Improve my online training business

Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Patrick Mahinge, and I am a freelance journalist and writer who also happens to be a webpreneur. I believe that the internet is packed with vast resources that almost equalize the chances of a person in Kenya with the one in the more developed world.

My life changed the moment I realized that I could use the internet to change my world, my destiny and the world of those around me. I run several blogs including one that I call blogscheme and that can be found here http://www.blogscheme.com/.

My dream is to tap into the infinite potential offered by the internet in an honest and feasible way, and to teach others how to do the same. Being a young person, I would particularly love to start empowering the youth in my locality to make use of the internet to change their world.

My Business

Most of my income comes from freelance writing. I am an active freelance writer in Elance and I am able to cash in more than $650 per month. I have also started working in oDesk and I am absolutely loving the experience.
I also write and sell ebooks on Kindle and the income from this venture has so far been a constant $100 per month.
From the above income sources, I can manage to repay the loan accorded to me in time and in totality.
I am also employed by an organization in Maungu called Wildlife Works. My job as a media and communications officer gives me an extra boost of $250.

I also earn about $50 per month from my blog through the referral programs that I have joined.

Loan Proposal

Hey Zidisha Lenders,

Thanks for continually helping people like me realize their dreams. Honestly, as a freelancer I don't think I would ever have been able to secure a loan from formal financial institutions in Kenya.

With my second loan, I was able to advertise and grow my online tutoring business. I subscribed to Aweber email autoresponder, redesigned my website and hired freelancers from across the world to help with marketing.

The future now looks bright, and I want to further build my online business. This time, I want to do something even greater. I want to give a chance to other skilled instructors in Kenya to sell their online courses through my website.... Something like we can see here http://vibethemes.com/envato/wplms/.

From such a setup, I will earn a commission from every course unit the guest instructors sell through my website. This money will help in the day-to-day running of the website.

What gives me more joy however is that the lessons offered will play a very big role in empowering the youth and alleviating poverty.

You see, there are fellows out here who have mad skills they would like to share (I have so far identified a transcriber, a social media analyst, a graphic designer and a forex trader as some of the instructors). The problem is that they do not have the skills to build websites or the time to effectively market their courses. With my redesigned website, I will offer them an opportunity to reach more students who are interested in learning.

This loan will help me hire an assistant web designer for around $70 since we will be working together and I already have most of the resources that will be used in redesigning the website. I will also need to move my website to a more secure server since there are transactions to be handled through the website now. I am thinking of going with the Hostgator Business Plan, costs $13.95 per month.

Although those are the only two expenses I can outright think of right now, I do have supplemental funds that I have set aside for miscellaneous overheads.

I am also welcoming suggestions on how effectively I can run a learning management system.

Also, If you have a course that can be offered online, and you would like it to be included in the learning management system, don't hesitate to contact me through email address [email protected].

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Loan Info

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