Success Story

Alice Wambui Chege

Programme: WorldWideWomen (Train the Trainer, August 2012-July 2013)

Paying off a loan with efficient accounting

Alice is married and mother of six sons. Together with her husband she runs a shop for animal food in Kahuho shopping centre. Before the programme, they never kept records of their revenues and expenses in their shop. When she was asked about the amount of her profit she had to answer honestly and say, that she did not know. Difficulties arose after Alice and her husband sold many products on credit. Many of their customers were their neighbours and friends at the same time and so they couple felt uncomfortable asking them to pay off their debts. This situation had a negative effect on their relationship with their neighbours, which made Alice and her husband unhappy. In order to improve her business Alice participated in the WorldWideWomen programme. Everything she learnt in her courses she also passed on and discussed with her husband. First of all she stopped selling her products on credit. She tried to communicate the situations to her customers clearly and understandably, so that they would either pay immediately or leave the shop still with a good feeling. Alice herself was surprised by this development:,,I did not think that it would even be possible to sell something without debts.” Due to this change, Alice and her husband suddenly had enough money to restock their products and could save loan interest. By now, Alice and her husband earn approximately 25.000 KES per month. Alice is convinced that this exceeds their revenues from the past. Since she learnt how to control her revenues and expenses, she is cautious with spending too much money. Her husband is also very happy with these recent developments. Next to the thriving business he also benefits from the newly acquired cooking skills of his wife. Since Alice completed a few cooking classes in the course of the programme she now tries to also be the kitchen chef at home. For the future Alice is planning to renovate her shop and to offer her customers a more appealing atmosphere.