By Betsy Ramser Jaime
Salome Makuwa is a hardworking woman, with big dreams to achieve. Between being a wife, mother to 3 children, student working towards her education degree, and business owner, Salome wears a lot of hats.
Through her business, she has been able to pay her own school fees and also provide financially for her family.
Salome believes in diversifying her income, and now operates multiple small businesses as she shares, ‘I do understand that with this economy businesses have gone down, but that’s the reason why one has to come up with plan B, to make sure it doesn’t affect anything. I have other small businesses to support me.’
In the future, Salome dreams of being able to open her own school or orphanage on her land while also continuing to grow her business as much as possible. She writes, ‘I trust with Zidisha all this is possible.’
Since raising her first loan from the Zidisha community in August 2020, Salome has been able to raise one new loan about every other month. Her loans have ranged in amount from $19 to $981, which is her most recent loan!
With these loans, she’s purchased supplies for both her restaurant and rice business. In September 2020, she raised $55 and shared, ‘With this loan, I plan to buy another bag of rice to keep me moving because I have learned that putting your eggs in one basket is not good all..at least if there’s another miner business support, with the recent one am sure I will not have problems when it comes to paying. I know many are facing challenges especially with the current situation and that’s why I keep on trying something out, just in case my restaurant is slow but am sure the other business can help me pay my loan on time..focus is the key to a successful business.’
In October 2020, Salome successfully raised $138 and shared some of her success with her rice selling business as she explains, ‘With this loan, I plan to buy another bag of rice which is about k3000-200kgs..the rice is in demand, I have a cousin that works by the airport so after getting some from the last bag, he went to tell his workmates from the airport how tasty and affordable the rice was and so a lot of them have shown interest, am now planning to buy the big bag. Thank you so much.’
Summing up, she writes, ‘I have been in this business for some time now and am very careful when it comes to handling of my business. Yes sometimes we face difficulties but I can never fail to pay.’
To see a recent update, from January 2021, check out Salome’s video!
Would you like to make a difference in the life of a Zidisha entrepreneur like Salome? Make sure to head on over to our Browse Projects page to read the stories of other business owners 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.
