Peace Izamukuza Mugabo is the mastermind of Remera-based Orion Maker Vantures Ltd, a firm that offers skills growth and hospitality management services to diverse institutions to enable them to provide the best customer services. The company also offers cleaning, fumigation, and disinfection services to different companies and hotels.

While at the university, Mugabo had no idea she would end up in a hospitality business considering she was pursuing a course in Business Management in Accounting. Her dream was to be an accountant, but her path diverted along the way.

Her journey into the hospitality business started while she was still studying. She recalls someone connecting her to a café where she was given a waitress job that she desperately needed as she wanted to cater for her tuition, although there were relatives paying her tuition, she anticipated contributing as well. 

 Some of Mugabo’s employees while fumigating an office.

As a waitress in the cafe, one thing she had in mind was to make clients happy, by giving them the best services and in case of complaints, she handled them professionally and amicably.

At that time, she worked in the morning and studied in the evening.

 Little did she know that one of her clients was intrigued by her services. She kept her smile on and did her work with passion. He approached her and asked whether she would be interested in an offer to work in a hotel because he had no doubt she would manage.

 Mugabo was stunned and excited at the same time. Of course, she liked the offer as she believed it came with exposure and more skills.  She therefore immediately placed her resignation letter at the café where she had worked for five months.

 She started working at the local hotel as a waitress, being a small hotel, she says she at times did more than one role, juggling waitress duties, with the receptionist, among others. Within a few months, she was conversant with how the hotel operated as she was eager to learn. 

 Although she was given some training, she stresses that some other skills she taught herself, included how to attract more clients, the do and don’ts in a hotel, challenges encountered by hotel workers, how to be better at her job, among others.

Peace Izamukuza Mugabo during an interview at The New Times offices. Photos by Dan Nsengiyumva

 Since the hotel was receiving more clients in the evening, as compared to morning hours, the entrepreneur notes that her boss requested her to change her course from evening to morning, a thing she did for the love of her job.

 "The hotel was growing tremendously and we received more clientele. At that point, my boss believed I would manage the whole hotel, as he had seen my efforts. He was constructing apartments for rental as well. Once they were done and furnished, I was also in charge of them, basically knowing what the clients needed, and offered it to them,” Mugabo states.

 She carries on that she sought the need to elevate in her career—she needed to start her own business, which is why she consulted people that knew her for advice on what she could do better. 

 She was encouraged to do facility management. She quit her job before starting her business, although she risked it, she is happy the results were worth it. 

 By that time in 2018, she had graduated and needed means to survive, she searched for a job and scooped one as an accountant in Trust Engineering solutions Ltd.

 The managing director of the company coached her on her personal values and pushed her to go for what she wanted. Taking on the job offer, she wanted to be sure of the choices she had made. However, she was pushed to find her best attribute and use it to the best of her knowledge and efforts. 

 Mugabo was sure that she wanted to be her own boss. She went back to the other hotel where she had quit and asked to rent it because at that time it wasn’t doing well financially and was put on sale. 

 She, therefore, opened up her company, got a team and rented the hotel, and started managing it and other facilities. She wanted to offer professional services to rentals, and other properties. 

Along the way, she thought of other services that these facilities could need, such as thorough cleaning and fumigation. Her company offered such services to both the facilities they managed and those they didn’t. According to her, business was moving on well as they had started acquiring clients. They also added an Air bed and breakfast. 

 She stresses that when Covid-19 hit the country, everything crumbled, and most businesses were requested by the government to close, apart from essential workers. 

 Since cleaning and fumigation services were still needed by some companies, they continued providing them even during the lockdown. Though she says it was hard operating during that period as her company lacked money, they requested for 50 percent discount before starting the job and that’s how they managed to work. As they say, the rest is history.

 Some of the challenges she encounters are once the client’s trust is broken, regaining it back is hard. Since she didn’t have the financial capital at the start, it was hard to invest in her business, therefore, she utilised the minimum resources available.

 According to the businesswoman, you can use what you have and do what you can as it can give you more. She managed to get good quality machines to clean, fumigate, and train workers on how to do the services.  

"We now have a growing team, the company can provide jobs, we have seven permanent workers, and about 25 temporary workers. We have developed connections with different people—a thing that has enabled us to get more knowledge and become better. I now see a broader opportunity to grow,” she says.

 Her message to people who want to start a business is to start anyway, and learn on the job because some lessons can’t be learned until you start.