Furniture making

Kennedy

Nairobi, Kenya

46% repaid

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How it Works

Entrepreneur

Name

Kennedy

Member since

March 2014

On-time repayments

354 installments • 74%

About Me

I joined "Class One" in the year 1987, at Vigetse Primary School. Over this period of time, it was a life of struggle since we were being raised by a single mother, which happened due to our father being involved in a tragic road accident, leaving us while we were still young. I later joined "Form I" after doing my K.C.P.E in the year 1995. I did not continue with my secondary level of education due to struggles we were going through with our single mom, which forced me out of school at "Form II". Due to this unfortunate situation of my mother having to struggle, tilling people's land and other manual work to get food and other necessities for us, I and one of my sisters went to be put up with our grandmother, while my other two sisters went to be put up with the sister of my grandmother. There also was the younger sister of my grandmother who later took two more sisters of mine to be put up with her, while my elder brother went to stay with one of my uncles who (the uncle) later passed on from asthma. This forced my elder brother to come back home and continue with the daily challenges that we were going through. My mom was aging a lot from facing so many challenges.
Then, I met a friend who later took me to the city, but as young as I was, nobody was willing to allow me to be employed in their firm. But it was in this process that I met a Good Samaritan who was willing train me in furniture work and therefore took me to a polytechnic to train over said job. After training, I began working with a certain company, after which I began working by my own.
I married in the year 2013. My wife is employed while I run my furniture business.
I am the fifth born in a family of seven. I was born in 1979 and was raised in Western Kenya, namely in Vihiga County.

My Business

I began working as a carpenter at another company in the year 2000. That was after going through training for two years, from 1998. I later began working on my own, after having an experience of one year in that company. It is through this, therefore, that I conceived the idea of supplying my clients who own the showrooms to display my work. Through this, I have attracted many customers. They also prefer me because of my fair prices and the way I do the finishing of my work. I also do carpentry work and joinery. The business is doing well, but with challenges. I do make a profit margin of around Kshs 30,000 ($352) a month. Due to the standard of living here in the city, I find it not very easy to manage with only this profit margin. The main challenge is therefore how to manage paying the workshop, paying house rent, and also buying the materials with the same profit, to increase the volume of my production. I therefore request to be supported with a loan, hence adding materials to produce more work.

Loan Proposal

Thanks Zidisha, the loan am going to get I want to use it in buying of more of timber and vanish glue and paying for the workshop,. The timber will cost me 500 dollars, venish 150 dollars, the remaining 160 dollars I will add some money to transport, everything to the workshop.