Entrepreneur
Name
Cyrus
Member since
January 2015
On-time repayments
135 installments • 18%
About Me
My names are Cyrus muthii Maina ,I am 27 years born from Nyeri county Tetu subcounty kimathi location ,that is about 160 kilometres from Nairobi just at the slopes of the aberdare ranges. I am the second born in a family of 4 that is 3 boys and one girl after finishing my primary education I was not able to proceed to secondary due to understandable issues money being one of them. I have tried all sorts of odd jobs and I am so happy that regardless the circumstances I have been able to stand, I have been employed as a labourer in different farms and also as a herdsman in peoples homesteads. After trying all sorts of jobs and seeing I was not successful I started a charcoal business three years ago. It was easy to start since in our home we had a lot of bluegum trees and so I started as a charcoal burner. I could burn charcoal and sell to buyers who were locally available although they didn't buy at a good price I was happy since I had a business to rely on and mostly with good income and no bosses to supervise me.
My Business
I started my business three years ago when I had no idea of anything else to do this was because I was tired of working for other people in my village and this made me to try my luck in charcoal burning business using some trees in my fathers farum it was not that easy but I thank God that after so much struggle I managed to establish a firm network between the burners and retailers ,in Nyeri county it is a very cold area since it is between the aberdare ranges and the slopes if mt Kenya this means that a lot of people use charcoal to warm their homes mostly the ones in the urban areas and this makes the product a first moving product ,the only problems are transport and lack of customers .I have contacts for some retailers in the nearby town where I supply them in wholesale and they sell in small quantities. One bag costs 800ksh in my village and I sell at 1400ksh in town ,plus a transport of 150ksh this means that if I buy a bag of charcoal from other burners I get a profit of 450ksh,sometimes I sell two or three bags depending with demand. I believe that i f I can get financial support I can be able to get more customers and that way maximize my profits.
Loan Proposal
Having been in this business for the past three years ,I can say the business is good since there is ready market for charcoal ,the only problem is lack of enough money to buy enough stock when needed this results to delaying to supply to my customers which is not good for the business ,with my first loan from zidisha ,I will buy 9 bags of charcoal from my colleagues at 800ksh per bag at a total of 7200ksh the rest of the money I will buy packaging bags that are used for this business. By the time I sell the whole batch I intend to get a profit of 4050 this is because I will buy 1 bag at 800ksh and sell at1400ksh then subtract 150ksh to hire motorcycle for transport this means I can earn 3150ksh in profit per week since I sell a minimum of 7 bags in a week.I will then be using the money to buy more charcoal and this means i will always be ready for any order from my customers.
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Loan Info
Project Type
Classic Loan
Disbursed amount
$100.00
Date disbursed
Jan 23, 2015
Repayment status
On Time
Projected term
3 months
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