Today I Am an Entrepreneur

By Betsy Ramser Jaime

‘My name is Bernice Mamley Adjoteye. Throughout my education, I have had help from different people and most especially my church. It wasn’t easy going through school without enough cash to even buy handouts. Today I am an entrepreneur and want to be successful in what I am doing.’

Bernice had been working for a company as an accountant before deciding to open her own accountancy firm. While she only had a small amount of money to get her business up and running, she has an abundance of passion for helping businesses improve their accounting systems. In her business, she focuses on, bookkeeping, payroll management, financial consulting and advisory, as well as tax preparation.

In addition to her accounting services Bernice also helps businesses with printing such as invoice books, waybill petty cash books, and receipt books

Bernice shares, ‘I really wanted to do this business because I have loved accounting even for my own self. And now I would like to assist other businesses to grow and make sound decisions. I make a profit out of these businesses that I do. I save my profit and reinvest to grow the business. When I get contracts for printing I give them out to those who have printers to get the job done and as a result, the profit reduces but as time goes on I hope to get printers and equipment to enhance my productivity and on-time delivery to clients.’

Since joining Zidisha in mid-2020, Bernice has raised 10 Zidisha funded loans. With her first loan in July, Bernice was able to put her loan towards a laptop for her business.

With a second loan a month later, she put this loan into her transportation costs for marketing and for delivery expenses.

By September 2020, Bernice had raised two additional loans for $68 and $241 for a printer and desktop computer as she says, ‘Little by little, with the help of Zidisha lenders I am building my business. I will need this loan to be able to purchase a desktop computer. Usually, the staff that takes care of the printing uses his laptop but recently his laptop got spoilt and I want to purchase a desktop computer to be used for the printing. I will be grateful if I am offered this loan to be able to purchase the computer for the growth of my business. Thank you.’

Since then, Bernice has been able to use her Zidisha funded loans to purchase furniture, stationary, ink, and an office desk. She’s even worked hard to earn two additional professional courses.

As she prepared to grow into a larger space she received a $951 and said, ‘As part of my ambition to make a bigger company. I want to get office space for my business. Where I started my business is not big enough to contain my staff and myself and I would like to expand my business by getting a bigger office. Please help me.’

Would you like to make a difference in the life of an entrepreneur like Bernice? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to see how other Zidisha business owners around the world are changing the lives of their families and communities.