Saima

Ms. Saima belongs to a small town called “Begum Kot” in the vicinity of Lahore. She is married & a mother of 4 children. She started her business of repairing “Energy Savers” commonly used in houses and commercial places. Prior to starting their own business, her husband used to operate rickshaws to earn the livelihood of the family. The income was not enough and they lived hand to mouth. Saima then decided to play her role in enhancing the family income by learning the skill of repair work from her uncle. The new skill gave her the idea of her own business and she laid down the foundation of work in her own home around 10 years ago. She contacted JWS, a borrower of PMIC, and took out a loan of Rs 85,000/- and invested in her business which expanded with time and her hard work.

Initially, the family started a business in their home and soon rented out a separate place for work. This also enabled them to employ workers. Workers for this type of work were not trained hence she started on-the-job training for the willing workers. This also enhanced the quality of products as all the workers have the same orientation and training. She stated that quality of work and reliability of repair made her gain space in the competitive market slowly but steadily.

Over the period of almost ten years, she enhanced her financial capacity to take larger and larger orders from the market and required raw materials. As of now, she has expanded her business setup and employed four (4) people from the community with sales as high as PKR 200,000 per month. The savings and continuous financing from JWS Pakistan proved handy to meet the financing requirements. Through this business, Ms. Saima has been able to provide quality education to her children who are all studying in private schools. She has also started a committee (savings) to achieve her future plans.