By Betsy Ramser Jaime
Born and raised in central Kenya, Nancy Munyua received an education at the government secretarial college. Today she operates her own cyber cafe and also sells items such as, ‘ice cream, sodas, stationaries, and printing items.’
She shares, ‘I started the business in the section 58 shopping centre with my own savings. The unique thing with my business is that I offer good internet services to my clients as well as professional work due to the experience I have.’
In terms of her business expenses, her typical costs include: salary for her employee, shop rent, electricity and water, and insurance.’
As her children have watched her run her business, she’s found that they too hope to go into business for their careers as well. Between a busy family life and business, Nancy enjoys relaxing by reading Christian literature and creating flower arrangements.
As a member of the Zidisha community since January 2018, Nancy has successfully raised 6 Zidisha funded loans thus far. Starting with a $98 loan from lenders, Nancy was able to increase her stock of ice cream, stationary, and sodas.
A few months later, with a second loan of $98, Nancy was able to once again increase her stock as she expressed, ‘This stock shall increase my sales as I shall buy in bulk and resale in retail price.’ In addition, this loan also put Nancy in a position to be able to hire her first employee in her shop, creating employment for a single member of her community.
For many entrepreneurs like Nancy, being able to create employment for her fellow community members is one of the greatest rewards of having a business.
Once again, in August, 2008, Nancy was able to raise a third loan, this time for $108, allowing her to make some positive changes to her cyber cafe including stationary stock, photocopy papers, pens, maintenance, and a banner to promote her business.
As Nancy continued to operate her business, she discovered that adding a photo studio would be a great compliment to the cyber cafe services that she already offered. Fortunately with the help of a $157 Zidisha funded loan, she was in a great position to purchase lighting and camera equipment, photo frames and photo paper, and renovations and fittings.
As an entrepreneur, it’s always important to find needs in the market and to pivot when necessary, which is exactly what Nancy has been able to do.
In 2019, Nancy found herself raising 3 Zidisha funded loans for $172, $400, and $400. These three loans were instrumental in making progress on the photo studio side of her business, as she purchased new equipment, a new photocopy machine and continued her renovations.
On Dec 10, 2019, Nancy took to her discussion page to share an update with lenders as she wrote, ‘Dear Zidisha lenders, Thanks for the loan, I have been able to expand my business from my last loan, I was able to buy a new copier as well as add additional stock for my business. With the new loan application I intend to expand my business further to have an office this will enable me to serve my customer better, 50 % of the loan amount will buy furniture and the rest I shall use to expand and add new stock for my cyber business.’
Would you like to help business owners like Nancy create employment opportunities in their communities? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects Page to read about other incredible Zidisha entrepreneurs around the world.
