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New York City Microentrepreneur and Global Microentrepreneurship Award Winner Fatimata Lonfo
- Fatimata, you are the owner of a successful African clothing boutique and hair braiding salon in Staten Island, NY. You are also the winner of a United Nations Global Microentrepreneurship Award. Tell us about yourself and how you built your business.
When I arrived in the US from Cote d'Ivoire, I was working several jobs to support my three children and braiding hair on the side, at home. It was always in my mind to start my own business, but I didn't have money. My friends said, "You're crazy, you know here is not like Africa. You cannot open a business if you don't have documents - who'll give you the things to open? And I said, you don't know me - when I want something, I will do it."
When the business grew too big for my small space at home - I had almost 50 hair-braiding customers - I gathered the little money I had saved from all those jobs and moved into a tiny store, which was dark and small and not in a very good area for doing business. I made traditional African clothing and sold it as well. From there, it was just a lot of hard work. I got the word out about my business by doing small fashion shows for the community a few times a year. Now people know who I am.
- How did you become involved with ACCION New York?
When I wanted to move out of that first store, I was looking around for someone who would loan me just a little bit of money for a rent deposit. But I didn't have a formal credit history, so the banks weren't interested, and no one I knew in my community could help me out, either. I went everywhere, I asked everyone, and finally I went to an accountant who was helping me get my books in order and he said, "I can't help you, but let me call Moriah at ACCION New York"
- What was the amount of your first loan and what did you use the money for?
ACCION New York first approved me for a small loan of $2,500. It helped me move to a real storefront in a more popular area, where I get business from people who walk by. It's a place that I can be proud of.
That was almost a year ago, and I am on my second loan from [ACCION], this time for $5,000 to help me buy inventory for hair braiding and materials for the clothes I make. I have a perfect repayment history.
- How do you think these loans have affected your and your family's lives?
I left Cote d'Ivoire to escape family problems and to give my children the possibility of a better life. As a single mother, they are completely my responsibility. The business supports the four of us - it's everything we have. They help me with the business when they aren't in school or at their other jobs, and I hope it teaches them to be responsible.
More importantly, though, I am trying to get the money together to help pay for my two oldest children to go to college. The oldest started community college this fall, and tuition is so expensive. I'm not sure how I'll pay for my son as well, starting next year, but somehow I have to do it for them. They're hard workers, like I am, and I can't let them down.
- What are your plans for the future of your business?
I'll keep working as hard as I can as long as God allows. I'd like to hire some people to help me with the sewing and tailoring. I design and sew many of the clothes, but the work takes so long. If I hired someone to put them together, I could do more. I'm on my feet all day, braiding and sewing and drawing and out advertising my business in my community. Someday I'd like to move to a store in one of the big shopping centers in Staten Island. Whenever people want to buy things, that's where they go. There are so many Africans here, I know I would do a good business.
Right now I'm just focusing on doing what I love and doing it well, getting new clients every day and keeping them. That's the biggest positive thing I can say about myself. Even though I go through some difficult moments, I stay positive, and I don't give up. I don't ever give up.
- How does it feel to be the winner of the 2004 Global Microentrepreneurship Awards in the United States, to attend the opening of the NASDAQ stock exchange, and to represent the face of microentrepreneurs worldwide at the United Nations?
At first I thought it was just going to be a lunch or something - I didn't understand how important it was. Then I heard I was going to be in the newspaper and on TV, and at the United Nations. The celebrations and the media people just keep coming and coming. It's a big day - it's a big event in my life! God bless ACCION New York! It makes me feel like an important person now - an important person in America!
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