Hello. I am Pauline. I hail from a town in Kenya called Ongata Rongai. I come from a family of seven- four siblings and my mother (My father passed away when I was in High school). Currently I live in Juja town next to Jomo Kenyatta University. I have studied entrepreneurship in University and have every intention to be an entrepreneur my entire life. Therefore, I would say being an entrepreneur is my occupation.

I started a business out of intrigue for starting a venture. Since I was younger, I have always wanted to own a business and take it to great heights. Emira Concept is the first of many companies. Profits I get from Emira are partly reinvested and the rest go to my personal upkeep.

In my free time, I enjoy listening to contemporary music, attending plays at theaters, reading African literature and participating in charities- runs, donating, volunteering. I enjoy the Arts very much.

I am passionate about business and ready to work hard to achieve goals that I have set for myself.

I own a company called Emira Concept. It is my main source of income. Emira Concept deals with selling of handbags, clutch bags, purses, travel bags and many other forms of bags. Up to recently, I have been marketing my products from door-to door until I resolved to open a Face book page to expand my clientele base (Face book page is Emira Concept). So far I am very happy with the response I am receiving online and my clientele base is growing.

I understand that the fashion/clothing industry is rivaled with stiff competition but I try my best to stay ahead of the larger companies by trying to always offer a unique products that differ from the ones flooded in the market. I also try to offer as friendly as possible prices for my clients. In addition, my clientele enjoy a one on one interaction with me and I strive to always foster good relationships . I even email them photos of new stock upon request and give them text notification of new stock.

My business is profitable as I have over the months cultivated a good relationship with my clients who are recurrent and continuously buy from me. They also refer me to their friends who also show high interest in my products.

In a month I can sell from 10-25 handbags that range from about $20-$40. My returns from sales range from between $200-$550. From this, I have to subtract the initial cost of the handbags and operation costs such as transport costs for delivery and airtime for calls to clients. The expenses amount to between $80-$440 depending with the price of stock and deliveries. Therefore, in a month I can make between $110-$275. With this money, I invest up to 50% back in the company and the rest caters for personal expenses.

Any loan I receive from Zidisha will be purely used for the purpose of growing Emira Concept.

Hello Lenders,

First and foremost, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year 2015. Secondly, I would like to express my utmost gratitude for the help you have shown so many people here on Zidisha, who have been able to completely transform their lives and the lives of those around them from the loans you have lend them. Thank you!

Moving on to the issue at hand; this is my third loan request the Zidisha community and this request is similar to the previous one where I would like to continue to expand my stock of handbags. Over the months, I have built quite a clientele base through social media presence, advertising on platforms such as Bid or buy, OLX (Which is a great hit here in Kenya) and client referrals. In addition, I have religiously exhibited my products at car boot sales, trade shows and exhibitions with friendly prices, that I diligently scout for. This really goes a long way in engaging with my clients and potential clients, face-to-face and not just online (virtually).

Although that is absolutely excellent for my business growth, it comes with a myriad of challenges for me; Client complaints for a variety of styles due to varied tastes and they end up leaving unsatisfied and seek another retailer; Several requests from wholesale buyers. And even though some of these wholesale buyers' offers have amounted to something, I am hardly able to sustain constant supply for their demand and they moved on to more capable suppliers.

This loan will move to help me not just have more handbags to sell but more variety which my clients have been yearning for. That is the major part of the loan which is about 163 dollars will go to stock expansion while the remaining, which is about 20 dollars will go to add on to my sms marketing kitty, which will put my list of clients contacts to good use by sending sms to my clients notifying them of new stock, promotions and inform them of places we will be exhibiting our products but not in a spam-like sense i.e not more than twice a month. And also not forgetting that this loan will keep my delivery lady, who is a university part-time student, earn some extra money to cater for her basic needs.

NB: I thought it necessary to mention that my repayment rate has gone down due to a period that I fell sick and I had to inevitably make my health a priority. Often, we work so hard, we neglect ourselves. A lesson learnt the hard way.