Just over fifteen years ago Fuad Mammadali Aliyev gave up his job as a salesman in a small stationery store in Khachmaz by the Caspian Sea, north of Baku. "It was tough at first, but my kiosk was my castle. And I had a prime location selling newspapers and stationery at the main bus station,” Fuad reminisces. <br/>For a long time, almost ten years, his kiosk had been his world, too. Until the day Access Bank came into the picture. "Customers kept asking me for things I should have on offer, but I simply didn’t have the space to sell them, let alone stock them,” Fuad explains, "so I began thinking about setting up my own shop. And seeing a bank.”<br/>Things moved quickly from there as Fuad’s success with the kiosk, his entrepreneurial drive and his thrifty attitude, but also his financial track record, did much to convince the advisor at Access Bank that this was a good, solid business in the making. "Our shop opened for business six years ago and since then we’ve kept adding more and more new things to meet customer demand, like books and toys,” Fuad beams.<br/>"We are now on our ninth loan with Access Bank,” he continues, "and the repayment plan is aligned with our business growth.” In fact, Fuad is now joining forces with another entrepreneur to open a second shop. "This new venture will also enable economies of scale on the purchasing side, which will free more cash flow to create at least two, maybe three new jobs.”<br/>Promoted by EU4Business