I am a family man educated to college level and currently running my own business. I deal in marketing consultancy and I am looking for funds to expand my business. I have two kids a boy and a girl. The boy is already going to school but the girl is still too young for school. I went to school in the Rift Valley and Nairobi and have worked in various companies before setting up on my own. While employed, I mostly worked in the sales and marketing departments of leading Kenyan companies. I however decided to try my hand in private business where I am now. The going is or has not been that easy especially where it comes to following up for payments once you have finished doing or undertaking a project for someone or for an organization for that matter. However, what I have learn't is that business requires a lot of resilience due to these kinds of challenges.The reason I decided to go into business is because it was always my dream to be self-employed and sufficient. Being self employed always brings forth some level of independence which I always admired. It also is very satisfying to come up with a business idea which gets a lot of interest from the market and waking up to doing something you like everyday.
Employment though seemingly secure always has that impending "Sword of Damocles"on someone's head something which is very unsettling- I mean, the fact that you can get to the office one morning and find a brown or white envelope on your
desk with your matching orders or open your inbox and find that legendary email from
your bosses enumerating point by point why they don't need you any more in the organization is a prospect not very exciting. I come from a family of seven kids- I have three brothers and three sisters. Our parents did their best to give us an education to college level and my philosophy is to give my kids a better life than that I got from my parents.That is why I am on this application process since I would like to get funding to expand my business and better my situation by far from how it is now. This will be beneficial to myself and family. Whenever I get some good monies
from my business, I normally "plough" it back to grow the business ie buying any
tangible or intangible thing which can build the business. These could range from
software upgrading to sprucing up the furniture in there to project the company image . I am looking up to expanding this business so that it outgrows both myself and my children so that my own grand-kids can attest to resilience and general business acumen of their forefathers. Through this Zidisha program, I hope to be able to borrow these funds progressively to the highest possible loan given in order to achieve my intentions of one day turning my company into an African empire.
Thanking you all.
My business as briefly explained above is in marketing communications precisely in the areas of advertising and events management. I have been in this business for more than a decade as an employee and in the third year now as a private practitioner. The business basically pays all my recurrent bills of rents, school fees, running the car, utilities and basically all the bills of life as it were. There is demand for quality and aggressive sales people to sell on behalf on various industries. The advertising industry in Kenya is quite vibrant but getting the right people to connect potential advertisers to credible media has always been a challenge. That is what I do by pitching to credible business entities and connecting them with likewise credible media houses to advertise there and I get my income for such completed deals. I get my customers from my small pool of very aggressive advertising sales people who comb these companies on a daily basis. I have an edge because of my rather small operational overheads budget hence I can manage to charge lower than the bigger players with same the same quality of work if not better. The business is profitable due to the fact that the only big operational overheads are on staff commissions/salaries since I operate from my house. The risks are minimal once you establish a name in the industry as you leverage on your network over time to gain a steady stream of business. My typical monthly costs are in the region of are between Kshs 200,000-250,000 mainly on staff commissions and their phone overheads and the internet. Sales revenues are usually in range of between Kshs 450,000 - 600,000 with profits of between Kshs 150,000-250,000 per month after deducting the normal overheads. The biggest risk to my line of business is the mushrooming media houses day in day out be they FM radio stations to TV stations to publications both online and hard-copy. These come up everyday and they have a potential of eating into your market share and they do. What is required in this industry, just like in any other business is quality of work and consistency in the delivery of your services. Professionalism is of utmost importance to keep and maintain your market share. Other risks are run-away employees who go out there to set up rival similar ventures or purely to sabotage you but if your name is good in the industry, then that becomes your strongest "Resume" for you. I thank you
My loan will basically facilitate buying airtime for making my business calls. Communication in business is very vital and cannot be down looked, that is why I want the money to buy airtime which I will then use in acquiring calling airtime.In my business which mainly deals in consultancy, client contact on a daily basis is very vital in marketing the business and expanding its scope...I would call a average of thirty different clients in a day and even get referrals from the same clients to market to them. Calling is therefore an intergral part of my day to day activities and happens to be very crucial for my line of business.If i don't make these calls, then the business would not do well and I risk losing relevance in the market...hence the importance of these calls cannot be gainsaid.Having enough airtime is therefore crucial for this line of business to function. The competition in this business is also quite stiff and one cannot afford to rest easy without being on top and ahead of his game. If therefore I get this loan money that is the area I am going to invest in without a doubt that I can assure anybody.