By Betsy Ramser Jaime
As a teacher, husband, and father of 5 children, George has a lot of responsibilities in his life.
With his children growing older, he found the cost to educate them to be extremely high and he needed to bring in additional income for his family. What at first seemed to be a problem actually led to an opportunity and brought him to the business that he has today of crop and animal farming.
Describing how he got started with his business, George writes, ‘My business is crop and animal farming. I started as a home garden from my backyard in order to feed my family but along the line, people started showing interest in the products whenever I harvested so I decided to acquire a land about 5 to 10 acres so that I can farm for commercial purposes in order to get extra income to take care of my family especially my children’s education.’
Although George is new to the Zidisha community, joining in May 2021, he has already made big strides by raising 10 Zidisha funded loans! He’s been able to re-pay each of his loans from his salary, personal earnings, and the income from his farming business.
With his first five loans in May 2021, George was able to make small steps in building his business. He shares, ‘I will like to use this loan to invest in my farming business by buying tools and equipment, seeds, pumping machine and all other stuff that will contribute to expanding the farming business for commercial purposes in order to get some income to take care of my family.’
Even with a few small, initial loans, George was already making progress as he took to his Zidisha discussion page on May 30, 2021, and wrote, ‘Thanks to my lenders for their support I will use this loan to buy more tomato seeds to plant. I’m really grateful.’
Throughout the following months of June and July, George continued to raise Zidisha funded loans, helping him to purchase additional tools, equipment, fertilizers, and seeds.
Then, in August with his largest loan yet, of $565, he hoped to continue growing his farm and to be able to hire additional help and purchase materials, chemicals, and machinery.
Would you like to make a difference in the life of an entrepreneur like George? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to see what other Zidisha business owners are doing around the world.
Betsy is a Writer and Editor living in Florida with her husband. She has been writing with Zidisha for 5 years and loves sharing the inspiring stories of Zidisha entrepreneurs. You can connect with her on her personal website.
