Birth and Responsibilities

My names are Joseph Gathinji Kimani. I am an honest, industrious person who has high regard of integrity and authentic dealings. More to this I am born again committed Christian. I am a married man with one child. I am the main care giver and provider, in addition I take care of my sister''s two daughters since she is disabled and has recently not able to venture in economic viable projects.

Growing up

Currently I am a resident of laikipia county Nyahururu. I was raised up by peasant farmers who had little to offer financially, but I picked up a trait that hard work pays and that with persistence one will always achieve his/ her dreams. . I schooled amidst challenges in the same area though I had to walk at least six kilometres hence walking a total of 12 Km every day, this did not deter me but it actually helped me to be more tolerant and even able to through adversity with more determination and resolve.

I am a visionary person with aspirations to be financially stable and also creating a business empire that will employ and empower young people socially and economically. More to this i am a motivational speaker and encourages the youth not to despise themselves but to embrace the vast opportunities that do exist in the business world.

It is also my aim to have a residence of my own and this has made me to work harder since the rents rates are increasing by the day.

I have become a student of life and also am currently doing extensive and wide reading in the area of business to have more exposure and also learn from other successful business people. This has helped me to improve on goal setting and staying focused to accomplish an objective.

Nature of the business

I started venturing into business back in 2005 in Molo. It was unfortunate that during the year 2008 when there was post-election violence in Kenya I lost everything as the dairy cows were raided and the milk kiosk was burnt down. Later I relocated to Mawanga Nakuru and restarted a general kiosk in 2011. My business entails sale of groceries, fruits, milk and various household products like sugar, salt, cooking oil, cakes among other snacks.

The business is located in Nakuru County, Bahati Sub County, Mawanga center in Mawanga residential area. It the area where the business is located highly populated and the people are relatively low to middle income earners.

Due to high population nature of the area the business has a lot of opportunities to grow and even make profits. I have diversified the business to make my business a one stop shop for the major commodities that used mostly on daily basis

SWOT Analysis

The major strengths of the business is in its nature in the area since the high population creates an opportunity to have many customers hence increasing the turnover and volume of sales. Also there are also very few people that are engaging in milk and its products. My capacity has also been built in areas of business management, record keeping customer care and display.

Weaknesses

The major weakness of the business is lack of facilities like big enough freezers hence contributing luck of large enough stock.

To add on this, lack of capital and coolants poses as the biggest hindrance to taking advantage of the great and immense opportunities that exist.

Opportunities

There exist a lot of opportunities especially in diversification and also value addition of some products like making yogurt from milk, blending fresh juice from potatoes and making fruit salads.

Threats

The major threat to the business is from the nature of the major products that I deal in and these are because they are highly perishable. This is the case for fast moving items like groceries and milk.

Average monthly business performance

Sales =

sales 90,000

Cost of goods sold 55,000

Gross profit 35,000

Expenses

Rent 6,000

Self-drawing 6000

Permits 500

Transport 4000

Other cost like security, airtime 2,500

Total expenses 18,000

Net profit 17,000

The biggest challenge is ploughing back the profits since I got a lot of financial responsibilities that I take care of owing to the fact that my wife is not working and other obligations as described in my story.

To buy half sacred of Avocado fruits and ripped them hence did value and the resell.

This will be a good venture since this is the season for the fruit and it has relatively high gross profit Margin.

The profits will increase my ability to provide food and shelter for my family.