I am passionate about marketing and communication and public speaking– Yvonne Mpanga
What you need to know:
Books vs Work. Yvonne Mpanga Ssemwogerere is a business development consultant, with a niche in strategic marketing, public relations and communication. She is a member of several non-government organisations boards. Nicolas Akasula, had a chat with her and she shared how she spends her week.
Monday:
My diary is inconsistent, but if I were to break it down to specifics, I wake up between 3am to 4am everyday to pray. My schedule is dependent on my children’s school programme and it changes as and when they are on holiday.
We have breakfast at around 5:30am and as a rule, everyone must be out of the house by 6:10am.
I drop the children at school and get to office at 7:30am. I start my day by noting down what I intend to achieve by the end of the day. I use the midmorning to respond to my emails, scan through papers, find out what is trending and identify potential clients. Later in the day, I attend a series of meetings and engage teams for training.
Tuesday and Wednesday:
The early drill is typically the same, although on Tuesdays I do more work with the trainees. During midweek, I concentrate on communication tasks for my clients.
As a public relations consultant, I spend time assessing marketing strategies of my clients to identify what works and what doesn’t. I look at the brand visibility, how a client’s brand is positioned, their budget and what can be done to achieve organisational goals. When I get home, I read a book chapter as I meditate on content and take notes.
Thursday:
My follow up meetings are normally on Thursdays. However, my work is also predominately field based. So I juggle this concurrently. Follow up seems easy until you ask a client the customer data base.
I try to help my team to identify challenges they are facing. These tasks are huge, and they take up the entire day.
Friday:
I prepare reports on Mondays and Fridays. I also spend the day interacting and working with some of the international clients that I have. I diagnose the major aspects of businesses, understand a product and how to reach potential clients.
I also use this day to draft creative marketing strategies.
Saturday:
I lecture postgraduate students at Uganda Management Institute and Islamic University in Uganda - Kampala Campus. However, when I am not teaching, I spend time with my family. This is the day I do general cleaning and laundry with my children. I also enjoy cooking. After lunch, I read my books or take a nature walk or visit friends or family.
Sunday:
I spend this day helping children with homework. I also make time for exercises. Sometimes on weekends, I attend my clients’events. On Sundays too, I write inspirational messages for businessmen, especially marketers on social media.
Expertise
Mpanga is a marketing, communications and public speaking consultant. She went to Delhi University and pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce. She later went to Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) for her MBA. She has been lecturing for nine years. She is a member of the Public Relations Association of Uganda (PRAU), Uganda Women entrepreneurs (UWEAL), and CIMA-UK, Chartered Institute of Marketer’s Association.
Her latest innovation is Business Trends, a registered trademark of ‘Good works MCM’ that brings Business Leaders and entrepreneurs together, to share latest business trends.
