Purchase of a freezer for my restaurant

Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Julius Osoi Randa 39 years old, happily married to Sandra Osoi my one wife and blessed with four beautiful children, one girl and three boys.
I have a form four certificate only because I have failed to raise school fees to send me to higher level since both my parents died. It was a very tragic day in my life, in form three my dad had come to visit me at school in Kisumu town but on his way back he was involved in a motor accident that took his life, my expectant mother on hearing the sad news collapsed and hit her head on a rock she was rushed to hospital but died on her way. I was educated by well wishers and the school helped me sit my national examinations the following year. I passed my examinations but have had no money or any help as to continue school.
Since I was the first born I was forced to become a young parent at eighteen years old since all my relatives deserted us. I tried my hand at various odd jobs and tried to do some businesses so as to help get some money to feed, clothe and educate my other four siblings but this always led to losses and trouble. Today I look at that as a learning experience and wish to help people like me have a great future.
One day about a year ago when I was totally down financially, my two siblings and sons chased out of school because of lack of school fees, I called my long time friend Evans in Nairobi for advice ,he told me I should try restaurant business. With the little loan from my friend I purchased two new saucepans, corn flour and set out to begin my restaurant under a tree in the market. I was a laughing stock for everyone including my wife, siblings and children but I was not discouraged. It took me two weeks to make my first sell but that was through encouragement from my friend and my hard spirit, after the two weeks a tremendous change took place, each day I started receiving more customers and soon my business started picking since my porridge, maize mixed with beans were the talk of the market. Today I am a proud to say I found proper decent housing for my business, bought furniture, a radio to entertain my customers and am able to provide better meals in variety and quality. I am also now employing three people, my wife and her two cousins, my wife and I do the cooking while the other two serve and wash dishes. During holidays my children and siblings amuse me by forcing themselves to work and they tell me that its away they can keep busy and also disassociate themselves from many vices out there.
Money got from my earnings is used to buy more food for cooking, pay my siblings and children’s school fees, pay my workers and also to use in our day to day lives for our daily basic needs

My Business

I operate a restaurant ‘Friends View(Majengo)hotel’ at Nyandiwa shopping centre in Homa bay County that specializes in African traditional foods, which is very popular with the local community here. Foods offered are; ugali, githeri, rice, matoke , fish, beef, chicken, sour milk, local vegetables, chapattis, mandazis, tea, etc.
People like my food compared to the competition because of the high quality of hygiene exhibited, and the food comes at a price that does not compromise the quality and nutritional value of the same. I put emphasis on friendliness and my PR comes in handy in this case .I have been able to win most clients from other restaurants into mine because of my service and the way I talk to my customers. A first time visitor to my restaurant always keeps coming back after experiencing the good service that we offer and the way we relate with our customers.
The business is profitable, I have been able to pay my rent and maintain my workers by paying them on monthly basis and this has enhanced their productivity and lessened the possibility of employee turnover. The food that we cook is purchased from the local markets around this place more cheaply this has enabled us to cut costs and maintain a steady profit.
The risks faced by this business like any restaurant business anywhere else is the spoilage of the food due to poor storage facilities e.g lack of a freezer, poor storage of left over food, this will be solved when I get the zidisha loan which I will use to buy a small freezer. Another risk is the low turn up of customers on some days but this is tempered by high turn up during the market days and on weekends and sports days for the schools around. The other risk is theft by employees, that is why I employ my relatives and pay them well in time.
My typical monthly costs are, Purchases of foods to be cooked, payment of rent, payment of salaries, county council licenses plus paying electricity and water bills tat which amounts to kshs.15,000.
My monthly revenue from the sale of the food is Kshs 20,000,leaving me with a monthly profit of kshs 5,000,this at times leaves me in a deficit since I have a very big family to take care of and this leaves me with a very little amount for expansion purposes .Thats why I am applying for this loan to help me expand my business in order to get bigger profits,to help me buy a freezer and also to create more sitting space and you never know I be able to buy a premise for my own to house the restaurant, this is my overall vision that I intend to achieve in the near future with the help of Zidisha.
The money that is going to pay the loan is going to come from the very business since I earn daily and this allows me to programme myself on how to pay. Another source of income is from my farm of maize and beans which I grow and sell at a profit, though this is mainly subsistence farming.

Loan Proposal

I will purchase a new freezer for my restaurant .The cost of the freezer is $350.The new freezer is very critical to my restaurant because it will be used to keep the perishable food fresh. The freezer will also be used to keep food that was not sold in the day to keep it fresh to be sold the next day.This will prevent wastage that has been a big challenge to my business.by cutting down on this wastage,will translate into more sales .Lack of a freezer has been very costly to the business because the food that remains at the end of the business is either thrown away or eaten by the staff or given for free,and it has been costly,BUT with the freezer,that problem will be solved for ever.The freezer will enable me to buy food in bulk and stock to minimize wastage and also take care of the price fluctuations which affect the profit margin.I expect my profit to double with the freezer. Perishable food like milk,meat,fish,will be kept fresh for a number of days,ensuring constant availability in the menu.I expect my profit to double in the next few weeks once the freezer has been purchased.I therefore appeal to my lenders to please come to my aid.Thank you zidisha.

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