A Wise Entrepreneur

Tigist Agegnehu is one of the Community Development Program beneficiaries, who is married and has one child who studies at the Take Root Center (TRC). Her son joined TRC three years ago and the school provides food support regularly on a monthly basis and it is intended that students get some basic nutritional benefit. Because of low income her family living condition was not good. Her husband was employed at a construction materials welding organization and earned 700 Birr per month. Tigist was also employed at a construction company and earned 7 Birr per day. However, the income they generated was not enough to support their family and did not give them the means to live an independent, debt-free life. Until this hard time passed, they had to wait for and live at her mother's home. Some times their parents supported them to make their living. In order to get a better income, she moved to the same organization where her husband had been working. And she was responsible to paint doors, windows, chairs and other materials which need painting. But nothing changed in their living.After some time, Seeds of Africa foundation delivered training on entrepreneurship and business development services for three consecutive days. It was at this time she said, "I could see good opportunities which seemed invisible before."Then she took a loan from Seeds for a total of 1069 Birr to make her own business dealing with food ingredients preparation. Though she paid the loan, she was not happy in the business, and started looking at the welding business and tried to apply her entrepreneurship training. Then she tried to convince her husband to open their own welding house by justifying how profitable and successful they would be if they used the good opportunities they have. She had even done some research into welding equipment, reading useful online articles such as this Hobart and Hypertherm comparison. She explained to her husband that, since he was a professional and very skillful person, he could produce high-quality goods for an excellent price. He was concerned at first but she convinced him that they would work by renting the equipment until they could afford to buy it by themselves. Despite renting the equipment, it was important that they knew how to use it. There are a number of different methods used to weld different things, so they needed to understand which methods would be best for them. Thankfully, they had access to websites like https://weldingheadquarters.com/how-to-wire-feed-weld/, so they could quickly learn each method. This helped them to get a better understanding of welding techniques, allowing them to really start their new business venture. The next step was to source the right appliances and materials. Now, cored welding rods aren't so hard to find. However, good quality rods, as per industry grade chemical manufacturers like Thermograde (thermograde.com), should have the right concentration of sodium titanate and potassium titanate. Armed with all the know-how, he finally agreed, and they started their own welding business.Working with rental materials is very costly and took most of their profit. However, the income they generated was still better than before and they bought some small materials gradually. Second round loan distribution was the best opportunity for them to buy one basic material for welding business. After taking the loan she bought a machine with a cost of 7500 Birr. Before buying this, they would pay 100 Birr per day. The number of customers increased and demanded additional workers so they employed three workers. Each worker earns a minimum 1200 Birr per month. Currently, Tigist also works as a painter and cash collector for the organization. It is unknown if a usda b & i loan would be available in business areas such as this, but it would be helpful for those businesses who are just starting out.Gradually, their living condition started improving. They have rented a residence by themselves, and furnished it with household materials like a television, sofa, different style shelves, and a bed, altogether costing more than 20,000 Birr. It was unlikely that they would ever be able to afford to buy these goods before. Not only this, they have been saving 500 Birr per week, bought another machine that costs 6000 Birr and they are spending their income on their social life, health coverage and supporting their families. Nowadays, their monthly income has grown to a minimum 5000 Birr. The couple has been dreaming to have their own residence in the near future.They said, "We really appreciate Seeds of Africa for the support it has been giving all the time and especially, the community development program team has a special place in our achievement "

Finally Tigist said, "It is not the loan that I took that changed my life but the knowledge I gained from the training."