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My Move to start own business ignited by Pamoja skills training

Skills and Development

My Move to start own business ignited by Pamoja skills training

At the time of her enrollment in the project, Josphene had been learning tailoring as an apprentice for close to two years. “Although I had known the job, I relied on daily commission from my labour. I was paid a commission of 50 shillings for every shirt I made and 100 shillings for every dress. My commission depended on the availability of customers. I longed to open my own shop but was limited by lack of finance and confidence to make the move. The training on business finance management and soft skills gave me the inspiration and confidence to walk the journey. Lessons on goal setting, entrepreneurship, and business planning gave me the insights to begin the journey," says Josphene.
During the BFM and soft skills training, participants are given the opportunity to practice Business Model Canvas (BMC) and business planning with their actual or dream businesses. It is from this kind of practice that Josphene begun visualizing and actualizing her newly desired business move.
From the training, Josphene reached out to a friend in need who wanted to sell her old manual sewing machine and, with her little savings, bought the machine through two installments of Ksh. 2,500. Her husband later bought her another second-hand manual sewing machine. Even with the two manual machines, her work output was limited and always interrupted by regular maintenance due to bad condition of the second hand machines. Josphene was awarded a business toolkit of a brand new Singer sewing machine to boost her business operations.
"Before, I could only do one dress in a day. However, with the new machine from Pamoja, my work is faster and satisfactorily. I can do more than two dresses in a day. Sincerely, my business has changed. I am on a different growth trajectory. My income has improved. I made an average of 200 shillings before. I now make more than double and am still able to meet my customer's demand for production and comfortably provide space for two trainees on attachment. My only challenge now is the overlocking machine. As a remedy, I just do neat finishing but sometimes pay for overlock services. I am committed to expanding the business and moving from the current container to bigger space. Though I never made it to university, I see this business helping me to educate my children to university and beyond, " says Josphene."
Perri successfully sat for her NITA grade III, government trade test and has fully embarked on her Salon.  She has also offered an employment opportunity to one of her colleagues from YMCA. She currently sponsors her youngest sibling who is a student at Kisumu Polytechnic “I am very grateful to Pamoja for Transformation and her donor for the opportunity to study and the gift of Hair Drier machine. ​"
"I now have skills in Beauty Therapy and equipped to offer competent services to my clients. I would wish to tell my fellow young people not to wait to be employed. Employment opportunities are quite few, but with our own hands and hard work, we can contribute to create such opportunities for ourselves and others” Beline Perri"

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