Expansion of Kilulu School Uniforms

As stated earlier, our products are mainly the manufacture and sale of uniforms mostly to Primary and Secondary school children though we also cater for uniforms in other sectors such as Petrol attendants, matatu crew, school support staff, overalls and lab coats, as the need may arise.
The profit arises from converting raw fabrics into uniforms. This will require purchasing fabrics from wholesalers, employing tailors to sew the uniforms to our required standards. Currently we have two ordinary sewing machines, one industrial machine, button hole maker and one over-lock. We employ two tailors who make the garments as well as do minor alterations and repair. During high season we have to depend on contractual tailors whom we pay by the number of items they make. By the third year we are planning on having at least three industrial machines, automatic cutting machine, industrial steam iron, industrial over-lock as well as two large working tables.
The target market is varied from the well to do, to the less fortunate. We cover and intend to reach all the geographical areas around Kitengela and it’s environs stretching from Machakos junction, to the outlaying Maasai areas, all the way the way to Kajiado and Namanga borders.
Using a roving salesman on a motorbike we will strive to deliver uniforms to the schools, again lessening the burden on the parents. We will develop a system with the schools, whereby a parent does not have to come all the way to the shop, but can give the school’s headteacher the required standard size of say shirt, short, trousers or skirt for that particular school. The Headteacher will then SMS us and we will deliver the same during our weekly roving to the areas. If the student requires a special size, the sales person will be able to take the measurements and the uniform delivered on the next visit. The roving salesman will also have stocks of such items as sweaters, socks, ties, exercise books etc when visiting such remote schools. Thus the roving salesman will be responsible for delivering any outstanding orders, take any new orders and showcase our products to new clients or any new products to old customers.
Our current suppliers are wholesalers in Nairobi, as well as individual wholesale producers of various products (see 14)

While marketing our products, we first make sure that our quality is of the highest standard, while maintaining a reasonable enough cost. This can be explained by the fact that we have been the Major supplier of school uniforms to Kiuni Preparatory School despite our competitor in the area, i.e Kitengela Uniforms, an achievement we would like to emulate in other schools. Secondly we maintain the confidence and raport with our clients by being flexible in meeting the clients requirements in terms of product design (e.g. embedding of school logo on shirts, T shirts, sweaters etc). We also ensure we offer free alterations and repairs for uniforms bought from us within a reasonable time frame, again, this is in order to build confidence in our clientele.
For promotional purposes, we visit schools showing them our workmanship as well as distribute pamphlets (see sample attachment), to be given to parents as well as simply by word of mouth. In future we plan on having a roving salesman preferably on a motorbike, to access remote schools as outlined in The business Product/ service & company above.

Our unique product/services include:
i. We are aware of the customers’ unique needs and thus are flexible in meeting the customers needs, where others have the attitude of take or leave it.
ii. We thus build confidence and rapport with our clients such that we get a good clientele of repeat customers who bring us more customers by word of mouth.

Since opening this business from 2004, I have acquired vast experience in the production of school uniforms, learned a lot about the local requirements as well as meeting individual client needs. During Sells and Marketing, I have visited various schools within the locality which has created awareness of the schools to our services and has also given us insight to the various needs of the different schools. This awareness has resulted in us offering our services to pupils in well over 80 schools from as far as Namanga, Machakos, and interestingly enough to boarding students who reside in the Kitengela area, but study wayout of this region e.g Eldoret, Nyeri etc.
So far we have seen success in the following ways;
i. There has been a steady growth in the yearly turnover since we started
ii. We have built up confidence and raport with the local community, such that some parents get utterly upset and irritated when they find the shop closed (when we have had to) more so during public holidays, and we get berated for it.

The failure we have experienced mostly concerns retaining workers due financial constraints, as the turnover is high due to the fact that the workers opt to go to bigger companies. Another big problem, though not a failure as such, is the trouble of getting different shades of the same material from time to time, a problem that can be solved by having enough capital so as to acquire enough material directly from the manufacturer rather than from whole sellers. This will have the added advantage of being able to specify to the manufacturer, the exact mixture of dyes to use so as to have the same shade of fabric every time.

Currently our enterprise is directly employing 5 people, but indirectly we are involved in giving work to at least 15 people. As stated earlier, through the self esteem the pupils get in having well prepared uniforms, this will ultimately translate to good performance in schools, ultimately to a well educated population, which will hence contribute to the local as well as the national economy. By subsidizing for the not well off, this will lift the burden on parents, who may then expend their energies in improving their living standards rather than on how they will get the uniform for their Son/Daughter to attend school. This will lead to feel good state for All leading to a win – win for all. To this end, hope to see the reduction of pupils sent home for lack of school uniform, as in though primary education has been made free, school uniforms remain a constraint to some pupils, thereby denying them the chance to excel.