My name is Mirriam Wanjiku Muthoni, born in 1990 in Nakuru County in the Rift valley. I am a First born in a family of two. I started my primary education in Nakuru and later went to Nairobi's Kibera slums where I schooled at Shadrack Kimalel primary school, and Kianjeru Boarding school in Meru. I joined Chogoria girls in Meru for secondary School. I joined Strathmore College in Nairobi where I did certificate course in ICDL, currently am undertaking a business management course. Early 2013 I joined my Cousin in Watamu Kitengela where I have been assisting her in selling Charcoal. I come from single parent and my mother lives in kahawa Wet in Nairobi. Currently she is doing business of seling hardware components. My younger sister schools at Kianjeru Boarding in meru.

I want to venture into egg selling business as I have identified the same as a gap within my neighborhood. Currently I assist my cousin in selling charcoal in wholesale and my interaction with people around has shown me that this is an area worth venturing into. To begin with, I want to operate from the shed that I have been working and create a good customer relations and afterwards I can expand my market by getting orders from the nearby hotels.

I do have a friend who does the same business within Nairobi and gets the same from Thika at a lower cost, this will help me cut the cost of operating because I want to start small and then hope to expand as time goes by. Eggs in demand here are the kienyeji type as commonly known here. These are however not available here and is in the market is the grade eggs as commonly known. Afterwards I want to introduce cereals in my business to ensure that I have variety of products. This will broaden possible sources of income. From my current research, an egg goes for about khs. 10 from farmers and the same is retailing for about ksh. 15 – 20. This then translates to Ksh. 5 per egg and with my intentions of lowering the cost, there is a possibility that this venture may end up being profitable. I would also like to establish charcoal business of my own. Current indications are that this is also a good venture. With the experience so far, I feel that I can manage such business though I want to start in small scaleand possibly think of expanding my business.

The demand for charcoal here is always on the rise bearing in mind that it’s the only source of energy that is affordable to the population around. We obtain our supplies form Narok, hire a lorry that transports the product from Narok where we obtain the charcoal at a lower price. Charcoal is sold in bags and a bag goes for Ksh. 700 from the supplier. the same bag is sold at Ksh. 1500 minus Ksh 150 per bag that I pay for transport. This brings a profit of about Ksh. 650 per bag. I also sell the same in small quantities and this is where its more profitable than selling in whole sale. A bag may result to about Ksh 2000 when sold in small measurements. In a good day, I can sell up to five bags while in other days i can selljust one. On average I do sell about bags at average of Ksh 1000. This translates to an average income of about Ksh 40000 per month and after paying all the expenses (Rent, security, labour e.t.c) My cousin got assistance from zidisha and she introduced me to this concept, as a student and business person I want to establish one of my own and I feel that this will enable me complete my course as I continue even expanding my business.

Dear Lenders,

First I would wish to inform you that I stopped rearing chicken as there were breakout of disease and it really affected me. I decided to venture into egg selling business where i sell in wholesale to retailers. I now get orders from supermarkets and hotels. I do request USD 340 to buy additional trays (durable) for easy transportation. I will also increase shelves in my shop with a view to increase stock.

This will mean that I will increase my selling capacity and possibly income from sales.