Additional stock of used textbooks to sell

Samuel

Mishomoroni, Kenya

100% repaid

Entrepreneur

Name

Samuel

Member since

February 2015

On-time repayments

113 installments  •  81%

About Me

My name is Samuel Njoroge. I am a child of a single mother born in Muranga county in Kenya. I belong to Akorino sect which is known for strict adherence to the bible teachings. In this sect men are supposed to wear cover their heads with turbans and women should wear head-scarfs all the time. This explains my turban on the profile photo.

I grew up in Muranga - a typical African rural area where I attended both primary and secondary school. I did not go past secondary school since this was considered to be enough education then. At this point I had to make a choice of either remaining at home to do farm work with my mother or move to urban areas and look for a job, I choose the latter.

This landed me in Mombasa - about 600 kilometers away and and I only had about $5 remaining in my pocket. I knew nobody in this town and I had to think fast before depleting the my reserve of 5 dollars. I decided to buy sweets and biscuits with the money and started hawking them around the city. I would normally target long distance travelers who flock bus terminus. I would also target school children on their way home. All this time, I was sleeping in buses which were parked overnight but I had to part with a small amount of money for the drivers to allow me in.

This continued for a while and the business grew and I decided to start selling posters of international celebrities which proved to be very popular with people of all walks of life. This is what I am still doing but I now live in rented house which I pay from the profit that I make.

My Business

As mentioned above, I deal with selling of posters from door to door. I specialize with posters of celebrities like Rihanna, Lionel Messi, as well as famous football teams like Manchester United. I buy one poster for about $1 and sell it for $1.5. I also sell educational posters which are used as teaching aids in school.

This business earns me about $150 per month and this is the money I use to pay my bills as well as supporting my aging mother back home. I am also hoping to marry soon and start a family of my own.

I would like to open a stall in future where I do my sales instead of hawking my stuff as this is very tough and I experience a lot of harassment from local authorities because hawking is prohibited in some areas of the town.

Loan Proposal

My business of selling used text books is thriving. The growth has come with challenges key among them is demand for more books by my loyal customers. I have been selling books for lower primary but there is demand for books of upper primary too. For this reason, I need to inject more cash to address this need.

With this loan, I will be able to buy about 60 books which are in high demand. This will give my business a further boost and satisfy my customers. This will in turn increase my sales volumes and ultimately my take home amount.

Thank you once more Zidisha team for this brilliant idea and our esteemed lenders for trusting us with their money.

Feedback

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Loan Info

Project Type

Classic Loan

Disbursed amount

$182.00

Date disbursed

Sep 16, 2015

Repayment status

Late

Projected term

10 months

Lenders

Jake Badger

Roskilde, Denmark

wissam

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

E

Ella

Canada

UK

Uday Kolluri

New York, Singapore

PC

Pedro Cambra

United Kingdom

RM

Rohit Mathew

United States

Ask Samuel a question about this project, share news and photos of your own, or send a simple note of thanks or inspiration.

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