Tweet

Day Laborer Turned Micro-Businesswoman

Written by: Grameen Foundation

Article Overview: D. Ellevva's story - India

Day Laborer Turned Micro-Businesswoman

Despite the early hour, the morning sun is nearly blinding when D. Ellevva and her fellow clients gather at a SHARE center meeting in the rural village of Parvatapur in Andhra Pradesh. About 25 women, or five groups, sit on the floor of the school house porch, patiently waiting as each group leader collects loan payments from the women in her group and gives them to the local SHARE center manager. Ellevva, seated in the front row, efficiently gathers up the payments from her group members and counts the bills before giving them to the center manager.

Ellevva’s quiet confidence and sense of responsibility make her an ideal group leader. It was a 5000 rs loan from SHARE eight months ago that gave her the opportunity to capitalize on these skills and use them to grow a micro-business. Ellevva and her husband, Durgiah, live in a small, one room house made of mud and sticks. Before taking a loan from SHARE, both worked as day laborers for meager wages (usually 20rs per day for a woman and 40 rs per day for a man) and struggled to make ends meet.

With her first loan, Ellevva purchased a buffalo that recently gave birth to a calf. It will now produce milk that Ellevva can sell in the market. With a second “special” loan of 3000 rs, she purchased two goats and some vegetables. When she purchases vegetables, Ellevva sells some a nd grinds the rest (the pulses [legumes] and dal [lentils]) into flour. Already thinking ahead to her next loan, Ellevva wants to purchase another buffalo.

Though it is only eight months since her first loan, Elleva can see the difference it has made in her life. “I am very happy to have gotten a loan,” she says. “Now I have my own business, earn a regular income, and no longer have to work as a day laborer.”

Related Articles
  Find Meaningful Work to Feel Fulfilled
  Why Sales Professionals Should Never Prospect
  Knowledge is Power or is it
  You Never Know Whom They Know
  How to Get What You Really Want in 2007

Article Tags: day laborer, day laborers, eight months, goats, group leader, group members, legumes, lentils, loan of 3000, loan payments, meager wages, micro business, morning sun, own business, quiet confidence, rural village, school house, sense of responsibility, share center, special loan



Related Forum Posts
How to develop sales contacts? - I’m pretty new in the business and I've just gotten into selling and yesterday I made about 35 calls. Turned with two major prospects, but I was just wondering what are some other ways that you all use to make contacts?
Re: How to develop sales contacts? - [quote="gary_2000":3epzzq7u]I’m pretty new in the business and I've just gotten into selling and yesterday I made about 35 calls. Turned with two major prospects, but I was just wondering what are some other ways that you all use to make contacts?[/quote:3epzzq7u] We were in the same boat some time ago. We launched a large advertising campaign and in the end we received about 3 clients from it. The marketing was good but the distribution killed us (Canada Post sucks!). Anyways, we serviced those 3 clients like you would not believe, went above and beyond for them, and satisfied everything we possibly could. Now those 3 customers have brought us a significant amount of revenue and led to more leads throughout the time they have been with us. Our business depends on referrals and that’s how we’ve built the business. In the 2 years we’ve been running we catered to little over 250 customers world wide. We have clients in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, and evenly distributed through North America. We started with just 4 clients in the beginning! Keep making those calls and servicing them well! Good luck!!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What Type of Business Should I Start?

Starting a Business a Brave Move or a NoBrainer

Fighting the Saw-Tooth Affect

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.