Well, COVID-19 happened and some of us have not recovered yet. I lost my job just before the pandemic and the consequent lockdown was not kind to me at all. Anyway, post lockdown and I finally managed to get myself an entry-level gig with a basic salary of 500000shs. Now picture if you can, a woman in her early 30s with rent and utilities and no parents or a man to help out, surviving on half a million Uganda Shillings which comes to about 150 USD. It was time to put my big girl panties on and look for an alternative source of Income. So, I joined a circle at work where each of us collects 150k off our salaries per month and one takes the circle amounting to 750,000 after 5 months. So, it’s almost my turn now and I am furiously looking for something to invest in. Here are some of the ideas I got off the net.
- Do a beautician course and join some beauty salons. I see at least a beauty studio on every street these days. If you have capital and business knowledge, maybe you can start one. Did I tell you I hate hair and can’t stand the thought of touching someone else’s wet hair uurrrggghh. Maybe makeup but then again, I am the kind to just slap on lipstick and leave the house but it is something to think about.
- Managing and training kids at daycare. I have thought about starting a daycare before but the capital is too intense for me right now. However, if you own your house and are passionate about kids, this is something to think about.
- If you are good at Cooking and can take it as a profession, go ahead and cook for bachelors living in metro cities. They are missing good home food. Cooking is something I do to avoid starvation but if it is something you love go for it. Make juice too. Its returns
- If you think you can teach well, do a teacher training course and go ahead to teach the ignorant students at college about software engineering and the industry, or whatever you are interested in.
- Go back, sit and dig your passion that you have lost. You might have been a good dancer, a singer, an artist, an athlete, or great at something when you were a student. You might have lost the passion for it now. Now go and brush them up and start preaching it.
- Take civil exams and become a civil servant in railways, police, and forest are some federal departments. This was such a good idea though not practical in our banana republic. (Do we even have civil exams)
Anyway, I decided that this is too mzungu for me since I needed to invest some more money in myself that I didn’t have, the cheapest make-up course is over 1,000,000 shillings. So I came back to the ground and below are the prospects to consider. I researched using 500,000/= as the benchmark:
- Restaurant: food has a lot of profit u can never go wrong once you get a place that is busy.
- Car wash/ night parking: Hire a place. They are always cheap and start with washing cars, car washing costs around 5 to 10k. You just round up a few boys but have to be on the ground to manage.
- Home cleaning: all you need is to buy cleaning items and you start knocking on people’s homes asking for jobs. Start with family and friends, they will recommend others to you.
- Barbershop: all you need is a chair and mirror and a shaving machine. Cutting hair costs between 5k to 20k depending on location.
- Rice and posho: the most consumed food is posho and rice. If you supply this to people at homes or offices, you’ll get good profit. Invest in packaging to make your product more attractive.
- Phone charging and gadget Business: all you need is a socket from a shop you can sub-rent and charge 500 shillings.
- Sale of Bedsheet and Pillowcases: buy good materials from Kiyembe and get a good tailor, and start selling to people in offices.
- Shoe selling: buy from Nabugabo and sell them to the corporate class in offices.
- Chapati making: find a busy area and start this chapati business, people eat snacks in kikomando and Rolex on a daily (breakfast, lunch, supper).
- Muchomo selling joint: goats’ meat/chicken Muchomo if well packaged will attract people to buy from you. Get a good location preferably with heavy traffic like a taxi stage, or an area with an active nightlife.
- Football kibanda: Football is here to stay and yet so many fans around the country can’t afford DSTV.
- Selling breakfast/ simple lunch: sell to corporates in offices.
- Selling ready-to-eat fruits or greens: most people are lazy when it comes to healthy eating. If you supply fruits and greens to them, many can buy this idea. But you have to be so clean.
- Selling good quality Owino (used clothes) or Nabugabo clothes: sell to the corporate class because they are too busy to go shopping.
- Photocopying and printing: get a busy area mostly near police stations or offices.
- Supply movies to offices: most people are bored at home; others don’t have time to look for nice films. Supply them with movies at a good fee. (I think this was killed by Netflix and its ilk)
- Cleaning and Laundry services: Just collect a number of girls or women whom you trust not to have sticky fingers, visit people’s homes wash clothes, and do general cleaning.
So after all these ideas, I decided to opt for clothes that I will be selling online. Will come back with a review after 6 months.
