Inventory for new cloth linen materials

Entrepreneur

About Me

My names are Mary Kibe. I was born in 1969 in Gatundu division, which is located in Kiambu County. I am a mother of two children, Elvys Murai, 12, and Angela Mashirima, 14. Currently, the two kids are in boarding school: one is in high school form two and the other is in class 6.

I live in Githurai city, a small town outside the outskirts of Nairobi. It’s a ten-minute drive from the capital city. I work in Nairobi city at a company known as Bpupco Limited, a company that deals with textile materials. It's located along Kirinyaga road in a building called Duberi. In this company I act as office administrator and also a marketer.

Four years down the line, it was fortunate that I separated with my husband for neglecting his duties. This really affected my life and I had to look for other means to bring up my children. With the little savings I had gathered by the time, I invested in buying bulk linen cloth from our company. The materials were tailored to small dozen of liners and after my job I would distribute the liners in nearby hospital shops and supermarkets. I am privileged to say that, from this humble beginning, I am now the main distributor of liners to big supermarkets at Githurai, the supermarket known as Kassmatt supermarket.

From my salary and income I have had from this investment, I have been in a position to cater enough for my kids, pay labour services to the tailors, and I am left with enough cash as my profit. One challenge that normally occurs is that sometimes linen materials go out of stock from the company, thus not meeting the demand of my customers. Other challenge is when I supply the products to customers who don’t pay promptly. Sometimes it take a month for them to clear, which makes work slow.

My Business

Despite being employed, I started my business four years ago of distributing liner cloth in dozens of baby shops and supermarkets. I distribute in wholesale and also in retail to individuals. I make these supplies during the evening hours and during the weekend as during the normal day I am at my job. Sometimes, when I am so busy, I am helped by my house girl to make the distribution and collection of money, as I have trusted her for the time we have worked together.

Apart from the challenges I had mentioned above, I am sometimes challenged by too many orders, which I cannot fulfill because the finance for the stock is not enough. My customers like my products because they are of good quality and not too expensive for a common man. However, it’s a profitable business: sometimes I earn $230 US. With this income, I believe I have a target to hit and big dreams to achieve. In cases when I may be not in a position to repay a loan whatsoever, I will have a good backup of my salary from my job.

Loan Proposal

It is a great honour to have my second loan posted on this platform of zidisha microfinance. Last times loan was very fruitful and am glad to say that it was very helpful to me as it gave me a chance to make intensive investment. Am intending to use this second loan on a number of things as I have budgeted them here below
1. 60% of this loan I will purchase more stock of lining materials in bulk. The reason for purchase in bulk is so that the sellers can reduce their selling prices for me, also I will get other services such as free transport and delivery.
2. 30 % of this loan I will acquire business permit for half an year from the local authority as the one I have is almost to expire in time.
3. 10 % of the remaining loan will meet other daily incurring expenses like servicing the sewing machine.

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