Mugabi turned her home into a daycare centre

“My children had swings, a bouncing castle, plenty of toys and space in the compound to play. This got me thinking that if I opened my home to other children to come and play with my children, I would probably earn too,” Mugabi recalls.
Mugabi’s compound was enough to jumpstart her business idea of a day care centre. After successfully converting one side of the compound into a play area for children, Mother’s Love Play and Daycare centre located in Zana was born.

How she started
After working in various departments such as customer service, distribution, trade branding and marketing at Airtel Uganda, for 10 years, Mugabi decided to resign and venture into a new path of entrepreneurship.

“I had two children at the time and I thought it would be a good idea to home-school them. I also knew many parents who were failing to balance work and children. I thought I would spend time at home, play with the children and take care of them at a fee,” she recalls.

Mugabi, a mother of five, says, all the years she spent working in a corporate organisation, her children did not benefit from her care because she was always away and busy.

“We wake up very early in the morning to take children to school and proceed to work. We return late in the evening, and sometimes, we find children sleeping. The cycle goes on for years. We hardly have time to talk, play and interact with our children,” she recounts.

At that point, Mugabi thought she needed to be around her children. The first business idea that came into her mind was to start a play centre because then, her two children seemed lonely. This would enable her watch over her children more closely than she was while she was employed.

Getting started
With support from her husband. Mugabi says the daycare centre did not take her a lot of time to start because she had bought most of the items that children need to play and have fun. “Before I started, I kept buying one item after another. After securing a loan of approximately Shs20 million, by January 2011, she had started giving out flyers and invitations to friends to visit her play centre,” Mugabi says.

Initially, she was looking at starting a daycare centre for three-year-olds but the market dictated otherwise that she ended up hiring staff to her teach the children. When she installed a signpost for her play centre, parents started making enquiries for baby class.

It is then that she had to reconsider having a nursery section, immediately.
“We had eight children at the start and the number has continued to grow over the years. We now have four classes comprising 15 children,” she asserts.
Besides administrative work, Mugabi also gets involved in teaching art and creative classes that are usually decorative and fun for the children.

Doing more
In order to generate more income, Mugabi, exploiting her cookery skills, makes snacks such as cookies, queen cakes, biscuits, birthday and wedding cakes. “My first clients for the birthday cakes are the children that attend the daycare centre. Parents make orders for their children’s birthday cakes. I also have friends in my church circle that make orders but also recommend their friends for snacks and wedding cakes.”

Besides pastry work, Mugabi also uses her art skills to design and print custom-made T-shirts for clients.

Marketing
“The businesses that I operate correlate in a way that children, their friends or parents are become my primary clients. If a child is at my school, I bake his or her birthday cake. That’s is extra income coming in. I use social media to advertise my products and services”, she emphasises.

Challenges
The financial hardships sometimes make parents to delay the payment of tuition or fail completely. Some parents take children to another school.

I have staff who, at every end of month are waiting for remuneration. I cannot give excuses because they do their part diligently. As a manager, I have to think of ways to keep the business running and staff paid regardless of what is happening”.

Advice
“Every woman should snap out of their comfort zones. Our primary role as women is to take care of our children but this should not stop us from earning. Be creative and get your hands dirty. Raise strong families but purpose to be financially independent. I want to expand my daycare centre into a primary school.”