10/10/2020
.......Copied....
I DONT BUY MY WIFE SHOES 👠 for a good reason! The story of African businesses that dont finish!
S*X is absolutely useless unless both parties finish. Business is as good as bad s*x if the purpose for which it was established are not met. Am here at Addis AU Headqauters talking about Afircan Trade under the new African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement and wondering why African businesses never finish . What then shall we trade given that most business die in the first year or so without finishing????
I will give my own experience where I have lost over 70,000$ trying to be an investor . That money looks pale in comparison to the investment of many but it still will make my point. My wife also started small and her experience can give us some insights into why African businesses fail ...
When I was a 1st year Law Student, I became a photographer. In 1991 owning a camera was a huge deal . One would count the number of cameras in the UNI and so were the number of Studios most of them sendin the films to Kenya for processing.
There was only AFRO Studio and on Saturdays the bookings would take up the whole Kla road with wedding cars. A few Indians saw the business potential and brought in machines NORITSU etc and set up studios..soon several studios mushroomed and the market was full . AFRO Studio which was the most local and successful gave way and Indians took over. A few years and digital cameras came , people were no longer buying films and reels, slowly by slowly the small studios that used to wash photos died .. people began saving their photos on DVDS and sticks.. The big Indian studios began suffering as they would no longer sell films and dyes and all.. most of them folded...then came smart phones whose storage kept increasing from 128 MB to now 128 GB able to store a gazillion of photos and videos..the DVD sellers died... then now came cloud storage and soon sellers of SD cards etc will fold up...
The killer of the business above which were quite many was Technology but the real disease was the inability of the Africans to transition to new ways and methods..not that it is easy but there was no thinking about what else can we do apart from waiting for what will come .. with little investment the businesses collapse on mere change of technology . No ability to adapt and run ahead. NO ability for Research and Development . no fund for a bad day. A bad day comes and swallows all the businesses like a flood ...
For me I set up a Takeaway after LDC where the current Ham Towers is opp Makerere. My first mistake was to hire close family members. They took down the business the first time they had the chance. In fighting small competition and the need to make a quick buck brought the business to an early grave. There was a Video library and a phone land line call service as a side business but all crumbled at the good hands of my closest relatives. A baby was also born within the business between the chef and the manager a sister...the baby is now an adult ...but the business died and debts remained. 10 years after its death a man who had part invested 75,000 k came claiming from me Ug Shs 20 million. He wrote demanding interest on the 75k at the Commerical Banking rate for 10 years . He intended to kill me but he found that my legal skills were 13 years old and they knew how to save me. The law limits such claims to 6 years ..this kyeyo guy came 4 years late ..we had finished burying the business and the grave gravel was even broken all the bones having become oil and flowed probably to Hoima ...
I then started money lending in 1996...that was such a profitable business in THEORY because whatever mark up I put went away with a friend . The ONLY lesson I learnt from money lending is that you lose ALL your friends ..immediately they stand up from kneeling to beg for the loan, they become an enemy because one thing you will be sure of is that NO AFRICAN NO Ugandan, no friend intends to pay a loan. The best result is that money lending is a friend killing business . Some would even ask : show me your lending licence ' God! ...
anyway if you own a pistol may be you can recover. .I have a friend whose witness to the loan agreement was a pistol a grayish 22mm Smith and wesson which he would put on display as you signed . When he calls your mind would run to that pistol and you go borrow somewhere else to pay him and keep your life . But that's a bad life to lead ...I collected what I had and bought an old car a Toyota Corona UAB 007 and that business also died and I buried it..I wept!
I then saw the chameleons going to Kenya to record songs . There were a few studios here . So I went to Dubai and bought studio machines . I got a 3 bedroom house in Nsambya along the behind road of the American Embassy. I set up a good studio with new machines and recruited a producer who was saved a born again who instead became a " burn again " because no sooner had he started than he made the studio his own. I never knew the details of music production but I had the money to invest..so i failed miserably and ended up with the machines in my bedroom. .with debts and dents in my wallet....the key board and sudio mike remain in my bedroom even today...I buried that business, lost the few friends I had and wrote the epitaph " I will never invest in a business I dont know again "
After a few months someone convinced me to invest in the hair salon business...remember I dont know any thing about hair having lost my own and all the women I know having crossed into Brazillian , Peruvian and Indian hair plus all sorts of Darling and other artificial hair .. again I sent for machines from Dubai. .I bought a number of things locally ..salon chairs , got a place paid rent for 6 months, designed the place bought two huge 42 inch screens did my best and made two salons one for men one for women ..I realised soon that in order to run a salon you have to be a hair dresser yourself or something like that....when I hired a good hair dresser she became a problem because she wanted to be paid like an expert yet we were just starting. I would pass by after work and find no money in the tills but the oils and relaxers and power and water bills showed alot of activities ...when I brought my sister to be the cashier a war broke out because she would ask so she is coming to bank which money she doesnt produce??? So like the studio producer who produced for himself, the expert hair stylist became a liability..one day she disappeared with the keys for 3 days and we didn't know where to get her... a small subtitle is that she was also BORN AGAIN! ..after the 6 months I paid another 4 months rent from my salary paid the workers and CLIX Salon near KIU breathed its last.
I had to return the house to its original looks. To repaint to take the things home to find a store to keep the things. ..with tears I sold the chairs I bought at 1.3m at 440k they Tongs machine the everything just disappeared. ..moral of the story is NEVER do non of your business...meaning if it is nothing you know nothing about, dont bother. ..
Now my Wife started work in a florist shop before we met. Slowly by slowly she showed resilience which defeated my understanding. She kept growing .she started her own shop with time along bombo road at MK building where one of her shops is TILL today. She now has 4 outlets . Soon she began importing flowers frm Nairobi. She made and maintained contacts and networks who would load the fresh flowers in Akamba and other buses , She soon went to Dubai and made further contacts. All this time she was maintaining an account , keeping all her ATM withdrawal receipts, all her deposit slips ...to follow the money. One day she went to China and made valubale contacts and soon half a container would arrive. .I would hear her placing orders in broken English because you have to use broken engrish to the Chinese..I would hear her talking to the shipping agents. .i would hear terms like Groupagge Shipping , then I would hear her struggling with Kagina then later Akol to clear the high taxes ...then hiring warehouses to store the things, the chairs, the linen , the charger plates, the tables, the chair covers and all..
I would hear her ordering her workers, late at night to pick stuff from here and there ...I saw her suffer immensely to nurse and grow her business, she soon reduced decorating weddings and fictions and started renting out stuff. .the business has grown and she has showed impeccable persistence, she has saved and bought some plots in good places, she has managed to remain on top of her business and survived for the last 19 or so years since I met her....she now orders through WhatsApp and the goods arrive....managing costs, persistence , managing a good team, saving, being ahead of the competition has made her a good business lady who DOESNT NEED HER HUSBAND TO BUY HER SHOES👠👠...SO NOW YOU KNOW WHY I SAID I DONT BUY HER SHOES ...but also I have never really learnt her shoe style which keeps changing..
One day I "stole" a sack of her old shoes and until today when I confess she didn't even notice . I needed space in the bedroom and the shoes had spent a year and more unstepped on...so I took them to my village but those villagers were just falling because the shoes were high heels and in the village the roads are soft and uneven ..So see the problem I took to the village 🤣🤣🙈🤣🤣
My younger brother was doing so well in Government and commercial space but he was also a born businessman .together with his wife they set up RISCO kids a company that has grown to compete with the very best in the business . I have learnt alot form how they do business. They plan, they keep records, they have a great team, they recognise people, they maintain good contacts, they pay their taxes , they enjoy their money with their kids, they save, the avoid unnecessary loans, they dont grow until they need to grow , they respect customers fully, they have CCTV and have connected their outlets properly...they don't quatell over money they plan expenditure together, they own joint accounts I may add the are in love with each other and pay tithe🙈🤣
The morals of this post is that most businesses die because of wrong people we employ, entering business we know nothing about, hurrying to invest without exhausting planning, comparing ourselves with other successful businesses men and women, lack of persistence, eating up the capital, many taxes and levies , KCCA , URA local Govt , thieves and all,...
Poor access to capital and credit, poor saving culture, poor or low resource mobilisation, poor security of our business places. .too much theft of stock and all.
In 4 years if all goes well I will access about 120,000$ as my provident savings and I hope I won't mess around again ..as the Rwandese say NEVER AGAIN for the financial genocide!
I hope I will invest in business that FINISH that come....🙈
Someone has just asked me join the Coffee Business and all I know about coffee is Nescafe🤣 should I?????
These are some of the monies I lost:
Studio : about 15000$
Salon : About 15000$
Takeaway about 5000$
Money Lending about 25000$ The worst experience
General losses about 10000$
Anyway that is THE END!!!
