I – Quick description
Wilmar Blas Quintero Rivas, 29, of El Tololar, Nicaragua is seeking funding to open a computer repair business, either in the city of León or Chinandega. This business would principally offer laptop and desktop repair & maintenance, with possible expansions into cell phone repair, computer sales and website development.
Wilmar has run the computer grant program for Tololamos since its inception – his duties include distributing computers to grant recipients, maintaining our stockpile of computers and repairing recipients’ computers. He has since taken a course in computer repair at La Salle Technical School in León, as well as private studies in Photoshop in Managua. His skills and aptitude are strong and continuing to grow.
We’re seeking a loan principal between $3,300 and $5,200 – various options can be added or subtracted depending on availability of funding. A full list of projected expenses (in Spanish) can be found here.
For a $4800 principal, the constituent parts of the loan break down as follows:
II – Strengths of the Proposal
- Wilmar’s personal skills and talent with computers.
- Wilmar’s uncle, José, has taken more advanced electronics repair courses and is poised to join the business.
- The city of León has relatively few computer repair shops, while the number of computers and demand for computers is rapidly increasing.
- Beto’s photography/camera repair business was started with a Tololamos loan and is now in it’s fourth year of successful operation. Beto is a good friend of Wilmar’s and will be able to provide him with business guidance.
- The Lundgren family is living in Tololar through July 2017 – Cully has already helped Wil with the proposal and they will continue to help with the launch of the business.
III – Challenges
The principal challenge of this proposal is Wilmar’s inexperience with starting or running a business. Our plan to mitigate that challenge is to provide strong support from Beto, the Lundgren family, Tololamos and his network of investors.
Infrastructure in Nicaragua is also unreliable, and it can be quite difficult to obtain even basic replacement parts (no Amazon delivery there yet). We plan to stockpile Wil’s shop with a good assortment of parts and tools, and be available to send things via DHL for special situations.
IV – Start-up loan mechanics
You can invest in this project at a level you choose, and you can opt in or out of safeguards in the event of project failure.
The loan will carry simple interest at 2% APR, with a projected full repayment in four years. You can also choose to donate the repayment to Tololamos, or to re-invest it in a future loan.
We will keep you updated on the progress of the business, and periodically solicit your input on how things are going. You can be as involved or as uninvolved as you would like!
In the event of project failure: We will do everything we can to ensure this project’s viability, but no project is guaranteed to succeed. When making your contribution, you can choose a level of safeguard that you’d like – 0%, 25%, 50% or 75%. In the event of failure, we will liquidate the remaining assets of the business and, if need be, use Tololamos’ resources to recoup the percent of your contribution that you select.
V – How to contribute
- Send an email to love@tololamos.org indicating your intended contribution amount, level of safeguard (0-75%), and repayment preference (installments, lump sum, or donate the repayment to Tololamos).
- We’ll reply with information on sending funds – kindly do not use the donate feature on our website. To minimize transaction fees and overhead, we’ll be collecting loan contributions via either personal Paypal transactions or check.
Thank you so very much! It means a lot.