Stitching her way to a decent livelihood

It is a market day and everyone at Makindye Public Market is busy trying to woo customers. At one end of the market, a baby is strapped to its mother’s back, so that her hands are readily available to aid her handle the multitude of tasks they have grown accustomed to, counting money here, packing customers’ items there.
Within the busy bodies is a small-built woman who is also haggling for attention, employing her voice more - calling out for customers while she attends to a few who have converged at her makeshift stall. The sun is shining on her little face as she explains to a man and woman who have stopped at her stall to inspect her hand-made bags, card holders, wallets of different sizes and pretty much anything that can be made from cloth.
As I later learn, the crafts are a result of Caroline Kyomugasho’s week-long efforts. In a room she shares with her big sister in Kitala, off Entebbe Road, she puts her creative juices to good use and makes stuff that she sells.
There, she is taking steps towards establishing herself as a fabric designer. This was her childhood dream and she will keep at it until she gains meaningful returns and fame from it.

Motivation
As a little girl, Kyomugasho always sat near her mother, observing how she peddled her sewing machine into motion, tailoring clothes. When she graduated from Kyambogo University with a diploma in Textiles and Fabric Decoration, she got a job to manage a photo studio, stationery shop and also administered a crafts-designing company.
Her heart naturally warmed to the crafts side of business because she had memories with it. This time, as an administrator, she learnt how business is run. She put the lessons, theory and business acumen together and made an informed decision to start stitching designs, one at a time.

Her business
At the market where she sells her stuff every Friday, she turns up dressed in some of the attires she designs and carrying some of bags or wallets.
“Many times people ask me who made for me a particular top or shirt or bag and I use that opportunity to introduce myself and show them more stuff that I make,” the 25-year-old designer says as she goes about her trade. While she waits for customers, she busies herself, sewing something.
Some passers-by commend her for the good designs, giving her reason to smile. But she does so with humility, knowing that every day is an opportunity to learn something new from the artistic people she meets, as well as the magazines she flips through. She also enjoys watching fashion shows of different designers on TV and she is an admirer of local designer Stella Atal. Maybe she will become as established as Atal one day.

Venturing out
Like many youth, when she started out and hit a snag, she wanted to call it quits. She wanted to own a crafts shop and she thought it would be easy because she was always around people who owned shops. She gave it a try.
“I opened up a stall in January last year at the Craft Village on Buganda Road and paid the initial three months’ rent worth Shs600,000. I bought a few products for resale worth Shs600,000 too and invested another Shs200,000 in buying some fabrics. The products I bought to resell were too slow to move while the ones I made myself moved faster yet I had invested a bigger part of my capital in the products for resale,” she recalls.
As she discovered, the reason for their slow movement was because every other shop in the market was selling the same products and her original products were unique. This could not sustain the shop because her products alone could not support the shop with rent so she had close shop.
“In fact I left most of the products with the landlady to recover the two months’ rent arrears. At this point, I almost gave up but I remembered that the products I made were fast moving. I borrowed Shs300,000 and secured exhibition space at the Makindye producers’ market,” she further recounts.

Clientele
Apart from selling her merchandise in the market, she says that she also supplies crafts shop owners at the Craft Village behind the Uganda National Cultural Centre and at Buganda Road.
“I also sell to tourists who come to the market and also to people who make orders for special outfits and accessories. My dream is to start exporting my products to international clients,” she reveals.
So far, the biggest amount she has earned is Shs500,000 but yearns to earn way more than that as the business expands and grows. And as she aspires, she still has challenges to deal with.

Setbacks
“Being a young lady, most people do not believe that I can do what I do. They doubt my services and keep asking how good I can be at my age,” she shares, adding that her operating capital is also still small which limits her operation to a smaller area.
The other challenge she points out is that there is too much competition in the market and many producers make almost the same products yet they have to compete for the same clients.
She adds, “Copying is also another challenge. I always try to make different products from the rest but whenever they hit the market, another producer will copy them and sell them even much cheaper than their worth.”
Ugandans do not embrace the beauty in African fabrics and she explains that they always want to put you down even when you have done a great job and will not be willing to give you what is worth your efforts.
Nonetheless, Kyomugasho says that she has managed to exercise patience with clients who do not appreciate and she continues to make new and unique products every now and then to beat the competition and copying in the market.
The cost of fabric she used to make most of her stuff differs depending on type, metre size of the African fabric (kitengi). She averagely spends between Shs5,000 and Shs10,000 on buying the kitengi material.

Setting standards
The upcoming designer says she is keen on book-keeping and records of her sales, expenditures and profits. “I have got a savings’ bank account where I keep my savings. I make sure I pay myself for my efforts. This way, I am able to cater for my personal needs without encroaching on my capital,” she adds.
On a day, she will spend Shs5,000 on airtime and internet data because she has to keep herself updated. Her daily cost on a market day goes up, to Shs40,000 which she spends on transport, storage, market fees, meals and airtime.
She doesn’t want her life and business to remain like this forever. On her wish list is an aspiration to go for further studies and then work towards becoming a top female entrepreneur in the country. She also wants to be a lead supplier of fabrics in Uganda.
Her normal day starts at 5:30am with a morning prayer for the day’s inspiration. She then does house chores before beginning on her designing work for the day. She will continue sewing clothes or else get to her drawing board and create new designs. She takes a break at 1pm, for an hour.

How she achieved her dream

Well, her journey is hardly two years old. To kick-start her dream, Kyomugasho invested Shs300, 000. She used Shs50, 000 to secure an exhibition space at the market.
She then used Shs200,000 to buy a few metres of African fabrics that she designed into 20 wrap skirts. She saved the remaining Shs50,000 to cater for her transport and other expenses.
“When I went to the market, the first amount of money I earned was 310,000. I re-invested the whole amount and made more wrap skirts. This time, I made 30. I made a profit of Shs100, 000. This encouraged me a lot,” she recounts.
She says that for a long time her earnings were stagnant because she was spending her little profit on personal needs.
“But I was introduced to a savings group in the market by a colleague where I could save weekly and also borrow some money to add onto my capital. It was so hard to save in the beginning but now I can averagely save Shs50, 000 on a weekly basis,” she explains.

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