Prime
The self-made stylist minting cash
Brian Ahumuza, a specialist in men’s attire displays hats and shirts for sale in one of his shops. PHOTO BY Abubaker lubowa
What you need to know:
Capital. With the initial capital of Shs5 million, his dream of owning his own boutique soon became a reality in 2008.
He chose business over his university degree in Social Work and Administration. The 23-year-old Brian Ahumuza imports all sorts of men’s wear and sells them at his shop at Prime Complex.
On this particular Saturday afternoon, he is seated behind the shop’s counter talking on his cell phone while jotting down a few notes on a white piece of paper. The shop which is neatly decorated in red and white has various open drawers with shirts, trousers, sweaters, hats and shoes. A group of about seven boys stand in various designated corners to attend to any client who enters the shop.
From time to time, Ahumuza leaves the counter to help some of the clients who are struggling to make choices of the kind of outfits they want to buy. He drew inspiration from his mother who owned a stylish boutique. “I used to admire all the nice clothes that she used to sell in her shop and would picture myself owning my own,” Ahumuza explains. Since he could not afford owning a boutique then, Ahumuza bought classy outfits which his friends admired.
When he was employed as a cleaner at Huawei Technologies, an Information and Communication Technology solutions firm during his Senior Six vacation, his colleagues liked the outfits he put on. Some of them request him to purchase outfits for them. “I used to get for them mostly shirts and trousers and in a day, I would make about Shs40,000 as my profit,” Ahumuza explains.
As he rose though various ranks at Huawei, he saved about Shs5 million which enabled him kick-start his clothing business. He got most of his clothes from various dealers in different markets across the city. Even when he joined Kyambogo University in 2008, some of the male students would make the same demand as his colleagues.
The start
The overwhelming number of orders is what compelled Ahumuza to rent a smaller room in Prime Complex where he used to sell all sorts of different male attires. When the number of his clients increased, he shifted the business to a bigger room within the same building.
Ahumuza struggled to juggle his academics with his job at Huawei, given that his workload was increasing. “It was very difficult to do all the three at once. They all needed a lot of time,” Ahumuza explains. Eventually, he quit the job at Huawei and his studies in 2011 with just a semester to finish his degree.
“Most of my friends had discouraged me from leaving school but I chose not to listen to them. This is because I really wanted to concentrate on my clothing business which was doing well. If I had chosen to study the remaining semester, my business would have collapsed,” he says. On average, he pockets a minimum of Shs10 million a month.
With enough time on his hands, Ahumuza opened another outlet at JBK plaza last year. Most of his clothes are now imported from South Africa, Dubai and the United States of America. “I buy most of these clothes whenever I am travelling,” he explains. His hats range between Shs25,000 and Shs100,000 while the shoes go between Shs50,000 to 150,000. The shirts and sweaters are above Shs50,000 while the trousers go beyond Shs70,000.
The stylist
Besides running both shops at Prime Complex and JBK Plaza, Ahumuza is also a stylist for some of the prominent musicians and television personalities. Some of them include: Moses Okori aka Coco Finger, Matovu Mungi Emmanuel aka Mun G, and Douglas Lwanga, a presenter at NTV.
Since he also ventured into making his own designs, Ahumuza organises fashion shows to showcase them.
Regarding the challenges, the biggest so far is the unpleasant things some people say behind his back concerning his source of money.
“I have heard people say all sorts of dirty things about me. Such people never believe that a boy my age can be successful,” he says. Ahumuza ignores most of these comments. Competition is the other obstacle since there are many people dealing in the same industry.
