Sale of second-hand clothes (Mitumba business)

Entrepreneur

About Me

I am a 27 year old Kenyan, born in Kilifi County, within the Coastal province of Kenya.
I am the second-last borne in a family of 5 siblings; having been single parented since I was 10 years old; following the death of our father in the year 2001. My father was the bread winner of the family. After his demise, it was difficult for my mother to cater for each one of us. I acquired my primary and high school education in a local government schools with critical hardships. A year after I finished my Secondary school, it was even harder for my aging mother to cater for my college education. I then opted to stay with a friend to my brother living in Rongai, Nairobi who had offered to accommodate me in his premises as an assistant clothe salesman.
I worked for him for 3 years since 2009 and it was in 2012 where he gave me a loan of KSH 10000 (USD 112) to start up my own stall for clothe sales. By January 2013 I had saved enough money to start up my college education in Nairobi. I recall to have successfully relied on Zidisha loan to expand my start up while I was a third year in college because of the business that I started up then. My experience with Zidisha was the best thing that ever happened to my life; and was particularly helpful support from lenders in zidisha who made it possible. The disbursement from Zidisha assisted me administrative and expansion costs for my business. I was able to maximize profit which in turn helped me in reducing the cost of tuition and life generally.
I am now a teacher in a local primary school in Kilifi County. My mtumba (-second hand clothes) business is still running and I am currently adding another venture in keeping broilers for commercial purposes. I have been in touch with local experts who continue to advise me on best practice.

My Business

My project is on clothing sale. Having been mentored by a business associate, i have developed a good clientele but have now set off my own independent clothing sale business at the moment.

Ongata Rongai being a developing town in the precincts of Nairobi City with an increase in its population every single day, it provides a very wide market for my clothing business as is widely understood that second hand clothes have a wide market in Kenya.

The main reason as to why I started this business is owing to my previous engagement in the clothing industry and having identified the growing need for the clothes in the area, I believe that my stall will continue to meet this growing demand.

The whole business is currently worth KSHS 25,000 (Approximately USD250), This include the stall and the current stock. With this amount I am able to make a profit of at least KSHS 15,000 per month(USD150).

I intend to expand the capital base to at least KSHS 30,000(USD 300) with which I trust and am confident enough that the revenue will increase to KSHS 22,500 (USD 225). It is with notion that I wish to advance a loan from zidisha online lending and enable me expand this business and be able to meet the market demand which is increasing every day in RONGAI and its environs.

I intend to use the revenue from the business to reinvest it in my business in order by the end of the year I will operating with a capital base of more than KSHS 200,000 (USD 2000) of which my predictions are that by next year teh revenue would be more than KSHS 100,000(USD 1,000).
This will enable me expand in my business as well as education support.

Loan Proposal

Introduction

Current business status
Capital Base...........................................................Ksh. 40,000/- ($ 400).
Gross Profit per month..................................Ksh. 31,000/- ($310).
Rent per month...................................................Ksh. 7,500/- ($75).
Net Profit per moth.........................................Ksh. 23,500/- ($235).

The money available for extra purchase of clothe bales as at now is a total of Ksh. 20,000/- plus the prospective Zidisha loan of $ 80.

Money available thus is= $ 200 + $ 80 = $ 280 (Ksh 28,000/-).
One bale purchase price for women clothes costs=Ksh 1,200 ($12).

Throughout my sales, I have established that it’s mostly women garments and undergarments and a children clothing that earn most dividends. I intend to focus my sales on this and get more clothing bales targeting this group of customers.

I therefore intend to use the $ 280 to purchase at least 23 bales of clothe for my current stock.

Expectations

With this stock in place, I expect to have a gross profit of about $ 50 in a period of approximately 3 months.

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Loan Info

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