I am the last born of seven siblings, born to Mr & Mrs Reuben White in 06-02-1989. I was born and raised in a small industrial town called Webuye which is in Bungoma County in Western province, Kenya. I schooled in local primaey and secondary school and i managed to join Egerton University in Nakuru in 2009. Campus life was difficult in terms of upkeep. I survived on student loans for school fees for the entire period i was in campus.

During long holidays, i worked in construction sites as an unskilled worker and saved enough to buy a printer which i started business with in my campus room. A lot of students had ventured into the same for survival, so i had to devise a way to have an edge. i developed a business relationship with class representatives of classes which had less or equal to 100 students. The class representatives were the ones responsible for delivering lecture notes to the resource center where everyone else in their respective classes will access them. They instead gave me the notes to photocopy for their classmates and they would, during classes, deliver to each one of their class members. I also had a list of students from each class alongside the room address with which i would do hand deliveries. With time they gave me a moniker "Solocopy".

After completing my studies in 2013 i left the business under my cousin who was a first year in the same campus so that he be able to fend for himself while there. The business is still operational to date though its small and the mainly focuses on photocopy.

After completing my studies i was in formal employment with two companies for two years but i noticed my passion was in doing business(Be My Own Boss) so i left and started my own business, "TOPELA ENTERPRISES" in 2015.

My dad(RIP), with whom i am pictured with in my profile picture is the one who also inspired me. All my father's sons and most of my nephews went on to be long distance drivers just like my dad and his brothers. He wanted me to be more. So when i told him i want to start my own business he bought me my first desktop.

With time with proceeds from the business, i have grown to own 3 desktop computers, 3 laptops: which enabled me to serve several clients at a go, a laser jet printer for heavy A4 printing jobs, Epson printer for colour jobs such as invitation cards, wedding cards, certificates and ID cards. I also started offering computer lessons so as to increase the number of people who are computer literate in my village.

I started the business in my home village, one, because as I said before I have a passion for doing business, and secondly because I saw a problem that needed a solution. Residents used to walk a long distance (10km) to access cyber services. So not only did I bring the services closer home but I offered the cyber services at no extra cost to them, I charged them the same as they would been charged if they went to Webuye town.

SERVICES

The services I offer included:

1. Documentation services: typing and typesetting, scanning photocopying and printing.

2. Internet services: internet account opening and recovery, filling online forms (registration and applications)

Since i started the business, the village market has grown in terms of infrastructure and clientele. This includes schools hospitals and residential flats. Although no other business has cropped up offering the almost the same services as mine, i need to stay ahead of any future competition.

With that in mind i resolved to venture supply of stationary in bulk, and examination printing. There are 1,080 schools in Bungoma County, 868 of which are primary schools. This schools, most of which are in remote areas have a student population of 600 on average. This students sit for examinations at least thrice per term. So there is a problem that needs solving as there aren’t many examination printers.

My plan is to acquire a photocopier which costs approximately Ksh. 280,000, which can print in A3, can handle huge work loads and is economical. With the machine I will have to employ some additional hands at my business premise to aide in printing and supply of the material. Income from the printer will be sufficient to cover wages and maintenance and I will still be having profit to channel to the other bit of the business i.e. stationary

My initial loan was used as seed money for stationery for sale. Proceeds from the sale paid up the loan and procured more stock. This loan will serve to increase the scale of my inventory so I can target bigger clients.