Entrepreneur

About Me

My names are Henry Wahome Kanyora is 26 years old and a Kenyan citizen am a Business and Mathematics teacher at Shiners Girls High a private high school in Nakuru Kenya. Am a first born in a family of five in Laikipia county a semi-arid area, Kenya where I went through my primary school education then high school in Nyeri county after which I joined Egerton university Nakuru where I took a course in Bachelor of Arts (Economics and Mathematics) and I finished my course in April the year 2011 due to lack of employment opportunities in my field of specialization I took on a teaching job in a high school in Nakuru where I have worked since December 2011 till now. I live 2km away from the school in a rented house in Caribbean village Kiratina Nakuru which is near to the school; the location enables me to walk to work easily without spending any cash on transport.
I started a business on August 2012 to supplement my little salary earnings from the school I previously had difficulties in meeting my expenses e.g. Rent and other personal expenses and also helping out my family back at home which includes my mother and my four siblings who are in high school and in primary school. I also have a small piece of land of size quarter an acre where I plant maize and harvest at the end of every year meeting these expenditures and others were the challenges that pushed me towards starting a small printing business , downloading and sourcing papers from friends who teach other schools and where I have made a collection of mathematics English, Kiswahili, physics, agriculture, biology, chemistry, French and other subjects from various years since 1990 to most recent exams my business encompasses selling the high school revision past papers from the best performing and top ranked high schools in the country I accomplish this by typing and printing them at a stationery shop at Kiratina shopping centre and sell them to the nearby schools including where I work I also sell the papers in the estate to students who attend non-boarding high schools, during the holidays when schools are closed my colleagues and I organize private paid tuition to students I get an opportunity to sell my study materials to those students who attend our sessions and also therefore those who would hear about the popular exam past papers which are from various best performing schools in the country therefore got an opportunity to expand my market size and I also give them to my friends to sell them on my behalf in their estates
The earnings from my business have helped me save and I just bought refurbished desktop computer and this will help me make more revenue since I will not have to pay for typing of my work. The business has also helped me settle my expenses mentioned earlier above and also I have been able to support to my parents in paying my siblings school fees and have also been able to print bigger volumes.
If I get this loan I want to buy a printer to enable me print the papers on my own and won’t have to pay for that, I will have all the revenue to myself and will be able to save more and raise more income.

My Business

Am a teacher at Shiners Girls high school in Nakuru Kenya and the objective behind starting this business was to compensate my salary. I will be able to pay the loan through the business proceeds and also my salary
My business: I supply schools and students with past exam papers that I type, print and bind he papers together at Kiratina shopping centre in one of the stationery’s where I live after I leave the job after 5pm till later in the evening, I download some of the papers from various educational joint examination boards sites and also source others from my teacher friends who teach other schools after which I type them. I have big collection of exams dating back to 1990 to date
Demand: there is a big demand of exam revision materials anywhere in the country, the schools are highly demanding a collection of exams done in other counties so as to compare what they are offering in their schools and what being offered elsewhere in the country in order prepare their students and give them a vast exposure parallel to other students elsewhere in the country to enable them perform better if not best and after realizing the business opportunity in the school that I am teaching the fact that the school used to buy the materials from else at a higher a price I decided to sell to the school at a slightly reduced price, seeing the revenues I decided to extend my services to other neighboring schools
Preference: firstly the fact that am a teacher, am more informed and I give my customers first hand information about example the predictions and expectations of appearance of questions in national exams sourced from various county mock exams. Unlike many of my competitors who are mostly not teachers I have an upper hand over them secondly I also market my products through my friends who are teachers therefore marketing is boosted. I also market my products through posters which carry my phone number. The principal of my school also recommends me to other principals in other schools expanding my market base
Profitability: the business is profitable because I sell a lot and my market is readily available all year round without it being seasonal, the schools are open all year round the fact that the business has already started there is no possibility of the business failing secondly I venturing in a business that is currently my field of work therefore I know the preferences of my customers how to fulfill them example variety from various counties, I currently have exams from 120 schools which are from 18 counties and are not available online and which I have sourced from individual schools. Being a teacher is an added advantage because when I introduce myself as such to my customers they are delighted and satisfied that they are getting the services from a person who has sufficient information about the curriculum, examination trends and questions appearances especially in end of course exams ultimately meeting expectations of both teachers and students
The risks include those that example the schools might source the papers themselves in other schools or those found online reducing the demand . Others include delayed payments due to bureaucratic payment protocols, more people might venture in the same business increasing the number of suppliers.
Costs: for example September 2013 , after buying a computer the Monthly costs were 43 US Dollars the sales were 75 US Dollars and the profits were 40 US Dollars and am foreseeing increased profits if I buy a printer of my own and the rest of the amount buy more materials to increase the volumes to be printed.

Loan Proposal

i have a service business whereby i print and sell past exam papers from different counties of the republic mostly highly performing schools to the neighboring schools i started the business at the end of last year (2012) by selling them to the school that i teach and after earning good revenue i decided to market my business to other neighboring schools through my principal and my teacher friends in other schools i have been able to market the business, i have been printing the papers at kiratina shopping centre where i live and this has been reducing my profit to a big extent since the expenses are too high. if funded am planning to buy a HP desk-jet printer costing KES 6500 this will significantly reduce my expenses and consequently raise my revenue since i will be printing my papers at home. the remaining amount of money is going to be used to purchase 2 rims of papers costing KES 500 each and cartridge ink costing KES 700. this will be my starting stock and capital. am planning to market my business far and wide to net more high schools in Nakuru County. currently am supplying 20 schools, my plan is to expand this to the 30 schools by the end of the year. secondly i will start selling to primary schools since most of the high schools are usually affiliated with sister primary schools making my marketing duty easier and therefore more revenue

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