Victor Antoci
Location: Nisporeni, Moldova
Family: Married with 3 children
Type of Business: Cement Block Production
Below is an example of one of our clients. It is great to know that my work not only provides me the opportunity to learn, but also can truly make a difference in the lives of others in Moldova.
Victor Antoci has received two loans from us so far for his small business. He is the head pastor of a small church in addition to owning a cement block production factory in his village. He began his business in 2006 after coming across the opportunity to buy 6 hectares of land and, since he had previously worked construction and knew the trade, decided to invest in a production business of his own. He used savings to obtain the proper machinery used to produce cement blocks and took counsel from others in learning how to produce high-quality cement blocks.
As his business began production, Victor struggled to buy the materials he needed, as most of his income was used to cover the cost of the property and machinery. When Victor heard about Invest Credit (IC) through friends who had attended a IC training, he decided to take out his first loan. He used this loan to invest in the materials he needed to help his business grow. As a result of the loan, Victor’s business began generating more revenue, giving him more capital to buy additional materials and machinery. With his business steadily growing, Victor decided to take out an additional loan the following year to strengthen his business operations.
Today, Victor’s business generates revenue of about $6000 per year, which helps to support his family of five and grow his church. He reports that the extra capital from the loan has had a positive impact on his business, and consequently on his life and his community. He is able to offer more to his children and provide jobs to others in his village. Currently, two men work full-time and others are hired on a week-by-week basis as needed. Victor values the opportunity to help others in his village add to their income through his business. Additionally, Victor donated his production services to provide all of the concrete blocks for the orphanage in his village. His business is well-known as being one that can be trusted; Victor is proud of his business’s reputation as a place where “you will be treated fairly and the quality is good.”
Through his experience working with IC, Victor says that he has learned a lot about being a business-owner. He has gained a better perspective of the value of money and is able to discern how to use his money efficiently and the importance of budgeting. Victor has also had the opportunity to attend several of IC’s trainings and has found them to be integral in his development as a business manager. At the trainings, he has learned practical information about advertising and sales, as well as how to run an ethical business. Months after the trainings, he is still applying the knowledge that he gained in his daily work. For example, Victor is currently focusing on different forms of advertising, as he is confident that despite the difficult economic situation there is a market for his products. Many of his customers express interest in building a garage or a barn with their extra money. Victor sees this as a great opportunity, and is thinking innovatively about how to make his business better known to the surrounding communities.
In the future, Victor hopes to expand his business to include production of windows and doors, as this would provide him with a more stable income. For start-up costs, he needs about $10,000 to buy the wood from Ukraine and is considering taking out an additional loan to enable him to do so. Victor also has access to many unused buildings on his property, and he hopes to be able to rent out these spaces to those in his community, enabling them to start businesses of their own.
Victor hopes to be able to use his business to serve others. He relayed that one of his employees has 5 children and lives in a 2 room house—he hopes that one day, when his profits grow, his business can provide free cement blocks for a bath and more rooms for his employee’s family.
Victor’s efforts toward a successful business have not come without hardship—especially in Moldova’s challenging economic environment. Being both a pastor and small-business owner, he often feels pulled between the two jobs. The struggles of the business take away from his ability to give more time and attention to his church. Dividing his time between the two endeavors is not easy, but Victor compromises by spending his mornings at the business delegating tasks to his employees, and in the afternoons visiting families from the church and the local prison. Most evenings, Victor is at church working on his sermon or attending meetings. He hopes to see his business grow so that he can invest more time in the church and his family.
Victor describes his faith as, “the thing that allows him to trust God for the future.” This trust motivates him to be intentional about using his business to impact the Kingdom of God. His two employees are both non-Christians, but through his contact with them at work Victor encourages them to get involved with church activities. His church has also been impacted, as the income from Victor’s business has enabled the church to host activities it otherwise would not have afforded. He hopes that his business will continue to have a positive spiritual impact. His church community is currently planting a new church in a neighboring village and he hopes to be able to use his blocks to help with the construction of the building.
