The issue of employment and saving has been up for debate for the longest time possible. There are so many questions but never enough answers. The biggest percentage of people who have completed school and are looking for jobs will tell you one thing; finding employment is a wild goose chase. Those who have jobs will also tell you that saving is an uphill task. This is a double edged sword and experts are still trying to find ways of dealing with these issues. 

This week, we bring you ideas on how to make your own money. Lacking startup capital shouldn’t stop you from starting out on your own. Not when there are a number of businesses that require little or no upfront, out-of-pocket expenses. This is how to start a business with no or little money. 

Mobile barbershop

Christian Hakizimana is a mobile barber who runs this business in all the universities in Kigali. He started with about Rwf 50,000.

"I got Rwf 50,000 from my aunt who is also my guardian; I paid Rwf 7,000 to a barber to train me how to cut hair and the different types of haircuts that people like. The fee also included my practice sessions at his work station,” he says

Hakizimana went on to buy his own haircut kit that comprised of a haircut machine worth Rwf 31,000, hair food and hairbrushes. He then embarked on the hunt for clients.

In this business, word of mouth is the deal breaker so he started with friends from his university and family. At the beginning, it was very challenging, so he specialised in youth hairstyles and slowly built confidence in his small client base.

"It’s hard to think that someone you studied with at university in a finance class is a good barber. With this in mind, I decided to specialise in learning the styles that are trendy and popular with the youth. Soon, I started receiving phone calls,” Hakizimana says.

He started by charging a small fee of Rwf300 to be able to beat the market price and competition. Today, his asking fee is Rwf 500. He takes on seven to twelve people a day during school days and about five people when the university students are in holidays.

In a month, with an average of 10 people a day for 25 days minus Sundays, he could make about Rwf 125,000 a month.

Start-up capital – Rwf 50,000

Operational expenses – Airtime for client contact and transport to destination Skills – Professional barber skills Ballpark monthly net – Rwf 125,000

Ushering

Commonly known as ‘Protocol’, this is the one business that most university ladies have participated in for fairly good pay. At conferences, there are usually ladies and a few gentlemen that receive guests, register them, manage requests, and find them places to sit. It is a simple but well-paying job.

All it takes is getting a couple of good looking and presentable ladies and a few gentlemen, setting up an events management company and negotiating with companies that lobby for events management to subcontract you for the whole event.

At a good event, the event organisers can pay about Rwf 25,000 for each usher and these personnel are usually paid Rwf 10,000 – Rwf 15,000 by the company subcontracted hence making a profit of Rwf 10,000 - Rwf 15,000. All it costs is the airtime to organise the ladies and gentlemen. If ten people are contracted, a profit of Rwf 100,000 or more can be made at one event by the owner of the company that brought the people. No office space is needed as the business operates by phone.

Start-up capital – ZeroCost of operations – Airtime Skills – Networking and social skills Ballpark net sales – Rwf 100,000 per event

Information Technology business

With all the tech billionaires we have today, it is no surprise that this business features on this list. When they tell you a tech company started from the garage with $0, don’t doubt.

The online business includes making websites, editing website content, social media management among many others. Every IT, computer engineering and computer science student has a laptop by the time they graduate and for this business, that is almost everything that is needed.

Dioscore Shikama, CEO of Go Ltd, a Computer Sciences graduate at the University of Rwanda, Huye Campus is making a killing from IT business.

"I started with just a laptop and knowledge on how to make a website. It only takes a day or two to make a website but prices for it can go to more than Rwf 300,000 depending on what the client wants,” he says.

On top of this, Shikama has also mastered the art of social media that almost every youth today knows how to operate.

"When developing a website for corporate organisations, it’s only fair to propose to operate and manage their social media platforms that today are very vital. All it takes is having a laptop. We charge a Rwf100,000 fee for that,” he says.

In short, an IT start-up venturing in this business can walk home with over Rwf 4,000,000 monthly with just 10 clients who want websites and social media presence. Cost of operation is time and transport to work but the rest is second nature for a good programmer.

Start-up capital – Laptop Cost of operations – Transport Skills – IT and online skills Ballpark monthly net sales – Rwf 4,000,000

IT technical assistance and repair

As the programmers enjoy the digital era, so do the mechanics. In this, we have phone repair, IT assistance to companies and putting together normal house appliances.

Olivier Ntwali is a mechanic and technician.

Starting from the Gacurilo estate where he helped many homes with quick repair of their home appliances, he soon built a market large enough that they started inviting him to their offices for IT support.

Ntwali calls this business the reboot business. Reboot means switch off and switch on.

"I call it reboot because half of the time, I am called to an office to repair a desktop and all it needs is a reboot because of obvious reasons like being on for so long. Knowing this, I have to make an impression and try to seem like I have done a lot to get the desktop back on,” he says while laughing.

Ntwali started with Rwf 8,000 which he used to buy screw drivers, duct tape and a tool box. With this, he went knocking at every door leaving his phone number behind in case anyone needed help. He offers technical assistance in offices and on weekends, he does household appliance repairs.

He has also managed to open a phone repair shop in town named ‘Phone Doctor’ where he has two staff that he assists when he isn’t busy.

Ntwali makes about Rwf 10,000 from every technical assistance session he renders. He has about 10 – 15 sessions a month and gets Rwf 2000 for household repairs. From his phone shop, he makes about Rwf 20,000 a day and pays rent of Rwf 60,000 and salaries of Rwf 140,000 to the two employees.

In a good month (20 days), he makes about Rwf 200,000 from his phone shop minus expense of staff and rent, and about Rwf 150,000 from office assistance and Rwf 24,000 from household repairs. In total, that is about Rwf 374,000 with a few expenses of new user tools that don’t exceed Rwf 30,000.

Start-up capital – Rwf 10,000Cost of operations – Tools, rent Skills – Technical IT equipment skills Ballpark monthly net sales – Rwf 344,000

Tour guide business

Do you know the history of your country? If yes then you are ready. You don’t have to be a genius; you just have to be ready to learn. Sarafina Rukundo lived and grew up in Musanze. Growing up knowing the history of the place like the palm of her hand, it wasn’t something she had to think so hard about. Her knowledge is her source of livelihood today.

"I couldn’t be a tour guide of a national park or tourist site as these places already have tour guides that are knowledgeable enough and have done this for a very long time. I decided to specialize as a guide for tourists leaving Kigali to Musanze. While the tourists enjoy the view of the hills as they travel, I make sense of this with stories about each place they see,” she says

The tour company pays her about Rwf 35,000 per trip but, she can get tips of Rwf 50,000 on a good day. She has about 4 trips every week and that is Rwf 560,000 a month but usually has more than Rwf 350,000 worth of tips monthly.

Start-up capital – zeroCost of operations – zeroSkills – basic Rwandan history knowledge of specific places Ballpark monthly net sales – Rwf 910,000

Fruits and snacks delivery in office Rosemary Mukeshimana supplies freshly cut fruits in many offices in Kacyiru. Having started with Rwf 60,000, today she has a take home of about Rwf 70,000 each day.

The 27-year-old Mukeshimana was working as a personal assistant at a media company, she decided to quit, and used her Rwf 60,000 salary to buy simple and user friendly kitchen equipment, carrier bags and plastic cups with fruits worth Rwf 20,000.

"It wasn’t a hard sell. People naturally love fruits and the ladies were skeptical about the hygiene of my fruits but when I improved from the packaging in plastic cups to my carrier bags, they started to gain trust in me,” she says.

Mukeshimana had a market that grew so fast that she couldn’t satisfy it at some point. She had to call on her sister’s daughter who was in vacation to assist her.

Today, she has about 100 orders, selling each packet at Rwf 1,200. Sales stand at Rwf 120,000 a day and she buys fruits and plastic cups worth Rwf 40,000 every day. She stays in Kacyiru and doesn’t incur transport costs.

In a day, her take home is Rwf 80,000 and for 20 days of work in a month, she estimates to make about Rwf 1,600,000.

Start-up capital – Rwf 70,000Cost of operations – Buying fruits and plastic cups or containers Skills – Hygiene and fruit dressing Ballpark monthly net sales – 1,600,000.

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