My name is Lilian Kikuvi. I am in my mid 40s. My business is 7years old. Its not a big business but it provides for my basic needs. i have not managed to expand it greatly but i have managed to educate, build, farm, meet daily needs though my business. i like it so much.

i've come a long way from beginning with a single printer to buying several and going for reasonably good business with a reliable flow of customers.

My business started in 2011. I started with one computer, a printer, and a camera. I used to do computer services like typing, online services, computer trainings, taking & production of photos & photocopying.

The services offered are:

Typing, Printing, Photocopy, Scanning, Lamination, Binding, photography, making & printing of certificates , making of students cards online services like Ghris, KRA, emails, both opening of accounts and teaching, mobile phone charging, selling of stationery

Photographic: it’s my best business at the moment. It’s very quick service with low costs but a good profit.

Printing: Normally we print after typing or saved information in flash disks, or we download from the internet. This is also another profitable service. We charge 10 for every page printed, and sometimes we can print up to 50 pages in a day giving 500/-.

Internet services: We charge according to the time spent. The minimum amount being 10/-.

There are several online services required like production of payslips for civil servants, teachers, opening of e-mail accounts , production of pin & tax certificates, downloading needed information, etc

Scanning, Lamination & Binding.

This are one time jobs. They are not daily jobs, but they have good

profits. E.g scanning of 1 document is 30/-.

Lamination uses abit of electricity. We charge 50/- per copy, and the profit made is about 30/-.

Binding charges depend on the volumes and the profit is minimal.

On a normal day, I make a profit of about 800/-. This is not constant as in other days I can make a profit of over 2000/-. It varies between those ranges

Challenges

I mostly depend on electricity for 99% of my work. When there’s no electricity, or frequent power blackouts, I am out of business.

Prices change. Sometimes the prices of stock goes up & down. When up, we are not able to increase the prices as customers diminishes, so we are forced to stick to the normal prices to avoid losing customer and we therefore get lesser profits.

Current challenges & growth

normal business challenges but have managed to cope.

I would now like Zidisha to help me buy a water tank for my house.

The rainy season is almost here and i do not have enough water storage tanks, being in a semi-arid locality.

Kindly consider my request.

Thanks in advance.

I will buy some stocks that i need for my business. I need to buy a toner drum for the photocopier and i also need to buy a binding machine.

This amount will help me abit and will top up the remaining amount.