Jewellery was a safer bet than accounting

Stella Nabatanzi Kyobe is not your ordinary woman. She runs a business, has a family to take care of and is also an active church minister, all at the same time. Her life revolves around interacting with people.

On the phone, she sounds busy. It takes quite some bargaining to score an interview with her. We agree to meet at her work place, at 10a.m. But it rains so heavily the morning of our appointed interview that I resultantly reach her workplace, on Majestic Plaza, an hour late. I expect to find her gone, given her busy schedule. But no, she stays back and waits. Such is the character of Kyobe – patient, kind and understanding.

I hope to find imported pieces of jewellery at her shop. Instead, I’m astonished to find her making her own jewellery. While others sulk in poverty, Kyobe uses her talents to make fashion accessories.

She is dressed in a yellow top and black skirt, complete with yellow beaded earrings that complement her top. Kyobe makes beads, necklaces, earrings and accessories for women. You wonder where she gets all the time to do it all.

Kyobe was an accountant, a job that did not remit enough money to care for her needs. She switched jobs hoping to earn better. “I decided to change jobs but instead found myself spending more,” she says. “I realised that I had to drive 12km from my home in Lweza to my work place every day, which would cost me approximately Shs80,000 worth of fuel weekly. I found myself in a constant vicious cycle of poverty.”

I started with Shs50, 000
Her turning point came in 2009 after confiding in a friend about her financial situation. “She was very supportive and told me I could start a business,” she recalls. But just like the way most people think that you have to have a lot of money to start business, she laughed off the idea. “I thought one needed a lot of money to start any business. But my friend asked me how much I had. I told her I had only Shs50,000 on me.” And with that Shs50,000, her friend took her to town to buy material for business. “She then started training me on how to make beads,” recounts Kyobe.

Kyobe started selling her first pieces to friends at work and people at church. Her clientele expanded and the business grew. “I was getting more and more orders and money soon started flowing in,” she says with a smile on her face.

Setting up shop and facing the competition
Her clients started demanding for an address, which led her to set up shop in Kampala town. “They needed a permanent place where they could find me and refer other clients. I found space on Majestic plaza, which I shared jointly with other ladies. But in 2012, lady luck smiled down on her and she was able to set up her own shop in the same building.

As the business expanded, she realised that there was competition from other women also making beaded jewellery. Kyobe had to do something different. “I took advantage of the opportunities I got to travel abroad (to the UK, Dubai) to look out for new ideas by making it a point to visit jewellery shops to look at their necklaces and see what made them different.

“Every new style I saw, I came back home and tried out,” she says. This saw her diversify into fresh water pearls, precious stones, glass and crystal beads and metal chains, which has further increased her clientele and shaken off competition.

But how does one juggle a full time job, running a business and still find time for church ministry? During the interview, she refers to how she has been able to train her siblings on how to manage the business while she is at work. “I make time after work to check on what has been done and also spend Saturdays at the shop,” she says with enthusiasm.

She also alludes to the fact that she markets her own jewellery by wearing some of it to work and any other functions. Kyobe chose to see light in her storm and start her own money-generating venture. It is in the same respect that she calls out to other women to turn their challenges into opportunities and have belief in one self. “You will always meet obstacles in life. Invest in where your passion is,” Kyobe, who is also a motivational speaker, says.

Her challenges came with the competing with people who avoided taxes, in trying to fight it off by introducing different products. Her prices had to go slightly up to meet the operational costs. But she reassures that they are more costly but genuine, which equally pays off.

Kyobe’s business tip
You can start small and end up big.Do not despise humble beginnings.

fullwoman@ug.nationmedia.com