Stories from the source

“Having two businesses is really profitable for me”

Adrine’s story

My name is Adrine I am 24 years old. I live in Fort Portal – Uganda.
Last year I was part of the women empowerment training from Master2Morrow. I learned about the skills and knowledge on how to improve my shop. I got many new ideas: they told me about marketing, customer care, how to handle my customers, how to deal with them. 
And I learned how to work with the seasons. Now we are reaching Christmas, so I go to the markets and check for the seasons dressings I can sell in my shop. I was able to save 1 million shilling (300 euro).

My insight was not to rely on one business only, so I invested 40.000 shilling (15 euro) to start a small bakery. Now I make mandazi (sweet cakes) and sell them. I got a lot of profit out of the bakery. Now I want to take my next step. That is why this year I join the business development training to learn more about what I need to do to reach my dream. I really love to have a big boutique in town, around that corner of the mall. In the villages people go to the market for clothes, but I want new clients from town who come for my well equipped shop.

I don’t get support from my community. I took a loan from a local microfinance company to start my small shop. So first I had to work hard to pay back the loan. Now I am able to make my own money! I can generate my own income for me and my 1 year old daughter Angel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The story of Sandra, Sarah and Sheila….       

 

— Put my dreams to the ground–
I am a dreamer. I dream big. This training has helped me to put my dream to the ground. I thought the training was very theoretical. But it is very practical. I learned in this training how I can begin. I can begin small. With that what I have, the resources that are there. 
It helped me to learn from the experiences of other women who have done it already. Let us go and try to do it and so we see the outcomes. Sharing the experiences makes us strong as well. We have our dreams, we have our talents. We have our role models. It’s not only the mzungu’s who tell this, but the people around can guide us. It’s not capital we get, but we get knowledge.

–Money and saving–
I had issues with saving. Now I have learned to put money aside to re-invest in my business. And because I was not good at saving money, I felt like my business was always failing. So I gave up. And started a new business. Now I have learned to invest in my own business so I don’t need to restart every time. I have my cashbook, so I keep track of my incomes and expenses. I know now the power of saving. Even small small money.

We learned “Your business is your boss”. Don’t let your relatives of others beside you entering into your business. If people ask me for money, I can tell them: I have to ask my boss. And my boss is my business. If I cut down on business, my ‘boss’ will say NO!

 “I have been empowered as a woman”

 –Dealing with obstacles–
We have done a very powerful exercise with this hinderness in front of us….   We are used to focus on the hinderness. We learned now to focus on the dream behind the hinderness, because then we feel the power in us to deal with this. Another exercise that has helped me so much is the authentic speaking. We had to look eachother in the eye. And learned to stay connected. It gave us boldness, made us courageous. It was helping us to communicate. Although it is against our culture! But still it is good to learn new things. It’s now simple to do so.

–The future–
Next year you have to be here! We like to show you our confidence, what we have reached! We want to be the ones in front of the new group to share our stories how we have overcome our hindernesses and took our first steps. 
During this week we have got a strong connection in the group. We are networking. We can give eachother business, we can support eachother now, share ideas. And inspired by last years group of women, we have agreed to start a saving 20.000 per month. With already 14 women from this group we can save together and that will give us opportunity to do bigger investments.
If it is possible we name it Master2Morrow…

 

In this picture the group on top is last years group of women who started their own savingsgroup and inspired the group above. 

Start with the end!

 

In the advanced Businessdevelopmenttraining the participants had to prepare a commercial they would use in order to promote their business. Make sure you catch the attention of the public. So start with the end!

After each short presentation the other participants had to give feedback on the content and the presentation. Could they experience the passion, selfconfidence? Did they feel the connection and integrity of this person? And what about the drive and willpower, could they sense that as well?

Some of the insights the participants shared after the presentations:

  • Our generation wants to have a direct outcome of our efforts. That’s why we give up on businesses. We have to learn from farmers… they are very patient. 
  • I had to learn how to give the customer the best products…. I realized I need to touch the fabric, I have to SEE it in order to pick the right fabrics. Online is often not a good option. You really  have to be in touch with your product. 
  • I am not expecting profits right nwo, it’s a longterm project.  I can use the fact that I can use local products to make my soap as an USP in marketing

Master2Morrow is here to enhance the businessskills and selfesteem, so young entrepreneurs can make a living and support their own families and communities.