Barbeque king earning big

Sweet and tender, or sometimes lean but well-seasoned, that is the kind of taste and textual quality Collin Muhumuza desires in any meat that meets his tongue.
But looking at the bespectacled 23-year-old behind the barbeque roaster—casually dressed, on his eyes, you cannot imagine that Muhumuza even knows the ABCs of meat. But when you observe him longer, noticing his admirable dexterity of hand and his undeterred attention to the meat before him, you can almost guess that he is no stranger to the art of barbeque. And indeed, as he would later let out, the barbeque roaster is his playing field.
A final year student of Bachelor of Business Admnistration - Marketing at Uganda Christian University, Mukono - Kampala campus, Muhumuza is the mastermind behind Eazy Lyne services, a diverse service company.
The pride he has in his still-growing company is very evident, as he reveals, building such a company had for a long time been his dream.
“I wanted to build an events one-stop centre, somewhere someone could come and walk away having received all the required services for their event on a single trip,” Muhumuza explains.

Making good with his savings
But part of his pride is also embedded in the fact that he has managed to scale the heights in such a short time, having been on the down low not too far back.
As a Senior Four student at Kiira College, Butiki, Muhumuza always knew that at the end of his high school journey, he would have to hit the ground running, so he always tried to think ahead of his peers. “My mother was a single mother and she had done a lot for me. But somehow I always felt there was a lot on her plate. I wanted to make my own money and take some weight off her shoulders.”
It is with this inspiration that Muhumuza started saving up most of the small moneys he received as upkeep at school, and also taking up a few projects to make and save more. The same saving culture continued in his A-Level at Namirembe Hillside and true to his wishes, the day he pulled down the curtain on his high school education, he had saved up to Shs1million, enough to venture into barbeque business.

Starting with barbeque
“The art of barbeque is surely one of the most important gifts I got from my maternal grandfather, Mesaaki Semajju Kafeero. He would always roast all kinds of meat, exceptionally well. His meat was always well-marinated. It had taste, texture and flavour,” Muhumuza says, adding that he always had the idea of getting his grandfather’s barbeque art and giving it a professional touch. “I had noticed it was a good business opportunity because most of the barbeque events I had attended, the meat was far off point.”

Having all this at the back of his mind, Muhumuza set out immediately to get barbeque roasters, asking his uncle Mike Turakira who is good at metal work to help him make the stoves. “He made me two roasters. I didn’t pay for labour. He only charged me Shs380,000 for each stove to buy the necessary metal.”
And with his two stoves, toward the end of 2012, Muhumuza set the ball in motion. “I remember those days as though it was yesterday. I would jump on a boda boda, strapped together with my two stoves, and sometimes my meat, moving to different events in all corners of this town to do barbeque.”
Business was even tougher for the then senior six leaver considering that most people were paying him little money which would sometimes delay or actually came in installments.

Growing and incorporating events
Muhumuza would charge about Shs50,000 a day to provide the service in cases where the client had procured their own meat. He would also rent out his barbeque roasters at Shs40,000 per day. When he joined university, having accumulated some retained earnings, Muhumuza decided he would give his business a giant leap.
“I decided to incorporate events management. But as you may realise, this is a crowded industry. So I wanted something that would propel me above the competition. That is when the idea of forming an events one-stop centre cropped up and I decided to run with it,” he highlights.

This kind of operation requires that Muhumuza gets a wide range of professionals from different fields on board, which he believes was the hardest task for him, one he has done a good job in accomplishing. “My basic role is to connect all these service providers. We have professional chefs, decorators, photographers, among others. When an event comes up, we bring them from their different fields and make them blend into one team working side by side.”

And with such expertise under one roof, his company, Eazy Lyne services which he officially registered in early 2014, has been growing fast ever since. Muhumuza now employs 20 people though on a temporary basis. In a good month, the company can work on five events and get paid Shs500,000 for each though it may vary depending on the number of activities they have been hired to man. Most of his growing clientele comes to him through referrals, but he also runs a Facebook page under the company’s name that also brings in clients.
Muhumuza draws inspiration from British business magnate and investor Richard Branson, his grandparents and his mother.

The numbers
50,000

The amount he would charge a day.

1 million

The amount Muhumuza started with.

40,000

Amount muhumuza would hire out his roasters.

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