Adding sewing machine and supplies for leather craft project

Entrepreneur

About Me

About Me

I am James Adika 33 years old,married with two children. I live in Rusinga Island and have a leather craft shop in Rusinga town just a 42kilometers in the outskirts of Homa-Bay. Rusinga Island is a fishing community town with a well structured fishing enterprises whose market is Nairobi city the largest city in East and central Africa. There is a huge ready market for the leather products at very competitive prices. Since I make leathered couches ,motorbike seat covers, car cushions which are used to ferry fish to the banda, where they are being weighed.

I have not gone so far with my education because of a lot of financial issues in my family, so I decided to venture into the business to be able to raise school fees for my self and to supplement my family income. Since I had no one to help me, I started with one sewing machine. I thank zidisha for my first loan which I used to add one sewing machine, but I have a challenge of getting raw materials, since I order them from Nairobi. The cost of transport has steadily risen with time thus becoming expensive for me to afford to enhance the quality of my products. The earnings from the sale, were used to order few materials but with the family basic needs it could not be adequate. I trust that with the loan from Zidisha, I will be able to order more materials and also be able to renovate my business premise . Thank you.

My Business

My Business

My wife runs a kiosk where we sell basic leather products for example: Gadget bags, School bags, and a few Handicrafts. She is a very supportive and understanding woman, has encouraged me so much to apply for this loan, as she is willing to help me raise the installments as we work together to the success of the leather craft project, as it is more profitable. This will be for an interim period of three months as we wait for the leather products be of better quality for the market. The three months are enough to bring us enough money that can be re-invested in the project for expansion purposes. This will ensure self sustainability for both her shop and the leather project. I look forward to expanding the Craft shop to a level whereby it will be supplying other Islands with leather products at the same time.
My dream is to start a Leather-Craft Academy that can be used as an education center to the youth who are trying to venture into a similar business as a way of dealing with unemployment.

Loan Proposal

When I get this loan,it will help me improve on my leather craft project in the following ways; buying of one sewing machine estimated at 30 dollars,buying of raw materials and paying for workshop extensions at the balance of 20 dollars. Despite the fact that I still have deficit of about 40 dollars for value added bags, car cushions, and handicrafts and am happy that through this small loan I will be able to see some of the followings the returns the loan will create; improved leather beaded products that will help me get a bigger and better market since the products are in good shape, the expected benefit is likely to shoot up especially when beads are added which will see me making almost double the input. The returns will then help expand my workshop by increasing the number of leather products and also employ a few people.
I need support because I can't afford single handedly to meet full financial requirements of the raw materials due to the increased costs of products.

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