By Betsy Ramser Jaime
From a young age, Susan Muthui has had a strong worth ethic, molding and shaping her into the person she has become today.
About her childhood, she shares, ‘Growing up was interesting. My mother being my teacher in a local primary school, that was miles away from home, we had to leave home earlier than my mother. If she got to the school earlier than us that would mean war.’
She continues, ‘Waking up early and getting to the house late, walking almost 2 km every day to and from school, gave me strength to work hard and become a better person in life.’
Susan decided to pursue entrepreneurship because she aspired to be her own boss and give back to her community. By starting small, she dreamed of building her own clothing empire and in doing so, knew that she could create employment opportunities for local youth and also empower other women.
Today she has her own clothing shop where she works hard to offer the best trends to her customers at reasonable prices. She hopes to continually grow her business over time.
Susan is also a proud mother of a young daughter, and loves baking and trying new cake recipes in her free time. Others tell her that she has quite the ‘sweet tooth.’
Since joining Zidisha in April 2015, Susan has raised 7 Zidisha funded loans. These loans have ranged in price from $44 to $467.
Through these loans, she has been able to stay on top of adding additional inventory to her store such as, ‘jeans, stockings, blouses, sweaters, accessories and beauty products.’ Now, she is able to accommodate a wider range of customers including men, women, and children. With her Zidisha funded loans, she’s also been able to cover necessary expenses such as transport and packaging.
Upon requesting her fifth loan in 2016, Susan shared, ‘I am so grateful to God, to all my lenders and Zidisha, this far I have reached because of you. Thank you so much.’
In January 2019, Susan prepared for a $385 Zidisha funded loan to help purchase a motorbike as she told lenders, ‘Due to the expansion of my business, I purchase more stock weekly, whereby I use motorbike taxi to carry my stock, which is becoming expensive, I decided to save money to buy my own motorbike for carrying stock and also for home delivery for those clients who buy clothes in bulk. I need to top up $400 to be able to achieve this dream. A motorbike will be very helpful, also my husband can use it as a taxi when it is not used at the shop, this will give us extra income, making our life more comfortable.’
Passionate about community, Susan says, ‘I love togetherness and am proud to be a Kenyan, despite other differences we are one and God for us all.’
Would you like to make a difference in the life of an entrepreneur like Susan? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to see what our 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.
