my name is hellen anyango sika. i am the sixth born in a family of nine. we are five ladies and four men. i did my primary school education here in nairobi at a school called city primary school. later in high school, i was taken to a boarding school and did my 'o' level at a school called nyamira girls high school. as we were growing, my mother had a sewing machine in the house and that is how i came to learn to run the machine during weekends or holidays. later before joining professional college, i did some touch up course in tailoring and also did some sales job at a company called johnson&johnson. we would move from town to town doing sales and visiting different institutions. the challenges i encountered were many since one had to work extra hard for you to attain your commission to sustain you for the rest of the month. later on, i joined temple secretarial college where i did my course in secretarial and attained my certificates. before getting a job, i did some attachment in some firm relieving someone on study leave.

later on, i joined technical fire engineers to works as a secretary. there, i worked for five years and then moved on to a hire purchase firm. there i've worked with them for more than ten years. at the same time, i had started my family so my income was becoming more and more limited, as basic needs for the family were required and economic situation in the country was not any better. that is what actually prompted me to think outside the box and diversify my income.

as for the culture where i live in. in the first place, i am intermarried and therefore the culture/customs are different from my homeland. there's an occasion for the new borns call 'itega' for welcoming the new borns. they also name children differently unlike ours. later also, during dowry negotiations, their culture/customs are different from ours which i found very interesting.

i have two children (girls). the first born is in class six and she would like to be a doctor (surgeon) when she grows up. the other one is in class three and she would like to be a teacher.

i am a very social person. i love travelling during my pastime i always like visiting friends/relatives. we have chamas that i also attend and it boosts me a lot!! and also involved in church activities like visiting the less fortunate in the society/ serving in church and social work.

i began this business roughly five years ago. i took a sacco loan at my place of work. i do tailoring and sale of tailor made, materials and assorted upholstery.

as it is at the moment, economic situation in our country is not conducive, so buying ready made clothes to most of the common mwananchi is limited. so by tailoring, i serve my customers to their satisfaction and readily available since i work with what is trending and i find it easy since most customers come knowing exactly what they want.

i chose this kind of business because it is flexible as i am able to work up to late hours and still make it to work the following morning without any hitches in the office. tailoring is not as tedious and compared to other types of manual jobs. so i enjoy sewing especially what is trending.

typical costing depends on if the material is for the customer or if the material is your and you include all round cost. any simple dress/shirt costs approximately shs. 2,000/= on the lower side. as you make decent and latest outfits, word goes round and one cannot miss on getting customers throughout. a part from that, i supplement my business with my salary and loans from chamas and sacco.

the profits goes to reinvesting in my business as trends of fashion keeps coming out every other day, so one has to move with the times. part of the profit also i use to improve my household and also savings too.

i have realised that once you have all your inventory at hand, work is very simple to move. this is because, all the stocks/materials are available and so customers don't disappear as everything is at hand and there is variety. This loan i will increase my stock that is variety of materials and all other accessories required in tailoring i.e. threads, needles, zippers, lining, hooks, press-pins, laces, tappers, etc. This will cost about $2,900.

as i have said, once all materials are on point, when a client walks in, it's easy for the client to choose from the variety and not walk away without placing an order. this builds client's confidence in one's work.

i expect to make double the amount in interest since the last loan more and more clients are coming and spreading the word to others, as our end product is usually very impressive.