Mwagale turned her social media likes and comments into cash

“A n ultimate sensation destination for fine quality lingerie in all sizes and styles enhancing your power and confidence.” This is the catch phrase that welcomes you on Waheedah Mwagale’s social media platforms.
These platforms are not just for uploading slay photos and catching up with friends, but rather a place where the 25-year-old trades her business.

Mwagale deals in lingerie, a business she started with Shs260,000. At the time, she worried that the money was too little since the money could not cater for rent, operational licences and other several bureaucracies that many Ugandan youth face when starting up a business.

Her worries were, however, put to rest when she realised that she could use the Internet to market her products and also keep in touch with her customers. All she needed to spend on was mobile data.
Mwagale did not have to worry about accumulating clientele because the comments and likes on her social media posts and a photo uploads were inspiring.

“There is a time I used to get more than 10,000 likes on my picture posted on Facebook. So I thought about how I could transform those likes and comments into money,” Mwagale says.

She notes that there are so many money-making opportunities on social media than anyone can imagine and that leaning on social media for customers made her lingerie business more lucrative.

“People would compliment my shoes, handbags and blonde hair. But that was not adding up on my account, so I decided to replace my face with my products, hence the birth of Pawaz UG,” she says.

Her first strategy was to add more friends to her social media account, especially women.

“My social media platforms became my centre for connections, basically not for selling, but to cement my connections to boost my business endeavours, build trust with my followers, who in the end started making recommendations.”

Making money
When the business kicked off in late 2016, Mwagale was delivering to her clients physically, despite the fact that she had rented space at Sky Light Arcade in downtown Kampala. Her focus is mainly knickers and bras.
On a good day, the ICT diploma graduate makes between Shs1m and Shs1.5m and in a bad season, she makes about Shs800,000. These profits are from wholesale and deliveries.

Mwagale and her lingerie
Mwagale is the first born and only girl in a family of three children, so her life was influenced by her brothers a lot.

“From dressing to lifestyle, I behaved like my brothers. It was both challenging and fun because I found myself always more comfortable around boys, which made me a tomboy. Even my mother bought us similar clothes,” she says.

Mwagale says this, however, made her a courageous person as she developed an independent mind and a hardworking character.

“Many of my friends could not imagine me hustling with knickers and bras, but I did not mind because most of the time, I was doubling my profits.”
Before joining the lingerie business, Mwagale worked with African Green Investment Limited based in Uganda and Kenya.

She was a project development manager and had worked for six years. When her contract ended, she started addressing women issues through film while interacting with girls via social media. She hopes to pick up the film more seriously when she saves up enough.

The future is brighter
“My brand (Pawaz) holds a lot of dreams. I look forward to empowering young girls into business and film, sensitisation and documentaries, since I am a living example,” Mwagale says.

She explains that plans are underway to start selling customised bras for women in need, cancer victims and plus size women whose sizes are not easy to come by.

She adds that she will soon launch an online platform for her store that will be up and running in January, to cater for busy career women who find it hard to get time for shopping.

“This will have both online payment and payments on delivery options since digital is the future of business.”

Mwagale attended Mivule Primary School in Mutungo, Biina, Bishop Cipriano Kihangire SS in Luzira and she studied a diploma in ICT at Multitech Business School in Kampala.

Embracing the digital business age
The 2019 World Development Report points out that work is constantly reshaped by technological progress and ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve.