Baking her way around life

When Catherine Ssagala dropped out of school due to an unplanned pregnancy, she thought that was the end of the road for her. In the 1980s when she was an O-Level student, education for girls was seen as a privilege for the lucky few. So much so that many of her peers envied her for the chance she had. Now, imagine her horror when she realised that all that was to be no more after she conceived! “I was so scared when that happened,” says the 50-year-old mother of five.

However, her father, not one to give up on his children, sent her to study catering at Pope Paul Vocational Institute run by Catholic nuns. It is there that she fell in love with baking, a course she undertook for two years up to 1987. It became her second chance at life and she took it with such enthusiasm that even now, 30 years later, it is the source of livelihood for her.

After accomplishing her course at Pope Paul, like many entrepreneurs, Ssagala’s biggest conundrum was where to get capital to start a confectionary. That is when she turned to sewing and crocheting, another skill she had learnt during her vocational training.

“I got my first capital from sewing and crocheting table cloths that I sold to our family friends and my mother’s friends from church,” she narrates. Ssagala was able to raise Shs30,000.
She hang a poster on her parents’ gate communicating to the public about her business and from then on, she has never looked back.

Her courage and unrelenting desire to establish a business of her own paid off and now, as I sit at her Najjanankumbi-based confectionery, I can’t help but admire her work. Our interview gets interrupted from time to time by phone calls from clients, mainly fastidious brides-to-be calling in to check on the progress of their wedding cake orders. However, it was not all rosy; Ssagala is quick to point out.

“The beginning was tough. I had no oven or basic equipment to use when I got the few orders I managed to get,’’ she reveals. It is this inhibition that saw her move from Kawuku on Entebbe Road to her cousins place in Nakulabye, Kampala whenever she needed to use an oven.

“My cousin had an oven and when I got cake orders, I would mix my paste and carry it in buckets to Nakulabye, where I would bake and pack the cake in boxes back to Kawuku for delivery,’’ she said. When the Nakulabye journey became tedious, she turned to a bakery in Kawuku where she begged the owner to help her bake her cakes whenever his workers had finished their day’s work.

“That was also a challenge as the bakery closed at 1am and it’s only then that my husband and I were allowed to bake our own,’’ she reminisces.

This, for the then 20-year-old mother, was the ultimate challenge. She left her baby with a housemaid on such days and would only find relief when they made it home safely to her baby. These challenges, she says, served to make her stronger and shaped her into the astute businesswoman she is now.

Currently, she runs a successful confectionery called Cathy, and supplies her products to most of the leading supermarkets in Kampala.

In a town marred by several of such establishments, what makes Ssagala’s business work? The secret, she reveals, is in understanding your customer’s needs. “When a lady comes in to book a cake, they normally have an image of what they want. Mine is to advise them and show them just how that is to be arrived at,’’ says Ssagala.

Ssagala acknowledges that with her nature of business, time is of essence. Her remedy for this is to take only the number of orders that she can work on and be able to deliver on time, noting that a negative reputation has a potential to send a business to its knees.

Affordability, is another ace up Ssagala’s sleeve. For any amount of money, Ssagala says, she can provide a client’s need.

Challenges
When asked about the challenges she faces in this particular business, Ssagala says she has nothing much to complain about as this business is not marred by many challenges.

Apart from the fluctuating prices for her raw materials such as sugar and the isolated cases of clients who make orders late, she feels there is nothing significantly scary about running her kind of business.

Although most people shy away from talking about returns from their businesses, Ssagala is not afraid to reveal the secret that has kept her stuck to it for three decades.

“On average, I make at least Shs750,000 from my business weekly. This can improve depending on the season, with my peak season being December where I can go past a Shs1 million in a good week,” she said. Asked if she habours desires to expand, Ssagala is skeptical.

“At this level and age, I prefer to manage my business as it is. Expanding it may stress me and like I said, I am happy with it the way it is. With it, I employ three people and I am able to be hands on, ensuring that my clients’ orders get the attention they deserve!’’ she maintains.