Rift valley province in Nakuru county a place well known in large scale maize farming, flower farming and other small scale farming. I engaged myself in farming after completing my secondary school (O' level) in year 2003. I was not lucky enough to proceed immediately to college. I went into farming activities for a while but I felt I was not getting well along with it and I decided to look for other opportunities.
I traveled to the capital city Nairobi to look for greener pastures just like any other young people do. I had no qualifications to secure any white color job and I had to get myself working in the informal sector like hawking second clothes and working in construction sites. After saving some few shillings, I opened a small shop dealing with food stuff like rice, flour, fats&oil, sugar and other stuff stocked in a shop. The remaining money I enrolled in a college and took certificates in programming and packages. I took this classes on part time basis and continued to run my shop.
I completed my certificate course on year 2005 and I have been running my small shop which I have successfully extended it and included also groceries.
My Business
Through some small savings from hawking second hand clothes and working in construction sites, I had to weigh out so many options regarding which business best suites this city with its massive population. I had to spend some few days doing my study on which things people require most and basically they cannot do without . An idea struck my mind after observing for a while three basic needs that one cannot do without. This basics being food, health and shelter. I decided to go with the food option.
Having an advantage of dense population in Nairobi East commonly known as East lands, I sought a vacant business room for $66.2479 which was one month rent plus deposit, I shelved it at $53.2066 and stocked it with a small stock of about $110.413 that I could afford at that particular time. I mainly started stocking with maize flour, wheat flour, oils&fats, sugar and lighters only. At first it was a challenge on winning customers' confidence and dealing with so many stock-outs. The challenges that I faced like, fraudulence where customers shopped with fake currency, stock-outs, when a customer asks for something but you don't have it on the shelves. Product quality, this is basically when we are dealing with counterfeit products. I have learnt quite a lot on dealing with customer service and handling delicate complaints that arise on day to day life.
My business has grown steadily over the past few years from daily sales of $44.1653 to a sale of $71.7686 and currently I have been able to stock it with all the necessary products like cereals & grains, sanitaries, toiletries, confectioneries, books, groceries and eggs which I get directly from the farmers and the list is endless. Depending on the day, I normally get a profit of $11.0413 to $8.83805 a day and it has helped me to meet my bills and put a plate of food on the table.
Through this hard work , I have also been able to take my children to a better school and recently I took my wife to college to take up a diploma course in business management.
Loan Proposal
If given this loan, I am planning to buy a digital weighing scale that is going at a price of $88.3195. I believe this will solve many challenges that I have encountered like losses upon selling products that have exceeded their required weight. And also on the other hand, selling under-weight products which in turn can affect my credibility to the customers. This scale will help me in giving exact weight and credible outcome and add value to the best services I want to continue giving to my customers. I will appreciate very much.
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Loan Info
Project Type
Classic Loan
Disbursed amount
$100.00
Date disbursed
Nov 19, 2014
Repayment status
On Time
Projected term
7 months
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