February Kenyan Woman of the Month

Name

Jescah Sarange Choi

Age

What Pangea Women’s Network Cooperative are you apart of?

Angaza Women Group

Tell us about yourself

I am 41 years old, mother of 3 children. I am a businesswoman who owns a tailoring business in the Rongai area of Kajiado County. She has been running the business for close to 6 years now. Other than tailoring, she has previously tried her hand in other businesses such as grocery shop, milk vending as well as supplying avocados.

What are you most proud of?

I am proud of being a skilled dressmaker, a trade that has enabled me to provide for my children’s needs. I believe in the fact that a woman who is economically empowered can make decisions on her own to better her life. Economic dependency amongst many women in Kenya is what makes women stay in abusive relationships that can sometimes be fatal. As much as money is not everything, it at least gives one an upper hand in how they can run their lives. I am happy I joined a group of like-minded women who challenge me to do better in my personal and business life.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned with The Pangea Network?

The most important lesson I learned with Pangea Network is Business Management. There are many challenges that my business faces. To start with, it is a seasonal business whereby sometimes I have many customers and other times barely any. I have to plan my business in such a way that when I have high demand (like uniforms when schools open), I get the necessary help to satisfy the customers’ needs, and when the demand is low, how I can use the profits from the high seasons to meet the business costs. Another way to maintain my business is by substituting what I offer. I sometimes stock deras which sell very fast in the hot seasons. Handling debt is also something I have learned to handle over time. Some customers may request to have a dress be made quickly due to time constraints for the event for which the dress is made, and they end up not paying as they had promised. I have since learned to have a payment policy where one has to make a deposit of at least half the amount before work can begin on their dress and also agree on when the final payment will be made as the dress in handed over to them. This strategy ensures that I always have money available to run the business at any given time.

I also learned that running multiple businesses at a time may not necessarily be ideal. This can make one mix money for different business streams making the other suffer. For example, I once took money from the dressmaking business to buy avocados worth Sh.6,000 that were in season at the time to sell. Unfortunately, many of them rotted as I did not distribute them fast enough as my dressmaking business is time-consuming. In the end, I made low sales on the avocados and had insufficient money to replenish fabric in the dressmaking business.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your business?

The pandemic greatly affected my business. To start with, restriction in numbers on many gatherings that brought people together such as weddings, graduation, funerals, etc meant more people won’t need new dresses for the occasions, hence the low business. Schools remained closed for a long time, which meant that making uniforms would be a venture for another future date. This meant that I had to rely on the few repair jobs that came my way which is what I did. I tried to supplement income sources by selling milk and eggs. It was not easy but I somehow got by. Since income was not guaranteed, I took a small loan amount so that I would not default in repaying it when the time came to it.

On a positive note, the pandemic taught me that it is good to plan ahead for eventualities such as these. One can take advantage of the high seasons in my type of business and keep the money for use when income is low