Leni

Leni Gaspan is a woman entrepreneur who runs a progressive clothing business since 2018. She is married to Samuel and they have four children. All of her children attends school through online and module classes. The family lives peacefully in Cebu province. Samuel on the other hand operates his own construction supply business.

Leni started her business more than two years ago. Her first shop is found in the town of Liloan in Cebu province. She named her business 'Len's fashion Accessories trading'. She started with renting long evening and other dresses on rent. Later on, she added more items like ready to wear clothes, overrun t-shirts, shoes, sandals, household items and more varried items. She usually sells trendy clothes found online. In 2019, she opened her second shop found in the same town but in different village. She runs the same business in her second shop.

During the pandemic months, her shop remained opened but she earned less income compared to the income before the pandemic. Three months ago, Leni decided to open her third shop found in the town of Consolacion. There, she sells ready to wear clothes, underpants, shoes, sandals, slippers, hair accessories, household items, beauty products and etc. Leni is paying monthly rent for the three shops. She employs four regular employees who manages the daily operation of the three shops and two of those employees are her relatives.

To earn more income, Leni also sells her products through her Facebook account. Aside from walk in customers, she also have many re-sellers. Leni gives incentives to those re-sellers who achieved highest sales per month. It is a good strategy for her re-sellers to keep working hard selling their products. She gives wholesaler prices for her re-sellers to earn income too. All of her products she sells are local products either purchased in Cebu or in Manila.

When she started the business, Leni also became a member of the MFI Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative in order to access more funds to invest in her business. Recently, Leni applied for her eight loan to the co-op. She will use the loan to purchase bulk items of men and women's clothing, shoes, slippers, beauty products and other items needed for her three shops. She have to purchase it in bulk and in cash in order to avail discounts from her suppliers. She needs to maintain the availability of her products to keep meeting the demands of her customers and re-sellers. Leni will keep following the fashion world for people will surely buy products trending online. She hopes and pray that her three shops will keep progressing in the future. She will continue to provide good customers service to her customers and re-sellers for them to keep coming back. She promise to repay the loan over the period of twelve months.

If you are lending, please be aware that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic your repayments could be at greater risk of delay or default.