Entrepreneur
Name
Paul
Member since
March 2014
On-time repayments
112 installments • 26%
About Me
I am the second born in a family of four boys,i have been brought up in central Kenya in Nyandarua county. I attended primary school in my rural area from 1997 to 2004 and later joined Naivasha mixed secondary school in Riftvalley. I performed well in high school and managed to join University of Nairobi for a bachelor of commerce degree. All this time my mother was a farmer and i used to help her when out of school. most of the time we did not sell our produce because of the low yield. I used to feel discouraged by the fact that we spent alot of energy and time on farming yet we were not making money from it,however we used to have enough for household consumption and so we had to do it anyway.
When i completed my high school studies and before joining the university, i got a teaching job in a high school called Muthomi Secondary School. I used to earn ksh 6000 per month but it was still enough to help my mother buy fertilizer and high quality potatoes and pea seeds. There was noticed improvement on the yield of our 1 acre farm but still it was low compared to the input. I was determined to ensure that one day my mother benefits from all her efforts to raise us from the small piece of land. After two years of teaching in the school and saving ksh 40000 i joined the university to undertake my degree.
At the university i was forced to spend my savings yet i was hoping to keep them and help my mum construct a green house. by the end of my first year i only had ksh 12000, i realized i had to do something if my mum has to raise my other siblings. I started to do online writing to raise some cash for my up keep and to support my siblings. i was unfortunate not to have a laptop and so anytime i got a job i had to borrow one. All in all i managed to get some cash and i used to send my family members some cash. in my third year as a student in the school, the management was leasing some tuck shops in the school. one of the requirements to win the tender was to have ksh 80000 in cash which i had. i won the tender of running a printing and photocopy bureau for one year. i made some good cash in that one year from the variety of services i was offering. i used to print, photocopy, scanning, binding, selling scratch cards and other fast moving goods. i used to make between 3000 and 4000 in a day and i was paying my two employees ksh 250 each in a day, rent was ksh 7500 per month. by the end of the one year i had enough cash to construct a small green house in my rural area which costed me ksh 180 000. For the past one year my mother has managed to sell tomatoes in wholesale in the neighboring centers and she is in a position to to pay fees for my young brothers.
Some of the machines i was using in the photocopy business were mine and i never sold them,i continued with the photocopy business outside campus but here customers are few and i don't make much money. fortunately i had managed to buy my own laptop and so i continued with online writing during my free time. I am now 23 years old and i completed my studies in January 2014 and am waiting graduation in December. i still run my photocopy business in a place called Zambezi but i don't have all the machines required to run the business. i still do online writing when i get a job. am planning to construct a big green house in the future.
My Business
currently i am running a photocopy bureau in a place where there are several colleges and so many students who do not reside within the school premises bring their work here. I also have customers who are not students but who requires the services of printing,scanning,laminating,binding and purchase of other fast moving goods. there are five such business in the locality but many students prefer my services because i understand their needs better being a former student. I also do online writing when am free and i earn 3 dollars per page and i usually write between 3 and 5 pages in a day,however i do not get the job every day. I have a green house at home but i usually don't take that revenue, instead i leave it for my family use. in my photocopy bureau i earn approximately 340 dollars in a month,pay rent for the premises 70 dollars per month, i pay my house rent of 45 dollars per month, i pay electricity bill of around 50 dollars in a month,i pay for other utilities for around 65 us dollars and 70 dollars for food in a month. the profits from my photocopy bureau plus earnings from online writing will enable me to repay you in time. I can also receive some cash from the green house.
Loan Proposal
I have an old printing machine which prints very quality papers. Despite having a wide customer base, they are moving away to competitors because of this printer. The printer am intending to buy costs 150 us dollars. I also want to purchase a binding machine but this one i will buy using my retained earnings. I am confident that with the new printer i will attract more customers leading to higher sales revenue.
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Loan Info
Project Type
Classic Loan
Disbursed amount
$150.00
Date disbursed
Apr 1, 2014
Repayment status
On Time
Projected term
26 months
Lenders
Lethbridge, Canada
South Africa
United States
United States
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