MUBS-Mbarara Campus "Student Entrepreneurs" - Kanyesigye Rogers BSC

There are a group of students who have found it not necessary to come out of campus and begin looking for jobs. They have taken it upon themselves to start small businesses that they can see grow to bigger and better businesses. These students are who we are calling Student Entrepreneurs.

 Meet Kanyesigye Rogers a third year student who decided to open up a restaurant in his first year to solve his problem of looking for food.

Student Entreprenuer
Mr Rogers Kanyesigye doing
BSC at MUBS Regional Campus
Mbarara

 In his first year, Rogers faced a problem of cooking and looking for food as many students come to discover when they first join campus.  Many of his peers advised him to get a girlfriend to solve this problem but Rogers had other ideas.  He decided to open up a restaurant where he would eat at his free will and earn some money at the same time. You could call this having a goal and a vision. With only his pocket money as a source of capital, Rogers ventured into this unknown territory.

 “I used my upkeep of 700,000/= to start up a small business. I remember I paid rent for three months, I had to get a counter of 200,000 then installation of electricity was 100,000/=. The whole total was 700,000/=”.

 Rogers had knowledge of the prices of food items that gave him the idea that he had an advantage if he started a restaurant.

“I didn’t find it hard for me to start because I was coming from a peasant family were I was used to seeing people growing beans. I knew the price of beans, matooke and I also had a small banana plantation that also helped me start the business. ”

Rogers with some of his employees at work in the new restaurant

Starting this business meant added responsibility of paying workers and shopping supplies for the restaurant on top of managing both his young business and fulfilling school responsibilities. The beginning for Rogers was difficult but with a little persistence and a marketing strategy, his business begun to pick up towards the end of his First semester.

 “I couldn’t manage to save even five thousand (5,000/=) when I started. I could get money to pay workers then to purchase some things for the restaurant. But later on, the restaurant boomed after I went to campus and introduced my restaurant to the students and they became my customers. Now from that restaurant I can save 20,000/= per day.”

 Saving and investing for the next business.

Rogers had previously tried his luck in other business ventures which were not fruitful. However, after the boom of his restaurant business Rogers sought to engage into saving and careful investment to get enough money to expand his business.  As luck would have it, his plan came into fulfillment in beginning of this year 2020.

In the month of January 2020, Rogers opened up his second restaurant this time with a capital of 6 million after saving for two years. How did he do it exactly?  You might ask. Well, he did it by investing in goat raring.

Trust Restaurant And Take Away Menu

 “For the two years I managed to save and buy 30 goats from my small restaurant. My parents would also give me money for upkeep which I combined with the money from goat raring to get the money I needed to open up my second restaurant.”

While most of us will only think money for upkeep is for “eating” only, Rogers got other ideas for his upkeep money as well.  “When they would give me money for food, I would instead invest it back at the village”

Rogers used his money for upkeep and his daily Savings from his small restaurant for a bigger score.

How he has managed and grown his business.

Rogers credits his management skills and experience to the knowledge he has attained from his course at MUBS Regional campus Mbarara.

“During my Course I have learnt many things that have helped me run my business. First and foremost, Financial Accounting has helped me in balancing books, purchasing, counting my losses and profits. Like with Marketing I can call all my friends to come and see my business, I know how to advertise also. Those things we learnt in a course unit called Marketing. I studied Principles of Management and it has helped me a lot. I know how to handle my workers plus Human Resource Management. So many course units have helped me in business! Actually, you get to know when you start your own business that what you learnt is what we are doing. Many people do business and they make mistakes because they never studied. But for us who studied, when you are doing something you remember what you did in class”

His advice to fellow campusors

“Plan ahead and start saving. Instead of using money to go to bars and going out, you rather invest it now and enjoy later.”

Here is a recording of the interview.  

Student Entrepreneur Mr. Rogers Kanyesigye Interview EP1