Technology gives him financial independence
Busy. Bampeire and his employees share notes during an activity. PHOTOS BY GEORGE KATONGOLE
What you need to know:
Determination. Taking necessary steps to adopt and exploit the potential of technology is giving digital marketing a cutting edge in the marketing environment. 27-year-old entrepreneur Peter Bampeire is giving himself wings to fly by exploiting the niche business.
There are hard workers and there are smart workers. While hard workers are diligent and loyal people who are willing to give their all to the task at hand in order to earn their wages, smart workers are those who find ways to get the same task done faster and more efficiently. Peter Bampeire Elit, the founder of Optibrave Digital (literally derived from optimising bravery with a lion’s head emblazoned in their logo) has worked hard to reach where he is today, but he does not identify himself as a hustler. Bampeire realised the importance of being financially independent early in life.
Baby steps
He was in secondary school when he had to drop out after Senior Four and joined Makerere University College of Computing & Information Sciences to pursue CCNA certification and training programme. He later did CCNP before trying out programming, which he dropped for lack of real challenges. Instead, he decided to pursue online marketing.
“I got so excited with technology. I liked tech since Primary Three. I was once into hacking, went into networking. I founded a blog which has now gone online until I started Optibrave to be able to revive all my other passions,” he said. “I arrived here by trial and error.”
He was paid Shs250,000 for his first job to develop a website for Bukoto Full Gospel Church.
“I’ve never wanted people to tell me what to do, when to do it and how much I can make. I want to make those decisions for myself,” Bampeire explains.
Inspiration
He spent years learning how digital marketing works until he was inspired by renowned YouTube star Eli Rosenberg. After acquiring years of knowledge and experience, Bampeire decided to pursue digital marketing.
He first worked for one year as he tested the waters and formalised his company three years ago. He has now realised that he can reach out to a larger audience online.
He publishes a weekly e-newsletter which he sends out for free to hundreds of people. Bampeire has successfully built an online community of followers, some of whom are earning in millions now. Even though Bampeire has his hands full with just a team of five people he works with at their offices in Ntinda, a Kampala suburb, he makes sure he spends time with family.
So easy
Born in Kabale District on June 16, 1992, he attended his early education at Santa Maria in Bukoto, completed O-Level at Bombo Secondary School in 2011 before joining Makerere University College of Computing & Information Sciences to pursue a Cisco networking course. With Optibrave Digital, Bampeire helps people strengthen their portfolio and offers them direct access to a wide database of information.
He offers a range of training opportunities to get budding entrepreneurs started with their business and eventually succeed in their endeavours.
In his opinion, it is easy to build an e-commerce business and maximise profits with the help of Facebook ads and other search engine optimisation tools. “In the digital world, there are so many different ways to reach customers, it can honestly give you a headache. For example, if you pay a newspaper company to advertise this new dish, you will definitely be charged for even people reading the paper from Karamoja. Yet with digital platforms, you can choose to have your advert shown to men only, if that is your target,” he says.
On top of that, digital marketing does not require him to have a sophisticated lifestyle and work space but a laptop and internet connection.
Portfolio
Bampeire has worked with top entrepreneurs as well as celebrities to find the right marketing strategies for their businesses.
His current portfolio has Jenvisen, a packaging company that makes crown caps, paint cans and food cans as well as Ropani Group and Advance Tours and Travel. His clients pay a retainer depending on how prominent their campaigns should be. The lowest he charges is $300 (about Shs1.1m) per month although in some instances it can go up to $1,000 (about Shs3.6m).
“This is a business to business enterprise and many people have not embraced it in Uganda. Many people still embrace business to consumer (B2C) and business to government (B2G) transactions.”
He says artificial intelligence and machine learning are driving traffic online thus the need to adjust.
“Digital marketing effectively ranks feeds, ads and search results and they are able to know what a user would like to access,” he says.
“The truth is that very many people are spending quite a lot of their time on the internet. Whether it’s the children playing games online, teens watching music videos on YouTube or a mother of five, scrolling through her friends’ feed on Facebook.”
He cites a few companies that are effectively tapping into this potential such as Jumia, who make recommendations basing on your previous search.
And even though his schedule is busy, he makes sure that he gets to decide what to do with his time and how to make his money, and isn’t that the kind of freedom everyone wants to achieve?
