"Most of us don’t like solving problems."

My name is Muriisa Anthony a 29- year- old Ugandan. My story as an entrepreneur began in August 2019. I had completed the fourth year of a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and was awaiting results hoping to graduate in early 2020.

I travelled to Mbale, in eastern Uganda, with the help of my long-time high school friend who had a job in a coffee exporting company and we set up a store in the outskirts of town.

We pushed our business, made friends with coffee farmers and our business did well throughout the whole season up to May 2020.

The COVID pandemic came when we were essential workers here in Uganda, so we were able to move to the mountains of Bududa, Budadiri and Buteza in search of Arabica coffee and then transport it to Namanve Industrial area for sale.

Around September 2019, my semester results came in and I found I was made to redo a certain course unit (Final Year Project). If you fail, you have to start afresh.

I was so very demotivated; my dreams for 2020 shattered. I could not gather myself to go back as for the next semester in October 2019.

I held onto my coffee business in Mbale. In July 2020, when coffee was completely done in the east, I decided to move back to Kampala to open a food store, as many businesses were closed by lockdown.

I was fortunate to have connections among rice growers in low lying areas of Mbale (Nabiganda). I carried out market research in Kampala and calculated how much I would spend on rent, transport and the profits to be made from bringing in rice.

It was there and then that I invested in a shop in a good spot for business. In October 2020, I started the business and the big challenge was in the first three months, where you have to prove to customers how you sell quality products at a fair price.

In March 2021, Universities opened and I had to go back and finish my degree, I had to get someone to help me on the days I was away. A few weeks later came Covid’s second new wave, closing the universities. I was so disappointed.

The struggle continued as business picked up. Around August, government ordered higher institutions to carry out on online learning; so we resumed studies and did our exams in October.

Towards the end of 2021, my former classmate and I nurtured a dream of starting our own company before the end of the year and began research.

We came up with three company names; all were rejected by the country’s registration bureau. This worked to our advantage. We thought of more ideas and registered a company and a trade mark; a company for doing civil works and then under the company we registered a trade mark for our online market place for construction work.

So, we are now developing a website for the online business and the company has actually got a few tenders. We hope for the best. We now want to focus on building our brand and with it a platform.

Uganda is a developing country and people realise that online is the next big thing as many people have smartphones and internet.

We hope to build an app for our online platform, so that it shall be available on Google play store and App store. This year is for action – we suffer from too much talk and no action. Once action is taken, there is no looking back.

I believe every person has the mind of an entrepreneur. It is only that most of us don’t like solving problems; we want problems solved for us. This has contributed to these levels of unemployment we see today.

Muriisa Anthony - Director, Q-InfraMat Hub LTD

Lessons Learned

Not securing a bank loan for a newly established business, it is better to get a loan when the business has existed for some time and you know how it works.
Not considering other peoples’ stories. When you have targeted your dream, never fail to try; this builds confidence.
For any business to grow it needs trustworthiness and patience.
Professionalism is very important.

Time wasted is never gained, always try to make your time productive

"RISK AND GLORY! (What’s your story?)"

Billionaire Tomorrow launches a new section capturing the sacrifice, spirit and splendour of the African entrepreneur.

This is a section written by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Each piece is a snapshot in the struggles and triumphs of those who swim against the tide to risk their own money for uncertain reward. The thoughts of an entrepreneur who fights his, or her, way past the naysayers, sceptics and reluctant lenders to stake their claim.

The way to reward and glory? All too often, this is a rocky road, fringed with thorns, with slithering snakes in the shady undergrowth.

You can earn from telling these stories too. If you write for Risk and Glory you get a chance to earn our new token – The Bil. The more people who read your story, the more tokens you earn. Send me 800 words of your story to me at Chris@billionairetomorrow.com.

Check it out.