Karen

Nakuru, Kenya

65% repaid

Entrepreneur

Name

Karen

Member since

April 2013

On-time repayments

19 installments  •  32%

About Me

My name is Karen Gakii, from Africa,Kenya.I am the second born in a family of four children mother and father. I have two sisters and one brother. My parents are both small business people and farmers. I am an administrator by profession.I started a business 2 years ago after being retrenched from my job. My business was not easy to start because i did not much money to spend as capital. I decided to start in a small way by hawking my products. I specialise in selling ladies and mens under wear, young childrens underwear, bras, ties, boxers, socks for men and ties. After selling my products i save the profit i make on a monthly basis. I use the money to pay for my college education to improve myself. In future i plan to buy a piece of land to build a premises where i will be operating from. I also plan to expand my business by introducing more products.

My Business

I started my business five years ago. After i completed my college education, i got a job in a security firm where i worked for three years as a temporary employee.I was able to save up some money to start up a business. After my contract lapsed i opened up my business with the little money i had saved up as capital. My business involves selling male and female under wear, under wear for children, bras for women, socks, ties and vests for men and hand bags for women. When i started i did not have a particular premises to operate from. I began by hawking my products from office to office, i would sell to men and women working in offices, i would also visit schools where i sold to teachers and students.Later, i did some marketting where i looked for orders from supermarkets and clothing store. I also have a small outlet on the street where i pay for space to display my products. I have since built a huge client base. Alot of people prefer my products because, i sell quality products at an affordable price. Every class of people can afford to buy and they also keep coming back because the products are unique and they serve them well. I usually import my products from neighbouring countries therefore they are always unique. I buy in bulk at low whole sale prices and dispose off at a profit therefore my business is quiet profitable. I also have enough time to sell my products from different avenues since i do not have a particular place to sell from. After i supply to the supermarkets and clothing stores i usually wait for 2 weeks to get paid. In the meantime i still sell from other place therefor this makes it even more profitable. I face challenges and risks due to the fact that i do not have a particular warehouse where i store my goods at night. Usually i pay a certain store owner who stores my goods for me. The risk involved is that sometimes i loose items hence incurring losses.Other times, the city council askaris over charge me for the space i use to display the product, that too affects my business. Therefore in future i am planning to secure a permanent premises where i will expand the business by introducing more items.
My business plan is as below:

MONTHLY TYPICAL SALE

Daily sales:
Daily sales - 5,000
Working days -26
5,000x26
Monthly sales -130,000

Expenditure:
Daily expenses - 1,000
1,000 x 26
Monthly expenses - 26,000

Monthly profit:
Daily profit 5000-1000=4000
Monthly profit - 4000 x 26
Monthly Profit - 104,000

Loan Proposal

First and foremost i take the opportunity to thank you Zidisha for giving me this platform to borrow finances to expand my business.
While the money may be much less than i had expected, i will utilize it in the best way possible to be able to win your confidence as i plan to borrow a bigger loan in future.

My business involves supplying clothing items to supermarkets and clothing stores. I also run a small outlet on the streets of Nakuru town. I plan to increase my business in terms of stocks and introduction of new items like accessories for both and women. I will do utilise the funds as i have indicated below;-

LADIES UNDER WEAR

BUYING:
3 dozens@1800/- per dozen
1800x3 = 5400

SELLING:
300/- per piece
300x12 = 3600
3600x3 dozens =10800

PROFIT:
10800-5400= 5400


ACCESSORIES:

BUYING:
20 pieces @80/= per piece
20 x 80 = 1600

SELLING;
200 per piece
20 x 250 = 5000

PROFIT
500 -1600 = 3400

TOTAL PROFIT
5400 + 3400 = 8800

STOCKS - 7000
LOAN REPAYMENT - 800
SAVINGS - 1000
TOTAL - 8800/-

Feedback

None

None

None

Loan Info

Project Type

Classic Loan

Disbursed amount

$100.00

Date disbursed

Jun 5, 2013

Repayment status

Late

Projected term

21 months

Lenders

MaxEmerika

Sonoma County, California, United States

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  • Karen    Jan 1, 2022

    Dear Zidisha family and lenders, I beg your pardon for being away all these years. I have been going through so many challenges in life but I never forgot Zidisha because this is a very great platform. My life is now back together and in order. I have come back to these awesome family.

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  • Karen    Jan 1, 2022

    I've been totally down financially. I've decided to come back to Zidisha to stay. Thankyou for this opportunity. God bless...

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  • Karen    Jan 5, 2015

    Dear Zidisha family, Thank you so much for responding to my problem. I am finally able to access my profile. It has been a while but i am happy that my problem has been solved. I am now able to view how much loan balance is remaining for me to pay. I promise to clear the balance as soon as possible.

    I hope that i will not be penalized or denied funding when i borrow my next loan due to my delay in repayment as it was beyond my control. I hope that you please understand and pardon me. I intend to come back in full swing, i promise to be very proactive in paying up and interacting with the entire zidisha family. My password has now been reset. I am happy to be back and to finally be able to enjoy the page.

    Thank you so much to everybody who has made it possible especially you Bayle. God bless you all so much..

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  • Karen    Sep 14, 2014

    Dear Zidisha, I'm highly grateful for your generosity to lend me money to boost my business. I have not been able to complete my payment because i have been in school hence put my business on hold for sometime. I therefore wish to request that you allow me some more time to restructure myself again and get the business up and running in the next one month. I am grateful for all your support. May God highly bless you.

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  • Karen    May 16, 2014

    Dear Zidisha family, and lenders. I want to take this opportunity to appreciate you all for the support and encouragement. My business couldn't be where it is today were it not for this incredible forum that has helped me get wonderful lenders and i appreciate you my lenders MaxEmerika and Ldeschae. God bless you so much. To the Zidisha family, you have been a great source of encouragement to me. Without your moral support i would probably give up a long time ago, but seeing the challenges people have been able to overcome and reading about incredible success stories, i have been able to overcome my own challenges and in a few occasions i have found myself being able to encourage and mentor other Zidisha members into becoming successful. Once again, thank you Zidisha..

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  • Karen    May 10, 2014

    Thank you zidisha for updating repayment of my loan. I’m glad about how things are going for me and business is doing great but there’s one thing that still bothers me. My credit limit keeps dropping instead of rising and on time payment too has gone down to 71% even after i rescheduled. Could somebody please enlighten me on this. I’m abit disappointed.

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  • Karen    May 8, 2014

    Dear Zidisha, I am surprised that my credit limit has gone back down to 8,407. I have been paying on time and when i didn't pay on time i rescheduled my loan. According to what i read rescheduling my loan does not affect my credit limit. Please explain why my on time payment has gone down to 71% and and credit limit down to 8407.

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  • Karen    Mar 20, 2014

    Dear Zidisha, First and fore most I salute you all in the name of our lord Jesus. I would lyk to express my wish of reshceduling my loan for the month of March. My main reason for this is travel. I have currently travelled out of my country and will be back by the 10th of April, 2014. The reason I couldnt pay or reschedule on tym is the fact that initially I had planned to travel only for one month but due to the nature of my engagements I had to stay for an extra month. This has made it difficult to pay on time as I do not have access to Mpesa in the country where I am at currently. My trip is basically business. I have travelled to look for other new business ventures which will involve exporting some of the products that I already deal with and I may also introduce a new brand for export. In turn I will also be importing different products for sale in my outlets back in my country.

    As far as my businesses are concerned, I must say that I am doing very well. I have recently opened another outlet in kiwanja market next to the Kenyatta University on Thika road. I am now selling a variety of clothing items, bags and jewellery ranging from 2nd hand clothing, new clothing and bags. My customers are mainly university students, workers and people from the sarrounding environs. I am very excited this particular venture as customer turn out is excellent due to the high number of people around this place. My business is doing very well.

    I thankyou so much Zidisha lenders coz were it not for you I would not have accomplished this much. There are times I would almost give up because I never thought I would ever break even in business. With your financial help and constant encouragement I can proudly say I have made it. God bless you richly Zidisha family. I do apologize for any inconvinience that my delay may have caused.

    Regards,
    Karen

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  • Karen    Dec 13, 2013

    Dear Bayle,
    Thanks a lot for raising alarm, i got abit confused on noting the anomaly but i was later pleased to see that you have rectified the mistake. I am happy with the way i am paying my loan and hope to finish quickly so that i can apply for a bigger better amount that will assist me in expanding my business.

    I feel privileged to be a part of this very wonderful programme which is changing lives across my country. I have come this far because you have helped me make my dream possible. May God bless and be with you all during this season of Christmas.

    Regards,
    Karen

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  • bconrad    Nov 29, 2013

    Dear Lenders,

    Today while posting a payment to Ms. Gakii's account, her payment of $8.32 was inadvertently entered twice. To rectify this mistake, one of these payments was subtracted. As such, you may have received some funds in your lender accounts which was then subtracted. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused!

    Thank you,
    Bayle, Zidisha Team

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  • Karen    Oct 16, 2013

    Good morning Zidisha team and
    lenders. It is my hope that you are
    fine. I am fine too, up and ready to
    face my day. Today I am preparing
    to harvest my potatoes which are
    already mature and ready for sale. I
    was scheduled to do that job
    yesterday but I rescheduled to today
    because I couldn't find any casual
    workers. Most of them were busy
    and pre occupied with other jobs.
    Today I've managed to get two
    strong men. I believe we will be
    able to finish the job in the next
    two days.
    At the moment the workers are
    already in the farm, it's an 8 to 5
    job. I am in the kitchen making sure
    their meals are ready before I can
    join them shortly.
    Today, I also have another casual
    worker coming to help me with
    construction of a small house to rare
    rabbits. I noticed that rabbits are
    easy to mentain, they reproduce at a
    high rate, their meat is healthy and
    the rabbit itself is good business. I
    am planning to keep a good number
    of them, then I will source for orders
    in big hotels where they prepare
    different types of game meats. The
    rabbit meat can also be consumed
    here at home by my family. Rabbit is
    a good source of white meat which
    is healthy for all people. I have
    already discussed with the carpenter
    on how much materials he's going to
    use that is including the nails, irion
    sheets, timber, wire mesh and
    elavation posts. The rabbit house
    has to be slightly elevated from the
    ground to keep the rabbits dry and
    safe from attack by dogs in the
    night.
    Basically today will be a very busy
    day for me. I will be haggling
    between the potatoe harvesting,
    construction of the rabbit house and
    also watering of my newly planted
    vegetables. I have planned a crash
    programme for myself this month
    because the October rains are
    around the corner. By the time the
    rains are here I need to have
    harvested all the potatoes and
    prepared them properly for storage
    as a wait for the current prices to
    appreciate. I also need to prepare
    the farm and plant the vegetables
    that are in the nursery.

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  • Karen    Oct 16, 2013

    Dear Zidisha team and lenders,
    I hope you're all fine and doing great. I'm fine myself. It's never been better. May God continually bless you Zidisha. My businesses are doing very well and I'm giving God all the glory.

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    • MaxEmerika    Oct 21, 2013

      Dear Karen,
      We appreciate the updates you provide and are very pleased to hear how well you are doing. We have no doubt you're success will continue!
      Best wishes always!

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    • MaxEmerika    Oct 21, 2013

      Dear Karen,
      We appreciate the updates you provide and are very pleased to hear how well you are doing. We have no doubt your success will continue!
      Best wishes always!

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  • Karen    Oct 3, 2013

    Dear Zidisha team and lenders,
    thx for everything, I'm doing wonderful and loving it. I have paid my loan for this month and I'm happy.

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  • Karen    Sep 19, 2013

    Dear MaxEmerika, I'm greatful that you appreciate my effort. I'm working very hard to finish repaying my loan by end of November. I was hoping that my comments will go along way in helping me get a good amount of capital when in my next loan but to my suprise I'm no longer getting credits for my comments although I meet the set criteria. Please advice me on how else I can work on getting a better amount please.

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    • MaxEmerika    Oct 1, 2013

      Dear Karen,
      We'll contact Zidisha and see if they can help you resolve this problem.
      Best wishes to you always!

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    • bconrad    Oct 1, 2013

      Dear Karen, my name is Bayle and I am a Country Liaison Intern with Zidisha. Earlier today, Max alerted us to your comment,and I wanted to respond to you directly here. Recently, we have changed our policy for commenting and receiving credit. It seems many borrowers were using this policy to post unrelated comments to their profiles. So, as for now, we are no longer offering a credit increase for comments made. I apologize for this inconvenience, and see that you have made several comments informing your lenders about your business. I hope this does not discourage you from making comments in the future, as many lenders very much appreciate understanding more about your life and work. If you have any other questions about this, please feel free to email us at [email protected]. Thank you!

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  • Karen    Sep 18, 2013

    Good morning Zidisha team and lenders. It is my hope that you are fine. I am fine too, up and ready to face my day. Today I am preparing to harvest my potatoes which are already mature and ready for sale. I was scheduled to do that job yesterday but I rescheduled to today because I couldn't find any casual workers. Most of them were busy and pre occupied with other jobs. Today I've managed to get two strong men. I believe we will be able to finish the job in the next two days.
    At the moment the workers are already in the farm, it's an 8 to 5 job. I am in the kitchen making sure their meals are ready before I can join them shortly.

    Today, I also have another casual worker coming to help me with construction of a small house to rare rabbits. I noticed that rabbits are easy to mentain, they reproduce at a high rate, their meat is healthy and the rabbit itself is good business. I am planning to keep a good number of them, then I will source for orders in big hotels where they prepare different types of game meats. The rabbit meat can also be consumed here at home by my family. Rabbit is a good source of white meat which is healthy for all people. I have already discussed with the carpenter on how much materials he's going to use that is including the nails, irion sheets, timber, wire mesh and elavation posts. The rabbit house has to be slightly elevated from the ground to keep the rabbits dry and safe from attack by dogs in the night.

    Basically today will be a very busy day for me. I will be haggling between the potatoe harvesting, construction of the rabbit house and also watering of my newly planted vegetables. I have planned a crash programme for myself this month because the October rains are around the corner. By the time the rains are here I need to have harvested all the potatoes and prepared them properly for storage as a wait for the current prices to appreciate. I also need to prepare the farm and plant the vegetables that are in the nursery.

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    • MaxEmerika    Sep 18, 2013

      Dear Karen,
      We continue to be amazed by how well you are doing and are impressed with your new business plans and how you always come up with new ideas!
      Best wishes to you always and thank you for the updates!

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  • Karen    Sep 17, 2013

    Dear Zidisha family and lenders. I feel quiet delighted to write to you this nyt. It's 11pm and my day has just come to an end. I am really exhausted today but I have to update you on how I'm doing. Today things have been wonderful harvesting potatoes. I have five bags already and still scheduled to continue with the job tomorrow. From my assessment today the potatoes look pretty good. I expect to harvest atleast not less than forty bags.

    My rabbit house is also ready. Alot of work was done on it today and by tomorrow I'm sending somebody to buy for me some five young rabbits to start with. Rabbits reproduce very first therefore with the profits I hope to start making from the rabbits I will save it up and build a bigger rabbit house and then increase the number of rabbits generally.

    With my clothing business all is fine, the profits are getting better every day. I have been able to get a lady to run the shop. I do hope that she will be excellent in mentaining good customer relationship and making good sales. I am preparing everything, each day by day. Eventually when I get a good loan, i will also save up and when I have enough money, I will begin to ship in clothing from China where I can get items at a low price and sell with a good profit margin.
    Next week after I am finished with harvesting the potatoes, I will be helping my mother to harvest her green maize so that it can be stored before the rains begin. The harvesting process begins with picking off all the maize cobs from stalks. They will then be gathered in afew bans then stored in the grannery until they are completely dry. The next step will be to cut off all the stalks and store them in one place where they will later be fed to the cattle.

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  • Karen    Sep 17, 2013

    Good morning Zidisha team and lenders. It is my hope that you are fine. I am fine too, up and ready to face my day. Today I am preparing to harvest my potatoes which are already mature and ready for sale. I was scheduled to do that job yesterday but I rescheduled to today because I couldn't find any casual workers. Most of them were busy and pre occupied with other jobs. Today I've managed to get two strong men. I believe we will be able to finish the job in the next two days.
    At the moment the workers are already in the farm, it's an 8 to 5 job. I am in the kitchen making sure their meals are ready before I can join them shortly.

    Today, I also have another casual worker coming to help me with construction of a small house to rare rabbits. I noticed that rabbits are easy to mentain, they reproduce at a high rate, their meat is healthy and the rabbit itself is good business. I am planning to keep a good number of them, then I will source for orders in big hotels where they prepare different types of game meats. The rabbit meat can also be consumed here at home by my family. Rabbit is a good source of white meat which is healthy for all people. I have already discussed with the carpenter on how much materials he's going to use that is including the nails, irion sheets, timber, wire mesh and elavation posts. The rabbit house has to be slightly elevated from the ground to keep the rabbits dry and safe from attack by dogs in the night.

    Basically today will be a very busy day for me. I will be haggling between the potatoe harvesting, construction of the rabbit house and also watering of my newly planted vegetables. I have planned a crash programme for myself this month because the October rains are around the corner. By the time the rains are here I need to have harvested all the potatoes and prepared them properly for storage as a wait for the current prices to appreciate. I also need to prepare the farm and plant the vegetables that are in the nursery.

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  • Karen    Sep 16, 2013

    Hi Zidisha friends and lenders? Hope you're doing fine this evening. I have just returned home from checking on my clothing shop. Currently I have relocated part of my clothing business from vending on the street into a shop I have rented on monthly basis in my current town. Today I spent time sorting out the new stocks that I brought down with me from Kampala when I went shopping last week. As for this new shop I plan to employ a lady to run the shop when I am not available since most of the time I will be busy tending to my vegetables and poultry project. I now feel much more flexible with most of my businesses located in the same proximity. I am able to supervise more closely and this way I'm able to mentain accountability and plan on how to improve each business independently.

    Since now I have a business premise I have talked to coca cola company so that they can provide me with a refrigerator to enable me to sell sodas and a variety of other soft drinks. I have also consulted other local mobile phone companies so that I can supply airtym cards. By stocking this fast moving items, I will be able to attract customers and also make some profit. Tomorrow morning session I plan to be in the business premise so that I can be able to finish my negotiations with the two suppliers. I have finished my day's business successfully and now I'm ready to go home and retire for the day.
    I wish you all God's blessing Zidisha lenders. With your generous giving I have been able to make ends meet. Enjoy your night. Cheers!

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  • Karen    Sep 16, 2013

    Good morning Zidisha family and beloved lenders. It's an honour to wrrite to you this morning. Today I have woken up early as usual and I'm ready to go about my usual daily businesses as always. My plan today is to spend the day preparing compost manure as I did not finish last week. Today I am sorting out the freshly removed compost. I usually prepare compost manure from the cow dung that comes from the daily cows, to make it richer I usually add some chicken dropping from my poultry then I mix it up with leaves from different trees. Finally I mix up with urea to speed up the decomposition process. After mixing up all the raw material today. I will then leave it for two days before changing it from it's current spot to another place. This process allows the manure to dry up and decompose in a way that it can be used in the farm. I am preparing this manure for planting vegetables one month from now. My projection is that next week I will be preparing the farm within this one month and I will also buy seedlings and grow them in the nursery ready for use next month. Later in the afternoon, I will engage in pruning of my vegetables and weeding for them. Usually wht happens is once they've been harvested for sale I usually prune all the over grown leaves and the ones that may have turned yellowish. All the pruned leaves go into feeding the cattle and poultry. After pruning all the vegetables I then removed all the weeds to allow the vegetables to grow properly without competing with the weeds. The weeds usually seem to grow faster than the plant itself therefore if weeding is overlooked the plant chokes on the weeds and becomes less productive.
    By 4:00 o'clock this evening my day came to an end and am now getting ready to go check how my clothing business is doing.

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  • Karen    Sep 16, 2013

    Gud evening Zidisha team and lenders, It is my prayer that you're doing great. I'm fyn myself and my business is continuing to show alot. of signs if improvement. I am back home now from my Sunday service and I feel well nourished both physical and spiritually. I usually return home briefly after the Sunday service so that I can be on time to attend to my vegetables buyers who come to my farm every Wednesday and Sunday to buy the vegetables. Today I was able to sell three 50 kilos bag of kales for 500 shillings each and two 50 kilos bag for 600 shillings each. my vegetables farming business is thriving, thanks to you Zidisha, with the profits I get from the loan I am able to take care of the vegetables. I buy pesticides and ferterlizer from time to time inorder to keep the vegetables looking green and healthy. I am also able to hire people to help me with weeding as I operate on a big piece of land. The watering process is what I do by myself.

    After I was done with selling I had to feed the chicken with green vegetables. I do this every afternoon while in the morning I feed them on chicken feed. I also change the drinking water once again. I do it twice daily to keep the poultry from contacting bad diseases like bird flu and others. At around 2:00 o'clock it's time to milk the cattle again for the second time in the day. I quickly prepared the milking equipment. I usually manage and supervise the milking man as high standards of cleanliness must be observed when dealing with milk. I usually prepare a clean bucket with luke warm water and a sterilized piece of towel for washing and drying the cows udder before milking. I also provide milking jelly which he uses to apply on the tits in order to make milking easy and quicker and also to prevent the tits from getting cracked. By 2: 45 we were done with the second round of milking. I usually store the milk in a clean refrigerator ready for sale later on.

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