Enterprise Africa

Kiosk, new cash book, and article

2011-11-27T13:39:00.001-08:00

I'd like to start off this post with an article about small scale manufacturing in Africa; it's from the WSJ and it is an interesting read. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576570541250028496.html

(I have to say - I know when it comes to US politics the wsj isn't exactly a paladin of unbiasedness, but their coverage of Africa is inspiring)

Here are some pictures of the kiosk that - over the last two months - has been in operation on 2nd street Industrial Area. As I had imagined, the guys did run into a lot of issues with the Kampala City Council, which came, make a ruckus, asked for money, were promised money, came again, made more noise, and eventually forgot about us.

The kiosk is doing fine - it is a new experience for the team - and as much as I haven't picked apart the effect on the cash book, the consensus seems that it is a positive addition to the "portfolio" of ways in which we get our burgers to the market. It is the third channel, the other two being partnerships with local restaurants, and ready-to-eat burgers which we distribute to petrol stations and supermarkets.

The latter is the most successful channel and I have been suggesting for some time now that we should try with sandwiches as well, since they can be distributed though the same outlets as ready-to-eat burgers and they can be preserved for longer. As of now that is a work-in-progress, I hope to be able to post some updates soon.

The latest thing I have been working on (albeit very lazily, I admit) is a new version of the cash book we use for keeping accounts, which automates a few functions, leaves less space for options, and gives our manager Justine a real-tie overview of the profitability situation. It's actually a pretty neat piece of excel programming, and the credit goes out to my friend Fatih, who did the coding. I am still refining it, but once it is ready I will upload it on Google docs, such that anyone interested can download it and use it!

The African miracle

2011-08-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

Here below is an interesting article by the McKinsey Global Institute about business in Africa....it's a great read!

http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/mginews/african_miracle.asp

Lean days

2011-08-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

Picking up from the last post - yes! we were mentioned on TV! The program was actually on Antonio's which is one of our customers, and I am told that Ambrose - the guy that is employed to prepare our burgers there - gave a nead demonstration of what a burger is.

Things are pretty tight in Uganda right now. The shilling has lost a lot of value (Reuters article here). I mean, its a bit crazy....when I first arrived in Uganda a US would be worth 1900 shillings (that's 3 bottles of coke and some change) now it is 2800 (that is 2 bottles of coke, and no change). Prices for imported ingredients we buy - such as mayonnaise, styrofoam boxes, PVC packing etc. - have gone up a lot. And soon we'll be forced to hike our prices too.

The second issue is that the month of Ramadan has started, and sales have tumbled by about 40%. I didn't expect that. I mean, I knew that some of our customers were muslims, but I didn't realize that they were so many and that there is a huge seasonal effect on revenues during "Lent" (as Justine - the manager - refers to it). That's good to know.

In cash terms these two issues will mean that there won't be any profit this month...we'll just about break even...which is something I think not many food businesses can claim during this time in Kampala.

The work on the kiosk is going on slowly. Justine tells me the structure is up but it hasn't been painted yet. On my side I am putting together the Profit and Loss statements, Balance sheets and Director's report, which are due at the end of September. Tax issues are another area I want to get familiar with. Very few businesses are in the formal sector in Uganda, even large and visible ones, and - though I know my Ugandan mentors are dubious over this - there is a sort of...Victorian sense of accomplishment in knowing that "things are in order".

Below is a picture of where I am right now...I moved to Barcelona two weeks ago to begin a MSc in Economics, and this is the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics building :)

We were on TV?!

2011-07-14T03:30:00.000-07:00

Cryptic message by our general manager Justine:

Can you imagine matts burgers on ster TV on sun for cook and dine from antoniose? Catch u later wn u call for more...

A summary

2011-07-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

One thing I should do before posting updates on this blog is to read what I did and didn't mention in previous posts. As far as realizations go, it is still a mind note. But I promise I will do it, the next time.

On a positive note, since some time has passed since my last post, one can rightfully expect that the writer would have gained a bird's eye view over the events occurred, and be able to distinguish small from big.

So let me begin from the top. After careful considerations, we made a BIG change in strategy down at Match Foods. After months (from the beginning, really) of going on about how we don't want to go into retailing our burgers, how we're enablers, how important it is that we sell a business plan, not burgers...well after ranting on about that, about half way though my stay in Uganda, I realized that that notion was flawed. We are a burger company, the big bucks will come from cutting out the middle man, and selling directly to consumers.

The bike we bought for deliveries. Alas, our delivery man has been locked up.

Why? Well, there is the higher profit margin, there is the better control on quality, there the challenge of change, and the growth opportunities in it......but there also are the utter difficulties in going on with a business model that requires the efforts of managers who aren't ours (that is, managers of the restaurants we partner with). There really is such little certainty. My greatest issue with selling directly to consumers is the risk associated with finding the right location. Retail outlets, especially restaurants, make it of brake it based on the smallest issues regarding location...a few feet distance from a busy street, a van that regularly parks in front of your sign, and all is down the drain. Quality, service, nice furniture...all that won't matter.

So, while I am still concerned about that, there are ways of managing it. For one thing, because we have worked with a number of restaurants in a number of neighbourhoods, we know which areas work and which variables affect sales. On top of that, we decided that instead of going straight into renting a restaurant space, we will begin with a burger-kiosk in Industrial Area, close to our workshop and in a street with ample parking, many offices around it (our most consistent customers are the office lunch crowds) and with three popular night clubs in a 100m radius (we're thinking of being open 24/7, and drunk people leaving clubs notoriously have the munchees).

So those are the new directions. Justine is on them (on a side note, two of our previous managers left. Ruth was offered another position closer to home. Bob - the production manager - got kicked out by Justine).

Cook's hat.

The good news, which I was referring to in my previous post, that - as part of this strategy rethink - we went out and pushed harder on pitching ready to eat burgers to petrol stations and supermarkets. The results were outstanding. We finished June with 400 dollars in net profits. I think that must have been the first time it happened. And its likely that much of the investment for the kiosk will come internally from the business.

Of course there are challenges. I won't be there to set up a management system for the kiosk. Justine - the General Manager - will have to. And although she has been outstanding in handing the company's day-to-day operations and the emergencies that have emerged (one of our delivery drivers is in prison, again), she still has to prove herself in the planning area.

Exciting times to come, then!

Photo album

2011-07-06T01:25:00.001-07:00

A proper post is on its way. In the eman time, I finally downloaded about 2 years worth of pictures taken with my 1.3 mgpx phone camera in Uganda. You can view them here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35040555@N07/

100th post...

2011-06-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

In Shania Twain's words "Looks like we made it" !!! More details to follow...

Walk to work

2011-04-14T04:43:00.000-07:00

Not so good news on the political front. Riots that followed the January elections, especially for the mayoral race in Kampala did no good to sales figures back in January, and surely the current unrest (opposition leader Besige was shot in the hand today) are not going to help our cause, since riots tend to take place in those populous, lower-income, student-hosing, urban areas where our burgers sell best. But the flare ups that happened during January were momentary, it seemed... After rescheduling the Kampala city council elections, amid roaring protests, the ballot did yield the expected result. The NRM candidate (the ruling party) lost, and an independent mayor was confirmed for the job. (Having said that, a 2010 Local Government Act had emasculated the admionistrative - although not the political - revelance of the position by shifting certain infastructural responsibilities over to an appointed civil servant. The funding that the opposition might had hoped to get though bribes for road tenders within the city limits thus vaporized.) Now a new wave of unease has spread over the inflatiornary pressures that are building up in Kla. Food prices have soared (as have our costs) and the North African unrests have sent the price for fuel skyrocketing. The latter is a particularly irritating issue in a country with significant oil reserves. And no refineries. And no strategic reserve basins, which were planned since the 2006 fuel crisis.
Frustrated Kampala residents took these issues upon themselves and organized the Walk to Work campaign. Which in my view is brilliant. A form of protest and a call for dignity for those hundred thousands who in Kampala cant afford the daily 50c -1d fares that take them to and from work. The protest gained pace since Monday...the government sent out Military Police, who went ballistic, shot Besige in the hand, shot some more people, went on to block 2011 presidential candidates (including Betty Nambooze, poor federo woman, who got like, 0,1% of the vote) from Walking to Work, and so on and so fourth. Way to go.

Here are some good links to the issue
Daily Monitor live coverage of W2W

BBC World article on the event

New directions

2011-03-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

The last month or so has been ripe with Change at Match Foods. For one thing, we lost a customer who got half of our sales. Then on of the guys we rely on for transport got his bike stolen, and got arrested. Then we added a new employee. So much turbulence!!

Our new employee, in a TV interview when she worked for Simon's company Malakia Honey

But lets start at the beginning...Chicken Tonight is a chain of 5 outlets that sells chips, chicken and - through us - burgers. I had added teh customer back in December, and Justine handled the roll out in all of the chain's locations. Things were doing well, and they were accounting for about 50-60 sales daily, growing. Then Justine wrote this:

Hi matt,

I dint mean to scare you but some things are getting tough here ma dea. Chicken tonight branches have started sampling burgers in their branches which are not ours. Am trying to talk to the director but pray for me.

As it turned out, Chicken Tonight decided to do burgers on their own, without reliying on us suppliying their branches with ingredients. Justined handled the situation well, talking to Cosmos, Chichen Tonight's owner, and recouping the marketing materials we had leased them (we han't supplied them with grills). We were to supply only chicken burgers, as that was something they couldnt do.

Few days later, Justine wrote this.

(...) the cash collected was from chicken to night branches for the stock i supplied them. They paid me and they will take the stock as theirs. They have been having that stock since last week but one with out sells. all the managers are complaining about the decision made by their boss can you imagine that?

CT tonight hasnt come back to us yet as a customer, but here's why I think what happened was a GOOD thing. (A) On one hand I think it made me and Justine realize that we were over-reliant on one customer. For an established business, thats ok. For a growing business, thats not ok. Sales are the most impiortant thing, and we got lazy about that. (B) Ct failure to emancipate themselves from ourselves is the ultimate proof of our business model. The competition we are likely to face in Kampala comes precisely from customers trying to do burgers on their own, bypassing us. If CT had succeeded (or succeeds) it woruld mean our competitive advantage is tenuous. If they (keep) fail(ing) we know that the services we offer (the ease of using our equipment, the comfort in having all the ingredients pre-prepared, delivered fresh, and replaces if they go bad, and most importantly, the vale of our brand) are really worth that margin our customers give up by buying ingredients from us. So far, I feel that we have passed this stress test...

So passing on to the transport issue, Mayombo got his bike stolen, got arrested by the owner of the bike he was operated, and got bribed out of prison by Bless, Jusine's cousin and frequent used of Mayombo's invaluable services. If I may be honest, problems keep cropping up in the transport department, which makes me look forward with even greater trepidation to the time, three weeks from now, when I'll be buying two Yamaha Jaguar 90 to take care of the transport function internally.

Finally, We have a new employee!!! Ruth, who whap previouly member of teh Staff of Malaika Honey (I posted about their brand here) At the time of posting that, I didnt know that the brand belonged to a company - Malaika Honey - owned by Simon Turner, an Austalian entrepreneur in Uganda whom I greatly admire. He emailed me some weeks back and asked me if I would like to take on an employee that, for finalcial reasons, he could no longer keep and whom he strongly reccommended. I trust Simon; my approach would have been to take her in when I get back in April, but he suggested to speed up the process by contributing to her salary, which worked out great, because she ended p joinin the company at a time when we really needed someone to help us push sales. She begun yesterday. Justine - who else - is managing the process of getting her on board. I will keep posting about that.

50 days to Go!

2011-03-01T05:42:00.000-08:00

I cant believe this is the 97th post!!! I still have 1.5 months to go to get back to Uganda, and I cant describe how anxiously I am looking forward to that. A tangent teason being (this is my very own translation of the rather untranslatable Italian expression "Tra l'altro", which I am a fond - and possibly excessive - user of) that the work I am doing now, which will allow me to bring back to Uganda a hearty investment fund - is as extenuating as a job can be. The beautiful setting (you can find out about it here) barely sweetens the 16 hour work day.

But anyway, back to Uganda. I cant really write much about the situation there. Internet at the office computer (our good old Macbook, possibly the only Mac used by a business in Kampala, bacon of hope in a capital swamped by virus-ridden PCs) broke down for misterious reasons, so now more than even Matt's Burgers torch is held up by my capable manager, Justine. What we are battling with are, still, getting sales up. Prices for our imputs have increased sharply, and Justine has yet to find a way to pass on those increases to our customers. We are working on a new set of menues and pull out banners to distribute to partner restaurants, to promote sales. We has shifted from using coleslaw, to proper lettucce, so I anted the marketing materials to reflect that change. There is also a list of Objectives I has sent Justine, 7 areas on which I want her to work on before I get back, but the file is on another computer so I will post that soon.

What I do want to write about is what I need to do when I get back. At the moment, what the business needs is more strategic guidance, especially on the sales area, but also generally, on forging investment and growth pklans. Justine has done a tremendous job in keeing things running in my absece, but realistically, while micromanaging the issues the creep up ever day in the Ugandan business enviroinment (managing suppliers inconsitencies, customers payments, riots, local officials and what have you) there just is no time to (A) promote sales and (B) forge investment plans for the money that I am putting at the business disposal, and that will start flowing in from customers that we (need to) add.

So there is a two-pronged solution to that. Once is to free up time for Justine by dropping one our our product lines, namely pre-cooked burgers. The other one is to find someone in Kampala who can, either on a project basis, or on a permanent basis, take over the Sales and Business Development fuctions of the business. Given that my goal of taking myslef out of the business still stands, the primary objective of my return in Uganda will be to find a person - possibly a young expat who already lives and thrives in Uganda - to take on that role in Uganda.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2011-02-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well, there is not much on the Ugly side (we're att pretty handsome at Macth Foods) but there has plenty in the Good and Bad area over the last few weeks.

Lets start with the bad. John, one of the boys we use to do shopping and deliveries had an accident Friday night...he was driving a girl to a club when a truck hit him. The girl dies on the spot, and he is at Mulago Hospital (kampala's main referral hospital) where he was told he would lose his arm. We're trying to get a second opinion, and see what can be done about the limb but the situation is bad, partly because the family of the gilr who died is after him. Justine is handling the situation, I trust she will do well.

In terms of the business itself, things are proceeding well...despite January being a slow month for business in Uganda sales are holding up quite well, mainly thangs to the new Chicken TOnight outlets Justine has added in my absence. Last weekend sales were above 170...if we can keep them above 120 on average that would be confortably past the break-even line.

On the other hand, costs have gone up (inflation, one often forgets, does stand at 10 percent in Uganda) so an upcoming learning point for my team will be to push through a price increase to our customers. I will give updates on that.

The business is still not at the point where its taking care of itself financially, which is a bit nagging given that at least in january we came very close. I have high hopes for Feb to be that month, but it all depends on how well sales pick up on the places we have added.

The main issue I have right now is aside from having to - albeit in nominal terms - still to subsidize the business, that my understaning of the challenges and successes the business is going though is invariably limited by not being there. Eventually, what I can know is what money comes in and what goes out, and what the difference between the two figures is. But, given that that end of the story is yet to give me the satisfaction I want, I realize I'm missing out a lot on the learning experience that Justine is going though. It is fun! and challenging, and scary and exhilerating to run a business in Uganda. I guess I just miss it...

2 months of Joys and changes

2011-01-11T13:43:00.001-08:00

So there has been a 2 month hiatus since the last post, and needless to say there is a lot to catch up on. For one thing, I am no longer in Uganda, and the business now is under the capable guidance of Justine.

In the last post I had underscored the importance of increasing sales. I spent the secon half of mNovember, and the first half of december following up on two leads that were very promising. I relize that when, in September, I begun focuusing on the current business model (leasing grills and the brand, and selling burger ingredients) I targeted the wrong customer base. I went after small, independent restaurants. I didnìt go after the real cream, which are the 4 chains of fast food restaurants that operate in kampala. All are have 5-6 branches,, all of them occupy the best spots in town, all are in the medium price range, and none of them sell burgers! In retrospect, it is evident I should have made attempts approaching them much earlier.

Anyways, before I left Uganda, we signed up the Wandegeya outlet of Chicken Tonight, one the four fast food chains in town (the others are Chiillies, Bon Apetit and Musk). The chain is surprisingly loosely managed. Cosmos, the owner, is a very intelligent, easy going man, with a sense for delegating to and empowering his branch managers. That is in stark contrast with Chillies management, which are a pain to work with. So, while we now have covered 3 out of 5 Chicken Tonight branches, with Chillies we're stuck on technical issues. The most important thing is that withh Chicken Tonight, the Kansanga branch and Makyndie one were added by Justiine, all on her own. I'm extremely proud of that.

So, even in my absence, it seems we're moving in the right direction, in terms of business model, and now of target customers. I'm writing 'seems' because in terms of cash flow, things are not so good. In december we had a great month, the business made just under 600 dollars in profits, real profits that is, above and beyond rent, salaries and other fixed costs. And that was with only three outlets (Akamwesi, Antonio's, and Chicken Tonight Wandegeya). But that was Christmas season, when Kampala goes on a spending craze. Now its january, everyone's pockets are dry and although we have more branches signed up, sales are slow. I think we'll have too wait for the beginning of february to see some financial improvement.

I also should mention some changes that took place internally, in the business. Mark, the other manager I was employed, left the business. Ever since I introduced the switching of roles between Justine and Mark (the roles were prodiction and operational manager) tension started to rise, and quite simply the tension could not remain there while I was gone. I promoted Justine to being the one boss, and I introduced a new worker (Bob) to the company, which Justine is to train to relieve her of some of the work she is currently doing. She is doing an ok job at that, but I want Bob to see Justine as a mentor, not as a boss. It is only an impression I have from talking to Justine and Bob on the phone, but I had the feeling that the relation between the two is still hyerarchical. I gave Justine some tips on imporving that, and we will see over the weeks how the situation changes.

The final point I should emntion is that we are oranizing ourselves to shift away from coleslaw, and supplying propper lettucce to our customers, packed in individual sachets, plus mayonnaise sachets. The clients love itk their customers too, and although its a little more expensive for us, we're trying hard to make it happen.

No pictures today, my apologies, but I will instruct Justine to upload some.

Pics only

2010-11-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

We introduced a new packaging solution this week; proper Styrofoam burger boxes. And Akamwesi, our new customer, is doing really well in Nakawa.

There are about 5000 foam boxes stored in our workshop now!

Doesn't this look great?! Box = 7 UScents, sticker = 3 UScents

Keep me closed

2010-11-07T10:43:00.001-08:00

As I was anticipating in last week's post, and a few ones before that, my current priority for the company is to add more grill-operating clients. With the current business model, which is now past the experimental phase, we give out grill and (Matt's Burgers) branded marketing materials to restaurants; we allow them to keep our equipment and our brand for free, as long as they agree to buy everything that goes into our burgers from us.

Antonio's - one of Kampala's oldest ad most popular fast food restaurants - was our first customer. I came back from Italy with two more grills, and now the focus is to place them in restaurants that - hopefully - can generate as stream of revenue as strong as Antonio's does. Last week I added Bugema University canteen, hoping that the Wandegeya student market would be responsive to our burgers. There, sales there haven't been all that great and the response our coupon promotion (one of the first such attempts in Uganda) has been rather anemic. As opposed to Antonio's, which makes sales of about 20 burgers per day, the canteen has been bringing in half of that. I don't want to draw conclusions just yet, let's give it another week.

On the other hand, the restaurant that we added just yesterday (Akamwesi) is very promising. I got a desperate call from the manager this morning (Sunday we're closed) asking me to re-supply him, because the stock we had brought to them got snapped up really quickly. Akamwesi is a well-managed restaurant just below an upscale university hostel near Makarere University Business School. Again, it might be a bit early to judge, but I am very impressed by the initial response.

The reason I need to add more grill operators quickly is because I am leaving Uganda soon...I need to raise more equity to invest back into the business, now that we have a business model that works. I will spend 6 months in Italy working and raising the required capital, but before I leave, I need to be sure that the cash flow the business is generating is sufficient to keep it afloat while I am gone. Having 3-4 more places like Antonio's would give me that confidence.

This period is a really exciting one for me personally. I am getting more and more confident that the business here has great potential. To know that every day is going to be different, that the challenges and satisfactions of it cannot be predicted; to know that at the end of an exhausting day of work something has been built, strenghtened or achieved, is what makes this un-easy phase of the business so exciting and unique.

And for the pictorial part of this post:

@ Matt's Burgers we're doin' our part...

Paul, Justine and Nicholas with Akamwesi's
first burger.

Week's summary

2010-10-31T01:54:00.000-07:00

This here on the left is a coupon that Justine, one of my managers, is holding up. It is he first time we experiment with promotions, and the coupon is intended to help sales at "Emma's restaurant" get off the ground. Emma is (a male, among other things) the owner of a restaurant near the Makarere University Hostels. I think I had posted before about how I thought students were a great target market for our burgers. So we went to the area (Wandegeya, where the University is located) and approached what we think is one of the restaurants with the highest potential. The place is shining clean, food is very cheap (1 dollar for a serious meal), there is parking and there are plenty of dorms all around. We supplied the equipment package on Thursday, along with 15 burgers. The sales are a bit slow sill (8 were sold by Saturday). So it isn't a boom yet, but I have the feeling that people will catch on. Plus many students are away until Tuesday because of the long weekend. I will distribute the coupons on Monday to Trace and Marble, two students we had worked with in September. By the end of the week we will know how well we can expect Emma's place to do.

Aside from coupons, what was new with this customer was that we finally had a proper contract that we signed with him. That is important, it gives me a lot more confidence to know that at least on paper we have the right to reclaim our equipment if things go awry. On the down side, Wandegeya is pretty far from where our office is, so that puts an additional strain on our delivery guys, which provide their services for comparatively little money. Also, the student market is very seasonal; winter and summer holidays mean that food outlets close down, and towards the end of the semester students - which are chronically broke - get even more parsimonious.

Internally, the change in our management system, whereby Mark and Justine switch roles every week, has highlighted some tensions between the two. I'm not too sure if I should sort them out from above, or let them first get accustomed with the new system. What I did was to introduce a weekly meeting, where everyone, Justine, Mark, Raphael, Mayombo, John and me sit and talk about what happen, what will happen and address any grievances. Last week's meeting was good, although a bit superficial. I hope hat with time people will come to be more accustomed to the new system.

Otherwise, I am glad that this week I achieved what i set out for, namely to add another grill operator to our repertoire of customers. Next week I need to add another. And then another more. Like I posted last week, the potential outlets are there, and I'm confident that I will be able to set them up by the end of November.

To burger, or not to burger

2010-10-24T02:50:00.000-07:00

This here on the left are 2 grams of 22 karat gold dust, as delicately held by Mr. Johnson, a Congolese smuggler I befriended. Lol, he is just another example of the crazy characters that one gets to meet in leaving the restricted circle of expats living in Uganda.

But anyways. This past week has been relatively positive. I made sales pitches to three restaurants to whom we want to give our grills. They went well, and now it is down to me and the team identifying which type of restaurant would work best for us. Drawing from the experience of Antionio's - our first grill-leasing customer - lunch crowds seem to work best. Restaurants that mostly operate during weekends or evening are a bit problematic, from a logistical perspective.
Also, I think it is more sensible to focus on restaurants that charge lower margins, rather than higher ones, as compared to Antionio's. Antonio's adds 75 cents (USD) to the price we charge them. We want to work with places that are constrained by demand and competition to adding a profit between 25 and 50 cents per burger. It doesn't make any difference to Match Foods, because our price stays the same, but low margins are a self selection tool for profitable clients. On one hand, a restaurant where prices are low, yet staff is motivated, the floors and kitchen are clean, and the food is still nice, is a well managed restaurant. The seriousness of clients, I came to discover, is crucial in my line of business. On the other hand, lower margins for our retailers mean more sales for us; a cheap restaurant stays afloat because the number of people eating there is high! The more people eat there, the more we can expect to sell burgers.

With Justine, I surveyed three places that fit this template. One in Wandegeya - near Makarere University - and two in Nakawa. This coming week will be all about making those two places happen.

This week has also been important internally for the business. I switched Mark's and Justine's positions around, such that for the past week Mark has been managing the production process, and Justine got to do the desk work. Both ran into challenges and frustrations as they were learning. Given that there were some tensions raking up between them during my absence, I think it was a great way to make them both realize how important each others' contribution to the business is. Also, it means the business is now better prepared to cope with a situation where one of the two suddenly has to leave.

Finally, on the existing customers side, things are moving on very well. With Heath, who had taken one of our grills to Old Kampala, we finalized our break up :) He isn't able to pay, and the place isn't selling very well. Luckily, it all was on amicable terms, so unless funny surprises happen, by Monday I should have all my equipment back. Again, the issue of having a contract signed with potential clients before we give out equipment is evident.

With Antionio's sales have doubled. Yasser (Antionio's Manager) and me had a thorough talk with Ambrose, the guy who prepares the burgers at the restaurant. At the beginning of our relationship, we had agreed with him that he would get 5 cents per burger sold, on top of the salary he gets from Yasser. In return he would get the orders, prepare the burgers, and deliver them to the tables. During the time I was away, Ambrose complained, and agreed with Mark to get paid a 5 dollar lump sum once a week, for the same services. Sales plunged. I went to talk to Ambrose on Monday, and asked him to revert to the 5c a burger system. He agree, and Yasser gave him a good scolding, about "going that extra mile". The day after sales doubled, and on Saturday they reached an all time high. Ambrose is ecstatic, and so am I. The cash from Antonio's is now flowing in nicely, and this week, for the first time since I left, we saw the cash box swelling.

Return to K'la

2010-10-17T05:32:00.000-07:00

Here on the left is the tenuous soultion we found for fixing the missing leg on one of our grills. Below the 'joint' the legs of the grill can be removed. In mid-september a caterer, Nora, asked us to borrow our equipment in order to cater for a 3 day event at the National Theater. She did really well, selling about 100 pieces. But, much to the disappointment of me and the team, she just....didn't pay. And upon returning the equipment, we found that a leg of the grill was missing. (the solution here was to add an empty cardboard tube under the joint, and attach the corner of the grill to the window grid with a rusty piece of wire. We thought it was funny enough for picture)

Nora's mishap was a cautionary tale about working with our new business model, whereby we give equipment away. While the payment issue was irritating (and after 2 weeks of constant nagging by Mark we did finally recover that money) what really made me panic was the thought that, if Nora, or really any other customer of the equipment+ingredients model, had wanted it, she could have walked away with 600 dollars worth of equipment without me being able to do anything. On one hand, this September incident stressed the need of formalizing our partnerships though a clear contract (a long overdue effort which is under way). On the other hand, it made me think more selectively about which customers are right for us.

These were the thoughts that were brewing in my mind as I was flying back to Uganda. I was away these last few weeks, and the business continued under the guidance of my two managers, Mark and Justine. Things went ok actually! We didn't make much progress in terms of sales, but on the other hand nobody got hurt, no customers were lost and all in all things remained stable. But there were two concerns that became clear during my absence.

1. The business is not generating nearly enough cash-flow. I left for Italy leaving a cash endowment (about 300 dollars) to deal with emergencies, and I found that on my return it had been pretty much eroded. We need more customers. We have three more grills to distribute over the next few weeks, and I am attaching pretty much all of my hopes for the business on those grill generating a stable cash flow for the company. On paper, that should be feasible. But incidents like that with Nora make me a bit skeptical.

2. My absence as a mediator and mentor for the two managers has re-ignited some tensions that I though I had addressed some time back. The problem, put plainly, is with one of the two managers. I don't feel it would be fair to write about it extensively here, until the problem has been resolved. But it has become so evident to me that for the business to thrive, internally, in my absence there are some drastic changes needed in how the power relationships within the business are managed.

Finally, in my absence Mark and Justine have been working on a new customer. His name is Heath, he is actually the person that developed my marketing materials (and managed the Old Kampala Club, see some posts ago). Heath is now managing the restaurant section of a small pub in Old Kampala, and he had approached Mark and Justine to get a grill. Although the place is great and has good potential, the relationship started off on a wrong note, mostly because of the inexperience of Mark, who was handling the customer. I saw Heath yesterday, and the next week - as I am waiting for 2 more grills to arrive from Italy - will be about organizing and strengthening the outlet he operates. I expect to post about that on Saturday. I am not too sure how well things will go at the Apple Bar (the place he manages), mostly because the place isn't his, and if any misunderstanding happens between him and the owner there will be nothing I can do about it. But I trust Heath, he is a good friend, and I am confident that things will work out.

New old business model

2010-09-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Here we are again, finally! It has been three very intense weeks for the business, and since I last posted, we finally made some progress on shifting the business model closer to how I want it to be. I resent a little not having written on this blog during this delicate time, but to be honest I was feeling insecure about whether we would manage to move away from the product we so far worked with (packed burgers, for supermarkets and petrol stations) into the more complex business model I now know we will be able to work with. It has been a bit of tense period for me personally, and it still is, in that I have the confidence - but not the certainty - that this model (and by extension the business itself) can work.

The new approach Justine, Mark and me are working on marks a return to what I originally had envisioned Match Foods to be about. Last week on Thursday we signed up Antonio's, one of the oldest, largest and popular "fast" food places in Kampala. We gave them a grill, and all the gadgets that go along with it, we prepared marketing materials (40 menus and a pull out banner - see below) to promote sales. And we begun bringing them raw ingredients - patties, bread and salads. Sales of ingredients are though the roof, and dealing with raw ingredients is incredibly easier, form a production and logistics perspective, than ready-to-eat burgers.

More importantly, the move places Match Foods into a business model that is much less about the product (burgers) and much more about assets (the grills and equipment, and the brand) - with which we lock our customers in. Having gained the certainty, over the last few months, that we have a product that people really like, and that fills a market gap, now the business boils down to signing up more restaurants, providing them with 600 dollars worth of equipment and marketing materials, and then make sure that the investment pays itself back though the margin we earn on the raw ingredients we supply.

I somehow regret not having started with this model before, instead of trying it with pre-cooked burgers first. But then working with pre-cooked burgers, which we sell to supermarkets and petrol stations, was important especially on the developing and strengthening the production and logistics function, as well as teaching Mark and me about how to manage our cash flow and stock.

But beyond the new-found confidence in the rediscovered business model, this few weeks have been dotted with a number of challenges. We begun selling vegetable burgers, using falafel paste. That didn't go that great; because the price of the falafel is actually higher than that of minced meat, while at the same time the price has to be lower than meat burgers, the profit margin is slimmer Also, there have been a lot of returns from Jazz - the Indian-owned supermarket we have been supplying our vegetable burgers to. I wasn't expecting that; I felt there would be a market for vegetable burgers for the supermarket's vegetarian hindu customers. But alas, no such luck, and I am now considering to withdraw that from our product palette.

We also had a bit of personal issues among two of my managers. I don't want to go in too much detail, but in essence it was about making sure no-one felt marginalized in the business. We talked, as a team, and things have straightened themselves out; but the incident made me realize how much peoples personalities play a role in the sustainability of the business.

The steps ahead now are, well, adding new Antonio's style customers! I have a number of them in mind, and my goal is to reach 5 or 6 before December comes around. It isn't much time, but it's feasible.

In the next post I'll write more about developments with Antonio's, adding a new managing director to replace me :) and then I'd like to comment about why restaurants such as Antonio's go with buying ingredients from us, as opposed to preparing and selling their own.

Upcoming post trailer

2010-09-01T01:53:00.000-07:00

There is a lot I should be writing about. Last week we had a different kind of customer who was selling our burgers at Makarere University, during the orientation week for freshers. She did very very well, selling up to 70 items a day. And she would prepare them fresh, so that we'd only be supplying raw ingredients, plus leasing her the equipment and the brand. It is the original business model, and what this week is all about is trying to capitalize on her success at MUK to add one or two restaurants in the University neighborhood. We will be again using the leasing+service supply model with them.

Being that this new development is a bit of a work in progress, I'll postpone posting about it to Sunday. I'll also write a bit more about some HR challenges, and how the distribution system is organized.

Til then!

News, news and more news

2010-08-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Great week at the workshop today. As I had anticipated last week, we added a worker, Rafael. Justine - the production manager - took on much of the challenge, which in nice in that I really wanted him to feel that she, not me, or Mark, is his boss. And she is doing a pretty good job at training him and at delegating more and more work to him. What does concern me a bit is the difference in background between him and Justine and Mark. Rafael is a village boy, as they are known in Uganda...whereas Justine and Mark are city people. So in the way they relate with each other, once can sense the class sentiment, the probably involuntary sense of superiority that emboldens the urban class. Because living in kampala, having a job, means being light-years apart from the impoverished and boring life one can expect in the Ugandan countryside.
Anyways, beyond the personal aspects what I am more interested to know is whether this apparent class difference is something that will affect the business' sustainability. Will it cause tensions and ultimately troubles that affect the business? Who will mediate those tensions; me, the manager? Can these tensions be handled once I withdraw myself from the day-to-day management of the business?

The other piece of news this week has been our experimenting with veggie burgers. Loads of our clients are indinas, and they often have stressed to me how they want to have vegetable burgers; or rather, vegan ones. So last week I approached an Iranian lady here who makes some amazing falafel. Her falafel patties worked out perfectly, in terms of taste, moisture and texture. The biggest problem was the price of the falafel paste (9 dollars per kilo) which would have made veggie burgers about three times more expensive than meat ones. But we ended up substituting chick-peas with beans; the price came down (to about 4 dollars, still more than the 3 I pay for meat) but I haven't experimented with them yet, so I don't know if they will react to the heat as well as the falafel paste did. Hopes are high, though.

(here are some pics of Palicha, my Indian office-neighbor, helping me taste our first veg burger)

On the administrative end, Mark has organized for us to square things out with the Kampala City Council. All businesses here need to pay the KCC money for a license, and it's all really confusing and corrupt (how the f**k is it that one has to pay a bribe in order to pay a local tax). Some of that confusion got weeded out the other day when a KCC inspector came to visit our premises. He suggested us to get a Health and Safety certificate first, and once that is there we can get a license (in his words "That is, if you want. You know, elections are coming up so we were told not to charge businesses for licenses anymore. Nobody will come and check, at least until April"). The trouble with KCC corruption is that Kampala is governed by FDC, as opposed to the national ruling NRM. So FDC elected officials can only get bribes and re-election funds from leveraging a relatively narrow area (local government licenses, planning permissions, local road building). NRM officials instead have a much broader collection base. And that is why dealing with KCC is so much more irritating and complicated then dealing with national bodies. Anyway, the way forward ow is to get a health certificate for Mark, Justine and Rafael stating they have no infectious diseases (15 dollars). Then the premises need to be certified as being sanitary (25 dollars, plus 10-15 dollars of bribe). Then I can get my KCC license (125 dollars). I wouldn't bother with any of this if I didn't need a KCC license in order to get a work permit as manager of my business. Plus the other day our delivery boy was arrested by a KCC official on Gaba road as he was supplying one our our customers there. The official - obviously in need for money to pay for his kids' school fees (school is starting early this year, which has sent many people scrambling for money) - claimed that Mayombo needed a "suppliers permit' in order to deliver our burgers. Which was a plain bluff, of course, but if we had had a KCC license by then it would have been easier to uncover it.

Anyways, the other point we addressed this week was how we do deliveries. That was, and to some extent is still, one of our weak links in terms of sustainability. The money we pay to our two motorbike drivers isn't very much, and they work with us on the - relativery credible - hope that it will get better. Ideally, we would have our own vehicle, and a worker who is able to drive it (Mark) but we're not there yet. Initially there was only once driver - Mayombo - but he doesn't work on Saturdays so I had delegate the task of finding, paying and managing a replacement to him. He did bring in John - a reliable and efficient colleague of his, but because our relationship with him was not direct (it went through Mayombo) tensions started to arise between the two and both were loosing their motivation. I took both for lunch, and we ate and sat for hours, talking about the business, about how to develop and improve it, and I left them with the feeling taht they are both again firmly on board. It still isn't a solution that is sustainable in the long term (we do need that extra freakin' motorbike, and Mark needs to know how to drive it), but for now we're ok.

Finally, sales. We did feel the pinch of Ramadan since last Friday. We were doing about 45 pieces per day, and the trend was growing, and all of a sudden we got 17 returns, and our clients started telling us to cut down on the number dlivered. Now we're hovering around 30, but we found another exciting outlet. There is a girl selling our burgers at Makarere University, at the bazaar - a 2 week orientation event for new students. She is ordering about 50 pieces a day, which are made and sold fresh on the spot. Although it's temporary (it will last until Saturday) it's a great leaning opportunity for us, and for me, it feel great to get a glimpse of how things would be like if we sold enough burgers to cover our costs :)

On a serious note though, now - with Rafael and with the drivers' revamped motivation - I feel confident enough to focus on sales again. September will be a crucial month - I expect to reach to 100pcs sold per day, and hence well into the black by the end of it. So keep tuned, and see it happen!

2010-07-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

The one pain in the neck of taking so bloody long to post again is that really there is so much to write. Where to begin from, then, becomes the real issue. Well, starting from what's most recent, I just came back from meeting with Pascal, who returned to me my passport after five days of passion and finger-biting. The visa issue is again solved, and an extension was granted from the Lira immigration office on a free market basis.

The second sigh of relief of this week was the end of the African Union summit.Let me dedicate a moment to the latter one. That a gathering of head of states would bottle up traffic in a city as chaotic as Kampala is - well - known and I guess acceptable. But the arrogance that once could feel on Kampala's roads, where shiny, VVIP sticker wielding Prados would dive into traffic at break-neck speeds lead by a cohort of ambulances and police cars, to deliver yet another escort to a dignitary from this or the other banana republic - that arrogance, then, was as revolting as noble was the motive for this get together (women's reproductive health is). But, as one once put it, TIA and you gotta suck it up. Here, being stupidly rich - especially so if from the worst Mobutu style cronyism and corruption - is the golden ticket to Arrogance, an arrogance so splurging and encrusted that it presumably justify just about any show of opulence and pompousness, especially if funded by someone else taxpayers money.

But moving on from my resentment, my manicured hatred for anything related to governments, donor countries and international institutions, and Africa, let's get down to my business.

For once, things are splendid. Two weeks back I surveyed the possible outlets for our meals that were closest around the workshop and narrowed down the ones with the highest potential. When I approached them, the feedback on the product was great and I now have a core of 5 customers, absorbing about 40 pieces a day. That's many enough to see the cash book float growing steadily (much to Mark's enjoyment) while keeping the workload small enough to play around with the management system, and deal with sudden shocks (like Mayombo's disappearance, last week, from the business).

The goal I have set for myself for September, when I have to head back to Europe for some weeks, is to render Match Foods financially and managerially independent. The former is the lesser challenge, in that we're already almost there, and the decision not to push sales further is a conscious one. The managerial bit is the one I find more challenging and fun; we're 70 percent there and there is great progress. I'm spending less and less time in the business, and there it is so satisfying to have my two managers come up with suggestions about how they can deal with issues themselves, without involving me. Having set that as a goal for myself, and them right from the beginning is really paying off.

I will post a specific example of what I mean; namely with respect to our delivery system which - given that I drive - is the one where I am more often plugging the holes when my delivery person falls out. We are setting up a system to deal with that and the next post will be looking at just how it happened.

Otherwise, all is fine here. I just moved to another house, a shared one this time, and I feel really happy about that. Bomb scares still happen every now and then (today on Jinda Road, just at peak traffic hour - what a nightmare) but well, what can you do. The nightlife is coming back on track, luckily, though with more guards and more over the shoulder watching.

Anyway, I was meant to post a neat picture of an electrical fire we had a couple of weeks back but I forgot my thumb drive. So no pics today. Next time, sorry.

Oh, and watch toy Story 3!! Great movie, superb story line...

Old kampala, plus not enough sales.

2010-07-10T02:12:00.000-07:00

I am going to start off with a side-note, about a place called the Old Kampala Club (or just Okla, for the Eritrean habitues hanging out there). Unsurprisingly it is in a part of town called Old Kampala, which, besides hosting a titanic mosque donated by Gedaffi, is also - and again unsurprisingly - the oldest part of Kampala. Having been brought up with the European notion of urban development - one that mandates that a town without an Old Town is really...nothing - discovering that hill of kampala, which i rarely visited before was heart warming... indeed, in Kampala there is a cluster of old buildings, narrow roads, cobblestones (still visible, under the tarmac) and ancient architectural styles. Not striking ones- the latter - but different, you know, from those beamingly cheap looking steel and glass structures the Chinese are putting up all across town. But 'not striking' isn't the right word...depending really on how much benefit of the doubt one is willing to afford to the defunct architects of the oldest hill of Kampala, one could define it either as rudimentary, or subtle. I go with subtle.
And in the midsts of this kernel of history there is Old Kampala Road, an on it, Old Kampala Club. I won't spend many words praising it, in that the atmosphere that - to me - lights the place up is as personal as it is indescribable. I am posting a picture, though! and I hope that some readers will one day give the place a try.

The other news are more mundane. The stress punch did arrive, the past week has been quite draining, partly because just as mum and sister arrived to visit, justine had to leave for Kisoro, where an aunt - who had hosted Bless and me on our way back from Rwanda a few months back - had unexpectedly passed away. Then last week my visitors left for Sipi falls, for five days, and Justine came back, and things seemed fine but we are now facing the fact that there are not enough sales. The next few weeks will be all about experimenting with promotions.

We now have proper stickers, to put on the packets and Justine is selling juice (or juy-see as it is pronounced here) to customers from the offices around who come for their burgers at lunch. Pictures below...

Unpaiid!!

2010-06-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

I begin this post again with a feeling of guilt, for having taken some time to write properly - aside from last week's pictorial update. It has been two weeks now since the workshop has been in operation...when I first decided to change the business model and involve myself deeper in the production side of the business I had expected some weeks of stress and micromanaging to keep the business together. And I knew that was going to happen during a time stressful on it's own right - mother and sister we(a)re coming to visit and need(ed) to be tour-guided, I needed to move to another apartment and soon I have to deal with renewing my visa again.

The pinnacle of this expected stress-storm has still to reach - it will probably start this Friday and last for about a week, but I have to admit I have a cautiously positive feeling about it. I did have to give up on gym ans salsa lessons, and I shamefully have to admit that I've fallen back into a (completely manageable, ofcourse) light smoking habit again, but, as I said, I have the confidence that these sacrifices and vices are temporary.

The workshop has been doing goodish...my biggest concern was how Justin and Mac (Mark in actual fact, but the Ugandan pronunciations suppresses the r's) would perform. I am ecstatic about Justin - she is extremely reliable in what she does. And about Mac...well, proactively slow is the oxymoron that comes to my mind. Lateness is (was?) an issue with him until today's lecturing but he is also someone who I know cares about the business and about how it does. So overall the feeling is good.

The second worry of mine is hitting the 100 burgers a day I need to send out in order to cover for the workshop's costs and wages. Monday (yesterday) had been a disappointing start and I got worried - today has been much better. So far we have one steady customer - Payless (see December posts ;-) - which orders 5 pieces per day. Then we have in-house sales; people from the offices around where the workshop is located who come buy them fresh here. I wasn't planning for that, but hey...pecunia non olet, right? There we had 17 sales today. Way beyond expectations. The third sales front is the Thursday Commedy Night, where Anne - one of the actresses, and a close friend - has set up her sister to sell Matt's Burgers freshly made. So things are moving....very confusingly so and confusion means micromanaging and stress on my part, but I am confident within 1-2 months the mist will settle and the magic number of hundred-a-day-makes-my-ulcers-go-away will be reached.

And before I sign off, here is a picture that I think maccs the day. Our first two invoices!! (As I was taking the snaps, Justin was mocking the celebratory spirit by commenting that the two invoices are unpaid (fair point), so instead of saying "cheese" upon pressing down the button I said "unpaiid" unleashing Justin's esophageal laughter.)

P.S.:Thanks for the comment Tim!!! Great to know I have a Swiss follower ;)

Mid-week update

2010-06-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

Too exhausted to post properly; but here are some pictures of the samples (supermarket "line") and of my two fantastic employees Mark and Justin.

Staffing staffing...

2010-06-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

My efforts to find a manager for the workshop - a person who will run it on a day-to-day basis - started off last week, with a rather puzzling interview with a young MUBS graduate. Uganda has been a breeding ground for Pentecostal proselytism ever since the end of the British rule, mainly from american missionaries (a saying has it that - with respect to foreigners - Africa is populated by missionaries, mercenaries and misfits). The religious ardour of some Ugandans is admirable, and it was certainly burning high in the heart of my first interviewee. He was sharp, his career plans fitted with my needs, we had a great talk about his prospective roles and responsibilities...everyone seemed to be happy. And as we were wrapping up he mentioned, with casual yet irremovable candor, that however he could not work on Saturdays. It felt like a punch in the stomach. But Saturday is the busiest day! That's when people get drunk, eat burgers...that's when you have to prepare Monday's deliveries! Niet, he said, with a religious determination so defiant of the staggering youth unemployment figures that I almost had to complement him. I didn't in the end...I was pretty irritated, but in retrospect I should have.

All is good now. My manager is called Mark. He doesn't know yet he is my manager, he was one of the four candidates I interviewed today. All had plus points, all could have been employed, but ultimately I wanted someone I have some external control over and it turns out Mark is part of the AIESEC community in Uganda, as are many of my friends here - so if ever a problem were to arise that requires someone he trusts to have a quiet word with him, many of our shared acquaintances would have that authority. But, worst case scenarios aside, the role of Mark (and Justin, the production manager) will be hot topics in the posts that will follow.

On other news, I took Anne - one of my more promising clients - to the workshop as well as on -a soliloquial tour of the money-earing prospects I thing I am opening for her. Her response wasn't as enthusiastic as I hoped for. She liked the workshop, the professionality of it, but I think a mist of doubt still lingers over the financial considerations of her involvement.

Next week ten I should have my team ready to rock and roll. The first item on the agenda is to produce some samples of cold burgers for distributing to supermarkets. Pictures are soon to come ;)

In the mean time, here is 50 billion from Zim

Workshop finished!!!

2010-06-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

So, finally! The workshop is now finished, both in terms of the actual building, and in terms of what has to be in there in order for it to function. Pictures are below. Friday I also went down to Luzira to have a pull-up banner printed. This is the banner that clients will display when to signal they serve my brand of burgers.

UGANDA

2010-05-31T05:39:00.000-07:00

Work in progress @ the workshop

2010-05-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

Pictures

2010-05-27T23:32:00.001-07:00

I'm hoping to post some pictures about the progress at the workshop today. In the mean time, I uploaded a few images from my trip to Rwanda in April on my flicker account. Here is a preview...

You can see the rest by clicking HERE

Branding gone...right?

2010-05-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

And this is just a pearl from my urban odysseys. I'm considering setting up a facebook fan club for this brand....just brilliant.

2010-05-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

I went to see david today at the Industrial Area. I expressed that I intended to take up the place and his workers will be finishing off the electrical, plumbing and paining over the next few days. Here are a few pictures; the place is currently being used as a chemical laboratory.

This above will be the en suite bathroom.

Choosing the right place

2010-05-19T05:21:00.000-07:00

Location, location, location....goes the saying. Being mine a wholesale/manufacturing, rather than a retail business, in a way the location is not a do or die factor, but in choosing a place were to set up the workshop closeness to my suppliers mattered a lot. This helped me narrow down the choice of places to eastern Kampala, particularly the neighborhoods of Kiswa, Bugolobi, Lugogo, Nakawa and some parts of the Industrial area (1st and 2nd street). Incidentally, the Industrial Area is changing; proper manufacturing businesses are shifting to the Industrial Park on Jinja Rd. and the cheap rent and large warehouse spaces have attracted a number of clubs into the area. (The German cultural center threw an awesome rave party in March in an abandoned soap factory. I wasn't there, but I'm told it was quite an event). But that's ideal for me...what used to be called light manufacturing is still going on along first and second street, and at the same time there are plenty of food places that have popped up around the clubs; food places that sell chips, fried chicken, sausages...but no burgers ;)

So the industrial area really is the ideal place, both in the short and long term. It's close to town, it's close to suppliers, it's close to where I live, even! And the roads are clean, there is little traffic....it's just perfect. And best of all, I found a room there! It's about 30 square meters, with water and electricity inside (a rarity, especially the water bit), easily accessible and with a very reasonable landlord (again, a rarity). Rent is abit higher than other neighbourhoods...it's about 200 pm dollars as opposed to 150. Including other fixed costs, it means that I'll have to sell between 80 and 100 items a day to break even, which is ok.

I haven't confirmed with the landlord yet, so I hope I'm not jinxing it but I have a really good feeling about the place.

Anyways, below are some pictures of the area, plus the picture of another space I had been looking at on First street. I wish there had been a good light to take a picture inside...it looks like a setting for Saw

Italian encounters

2010-05-04T05:24:00.000-07:00

Oh! And i forgot to mention...I met a very interesting paesano today at a Coffee Shop in Lugogo. I had gone there for my occasional espresso, and found what I though was a free table. As I sat down an elderly man came, and asked me if he could join me at the opposite chair me; he had left that table to the bathroom. Of course I said, and as we exchanged how are you's , his phone fell and he uttered a mumbled, evidently unconscious, "Porco dio". Friuli! I though, and indeed Friulan he was. Turns out he has been here, and in Rwanda for since 1961. He came as a truck driver; at the time no one knew how to steer those 7-ton Fiat tractors that are still a common sight on Uganda's roads. What a man! Still with a distinct Friulan accent and cadence. And he introduced me to Claudio, another Italian institution in East Africa. He is Sicilian, very Sicilian. He deals in property here, and he was telling us - with a rather displeased tone - how the other week he had to rent a bulldozer to raze - at night - the house of one of his former clients.
Lol, what a master card moment. Buying a property from a broke owner at 1/10th of its value - 200.000$. Renting a CAT Bulldozer - 500$ per day. Razing the house that previous owner was building to reclaim ownership of the same property - Priceless.
Anyways, as the anecdote suggests, Claudio is excellently connected in Uganda; a good person to keep close.

Long hiatus, gazettes and new directions

2010-05-04T04:43:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by apologizing for the long absence. I had a friend visiting from the US, and I took a leave of absence to tour with him. We headed to Jinja first where we met up with Bless (who is opening his second barber shop there) and then took a trip to Rwanda, which conveniently allowed me to extend my visa for another 3 months. Great trip, great pictures (coming soon) and great games of pool.

The trademark notice on the Uganda Gazette

Anyway, back to business. I am wrapping up the marketing and legal bits this week so as to finally begin working on getting a commercial workshop up and running, from where the ingredients for my burgers will be prepared and delivered. There's been a shift in strategy here; in a previous posts I had voiced the intent to delegate the production function to another company of my creation, in which Match Foods would be a minority shareholder. I think this approach is still valid, but I also came to realize that it will be wiser to spin off the production function once the latter is already functioning.

This is advantageous on three grounds. On one hand it will allow me to directly manage the problems that will invariably arise during the gestation period of the workshop. Second, it enables me to cut a profit level from my supply chain during the time when quantities - and profits - are still low. (In the previous model, Selex (the spin-off) and Match had to share the profit margin of each burger. With Match "in-sourcing" production, the company gets to keep all its margin). And finally it will allow me to deliver - once the time to spin off the production function arrives - a business that is already functioning and making money.

So the plan - over the next two months - is to render the production location operational in all its aspects; production, delivery, management systems, payment systems and collection. It will make for some very interesting blogging I think. It's going to be a lot of work, especially in the planning phase. The workshop needs to work like a Swiss watch - with the right carrots and stick in place to keep the quality of the product and its delivery consistent, and at the same time allow me to spend as little time as possible in it.

I'm pretty nervous, actually. A lot of things will force me to step out of my comfort zone. I'll keep posting about progress and setbacks.

Miscellaneous post

2010-04-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

In today's post my thoughts go towards Abdalla, the Somali businessman I met a few months ago and with whom I've been trying to get an Italian construction company to set up shop here.

Kampala to me is a place where many unlikely encounters do happen. Looking beyond the rather dull community of NGO workers, the people one can effortlessly hope to meet here are as close as it gets to the characters of the novels I used to love (and still do) in my adolescence; Heart of Darkness, Kim, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Abdalla (spelled in the Italianized pronunciation this quite real character insists on) is one of them. Listening to the row of adventures that seems to have sometimes elevated and sometimes - I presume - scarred the soul of this man now reaching his 60s, one can imagine a book unfolding, chapter by chapter, under one's eyes. From the halls of the Modena Military Accademy to the lucky escape from the civil war, passing though the battlefields of the Ogaden War and the nightlife of Bhagdad in the 80s...I cannot imagine a life fuller of adventures, suffering and joy as that of Abdalla.

Now, a new chapter seems to be opening, one that bears the grim prospect of being the last. "Sheik" Abdalla is about to head back to Somalia, for a trip intended to sell off an oil concession acquired two decades ago. The land is in an area controlled by Al-Shabab, and the person wishing to acquire it - for a fraction of its value, were Somalia again a peaceful land - is a war lord. I cannot properly describe the subtle hint of desperation I saw this friends' eyes, when - upon describing what he was embarking on - he asked me if I thought it was going to be ok. What really he was asking - to someone who knows nothing about Somalia or about the intended buyer - was whether he was going to be ok. Or, put bluntly, whether he would make it out alive. The question itself - or rather the futility of asking it to someone like me - already bore the seed of a saddening answer. A signature and a lawyers' seal, in exchange for a hefty (though disproportionate) sum of money, in a lawless country, from a man accustomed to getting what he wants though the giving end of a rifle, seems the author's plot for the closing chapter of this book....

More on marketing, and other bits

2010-04-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

More updates. Today I was supposed to go to Entebbe to pick up a friend who is coming to visit, but volcanoe askes came in the way so I spent teh morning working, again, on marketing bits. I picked up the aprons from Willy, who gave me a pretty reasonable price for the embroiding - ca.1.25 euros. I'm not extatic about the work, teh logos are smaller then what i wanted and the colors are a bit different from the actual logo, but there issues will be dealt with in the next batch of aprons which i will get early next week.Here is a picture of the apron...

This morning I also went past the trademark office to register the brand. It's pretty expensive, about 250 dollars, and I hope it will be useful. I also had to make some photocopies of the registar's file containing Match Foods documents. I had been waiting for the file to be put together for about two months; luckily it wasn't urgernt but...well, I just want to make an observation here. From what I've been told, the Registrar's office was recently cleared of 'agents'. Agents are public servants who, on the side, during lunch break or else, get stuff moving faster, in return for a negotiated fee. You still find them at URA licensing office, where I got my driving permit. At the Registar's office they're not there.

I am pretty sure that the reason for the recent crackdown were the complaints of some zealous World Bank, EU or UN anticorruption official. On one level that is plain hypocritical; a UNDP contract for a road linking Juba to Uganda is there, waiting for someone to deliver a briefcase full of cash in order for the bid to be awarded. The Crested Towers building, the seat of the EU delegation, yielded a 60% profit margin for Roko, and sure as sh*t it wouldn't have, if a number of people there didn't take their cut of the 13 million dollar mark-up. And as for the World Bank, they're probably the worst one of the lot. But candidly, in the midst of all this, some tight-assed expat bureaucrat finds the time to set up seminars, organize workshops and send out letters to "sensitize local partners" about "malpractices in the public sector delivery systems". And so agents get fired. And inevitably - as it to be expected a country where a public servant with kids, rent, school fees and bills is lucky to earn 100 dollars per month - files get stuck, documents get lost, confusion reigns, and morale drops.

But anyway - note to myself - demonstrating the pareto efficiency of agent systems in public service delivery would make for quite an interesting master thesys.

2010-04-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, image uploader not working today...

Anyway, I can't believe I didn't realze, so far, that the U in the logo is written the wrong way round, with the 'leg' on the left, as opposed to the right. And I was made aware at the last minute, as I was taking the logo for embroiding on the aprons. The credit, actually, goes to Pamela, a Ugandan entrepreneur and friend who deals in African jewellery.

Hiccups aside, there was some tangible progress on the marketing agenda during the past week; I just came back from a meeting with Willy, a guy who does embroiding. Aprons will be ready tomrrow. It will take until next Friday to have everything ready, but at least there is light at the end of the (spending) tunnel. The next stop, then, is to iron out the legal bits of the business (shareholding agreements, master agreement for clients and supply contract with Selex) - before I plunge into establishing production capability for the firm. In the mean time, to save time and to stop the nuisance of...well...not getting paid, I withdrew the two grills that were on the market. It feels like a bit of a defeat, and a relief at the same time. I am not sure I am ready to come up with learning points about this situation yet.

I wanted to use this post to make some observations about bargaining in Uganda, which is a chapter all on its own, but I am short in time. Will do soon though!!

Mattia

Easter post

2010-04-06T00:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to everybody and apologies for the long delay in posting. I spent the last few days in Kidepo National park, at the upper right corner of Uganda. No internet there...or phone coverage, power and running water. It was absolutely wonderful. The park is one of the least visited, and there are loads of Discovery Channel featured animals - which were nice, kinda boring, but nice - but most importantly, there are mountains!! Not the breathtaking, snow-capped peaks of my province (South Tyrol)...but mountains nevertheless. Gently yet firmly sloping ones dotted with faded-orange granite moraines, almost inexplicably emerging from an otherwise flat, brushwood covered plain. Quite beautiful.

Oh and below is the picture of Bella, a Rhino brought to the park from a US zoo. Her son is called Obama, reason being that Bella is from America while the baby-rhino's dad is Kenyan.

I'll be posting more images soon but in the mean time here are some excerpts from the work of the previous week, which - going back to business now - was dominated by marketing related issues. Menus are done, website is designed but not yet coded, pull out posters are designed but not yet printed, aprons are bought but not yet embroiled. Loads of 'not yets' - to underscore the work in progress.

Another website concept

2010-03-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

Stuck on marketing, payments problems

2010-03-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

This week has been pretty uneventful. I thought I'd get started with the marketing materials, but i haven't managed to wrap up the photoset with Patrick, my photographer. The only interesting thing since my last post was a price change that Anne - one of my two clients - managed to introduce painlessly to customers. This is good on two grounds. One is that, well, people love the burgers and - more cheekily - if they are now selling at 3000sh, it will allow me to increase my price to 2000 (from 1700).

The other learning point this week is that...payments from my clients are a problem. I thought I could force through the pre-payed system for the burgers last week, but that didn't work out. I haven't insisted too much on it partly because I don't know how making the change will affect the work relationship with my clients (I am, after all, still in an experimental phase of the business, where I don't expect profits or want to increase sales beyond the current level).

But it is a necessary step I realize; much like the price change above is a (passed) test for the quality of the burgers, the pre-paid system is a test for the validity of the business model. My business is not burgers. My business is to help restaurants make money, in the easiest possible way. That's why they don't have t buy new equipment to sell burgers, or build a brand, or prepare any of the ingredients. In my mind, it makes sense to them; by signing up with Match Foods, they are buying a cash flow.

So imagine the scenario where we are in a prepaid model. A customer initially buys a credit of - say - 60 burgers. And they run out. What happens next is where the test lays. You see, finding 102,000 shillings to renew the credit is a problem for the clients I work with. Caterers, restaurant owners here are financially illiterate. Money that is revenue and money that is profit is the same. Money that is to be invested and money that is for personal use is the same. So, by the time comes that the client has to renew the credit, she will have to either borrow money, or forgo on something she was ing to buy for personal use, or not repay money that someone else had lent her. Which is interesting for me, because if the clients does renew the credit in time it means that she knows that the 102k invested in my burgers are worth more than any other options available for that money.

Of course, once the business is on stream proper, the service contract will state that if the credit is not renewed within a week the free-lease equipment will be withdrawn. The reasoning being that is that (a) I don't want to work with clients that rate personal cash needs or other investments higher than my value proposition, and (b) that if a restaurant does not carry Matt's Burgers for a week because the owner is broke, that taints the consistency aspect of the brand. A customer should know that in every Matt's Burgers Partner Restaurant there are Matt's Burgers. Always. And that's why he will come back.

Website - homepage

2010-03-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here is the outcome of about 16 hours of messing around with MS Word. The focus was more on the layout, colors and fonts, rather than the content. Any feedback would be really appreciated.

On the set

2010-03-13T01:50:00.000-08:00

Proposed website header

2010-03-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

Cool graph and other stuff

2010-03-10T04:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a graph of my last 6 weeks production costs per burgers. In theory, the marginal cost should be about 1200 shillings, but for now the 6 weeks average is 1490 shillings.

Anyways, costs apart, yesterday I begun employing someone to prepare the burgers. It's kinda awkward actually, given that while she works in the kitchen I am sitting on my bed....waiting (the bed is still the only piece of furniture in my house, by the way). But it's good! Jackie is a friend, and she works very independently. So while she does the work, I can leave the house and flex about the more strategic aspects of the business.

On the latter, on Saturday I have an appointment with Patrick, a photographer, to take pictures of my burgers - those snaps will go on all the marketing materials, from fliers to pull out posters, that I will be providing to my clients. I should have moved earlier on that, given that the marketing aspect is one of the keys to push my business from a product-based one (making burgers, which I want to spin off. See below) into an asset-based business (one that owns brands and equipment). So, by Monday I hope I'll be able t post the images I will have selected

Finally, the construction project seems to have experienced a (possibly temporary) resurrection. We did find someone who seems to be able to bring a large Italian construction company down here. I don't want to sped too many words on it, since it all is still on thin ice. Lol, just...well, I find it interesting how my mind has become acceptant of "the way things are done" in road construction; I don't know if six months ago I would have felt comfortable discussing about the most tax-effective way pizza slices can be distributed. But that's six months ago, I guess...

Long post

2010-03-06T13:22:00.000-08:00

This week I've cashed in on cocktail-party stories like never before.

(A) I had tea with the wife of Somali mid 90s warlord Aidid. (remember Black Hawk Down? He's was the dude who ordered the "Down" in the title)

(B) I met with Flight Captain Mukula, an ex-minister and a Historical (i.e. one of the band of 27 bros who brought the Obote governent), who at some point during the meeting nudged towards me and told me "you bring me a company we can work with, and winning the bid won't be a problem". The bid is for the 100+ million usd flyover bridge connecting Kampala to Entebbe currently being planned.

(C) Through the cunning combination of first gear and breaks, I finally managed to lift Saetta's front wheel in a spectacular Top Gun/pranking horse position, contemptuously zooming past a dazzled Kira Rd. police patrol on Friday.

Ok, the latter was a straight lie. But I figured I need three cocktail stories.

On a serious note now. I progressed on two fronts this week. One was the Somali connection and the construction company that we're trying to bring here. Abdullah and Ali brought me to meet the lady of point (A) above, who then lead us to see gentleman of point (B). Loads of encouraging prospects seemed to be opening, but after talking to some people fluent in government contract affairs, I had to conclude that (A) and (B) aren't - in the gracious words of my informant - people who can get pizza slices moving. And even if, the challenge for me is to convince any Italian construction company to open up operations this side, without them knowing anything about Uganda, or me, and without me knowing anything about construction. So, realistically, I think I'm better off directing my management time what I came here to do. Making burgers more popular than breathing, that is.

On the burger side, last thursday I wasn't able to supply any burgers to my customers, as I was following up on the construction project. I was tempted to think that was a mistake, given the little faith I now have in that path working out. But it actual fact it opened my eyes to the realization that, as long as the business won't be able to go on when I'd tending to other stuff, Match Foods will be stuck on an experimental - not commercial stage of its development. In fact, Match Foods should not be about foods at all, but be about food brands instead!

So, I came to the decision to spin off the burger making side of my business before attempting to break that glass ceiling that separates me from the commercial state of affairs. So, ideally, in 3 months time I will no longer be involved in any way in the making or delivery of burgers. The spin-off company (Selex Foods - my muses tell me) will be doing that.

Loads is still brewing in my head as to how to manage the relationship between Match and Selex. That's the one thing on which the sustainability of this project hinges. I'll write more on that, as ideas crystallize in my mind. The key point is that nor I nor Match will own the majority of Selex, someone else will.

But here goes a list - I'm writing it mostly for myself - of things I ought to do before the spin-off fun begins:

1. Finish the marketing bit; get pro snaps of the burgers and make branded menus and pull-out posters for Matt's Burgers clients.

2. Write a Master Agreement for Match Foods clients and have them sign it. Label all the equipment currently held by clients.

3. Incorporate Selex foods, open bank account and begin tax procedures.

4. Get 2 more grills from Italy and prepare them - and the 3rd one currently not being used - for deployment.

5. Draft a shareholder agreement between owners of Selex (Match as min. shareholder and the maj. shareholder to be selected)

On a closing note, I successfully managed to increase the price of the burgers from 1500 to 1700, and to cash in on a 500pc order for April 2nd.

Latest from Kampala

2010-02-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

No pictures in today's post, my apologies.

So, as summary of the week. It's been fair, not great,but not bad either. The thursday delivery went ok but bad weather meant that attendance to the two shows at which my burgers are sold was low. The good news however is, that both my clients are moving beyond the thursday event; Faith will be selling burgers from her kiosk from monday onwards and Ann will be selling at another comedy show on Fridays. This month I have been moving 70-80 burgers a week, next month I'm hoping for 150-200.

But here is the issue. Making burgers is a pain in the neck; delivering burgers is a pain in the neck, too. I need to move the business into a small commercial space, and hire someone to do the manual work from there. Then I need to hire a production manager to purchase the ingredients and manage the payments. Then I can focus on what really matters for the business; namely the marketing and branding bit.

My thought was that I should do that once I sell enough burgers to afford rent, 2 wages and utility bills. I need to sell 800-1000 a week burgers to achieve that. But I realize that there is no point in waiting, to manage the transition well I need to start it now. So from next week onwards I will be working on that and posting updates.

I also wanted to write about some other business opportunities that I am pursuing...two weeks ago when I was queuing at the Rwandan embassy I met Mr. Abdullah Caali, a Somali, Italian-educated engineer who seems to have fingers in many pies. And connections with many people. We met again after our cordial Rwandan encounter and talked about business and opportunities that we could pursue together. What came out of it was that I put together a profile of Toto Costruzioni Generali S.p.A, and Italian general engineering contractor whom we are hoping to bring in to partake in the 2011 pre-election spending spree. Lol, I don't know if the deal will come through but it's proper shady business. Rigged bids, multi-million contracts, bribery, ministerial aides, somali businessmen, the first lady...among others. But that's the fun part of being in Uganda! You get to do crazy things, meet crazy people, and update your blog about it ;D

Anyways, I better wrap this up. Stay tuned!

Matt's burgers logo, final cut

2010-02-23T05:28:00.000-08:00

Were we were, where we're going

2010-02-22T00:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted about the business itself in a while. The key realization I made over this weeks is that the business is still in its experimental phase. Here is what I have completed so far:

(a) the 'product package' is ready. The burger ingredients now come made packaged the way I want. I still have to do some work on measuring the optimal quantities of salads and sauces for each burger, and I have to finish calculating the cost of each burger supplied.

(b) the 'equipment package' is ready. The package essentially consists of the grill, the cylinder, and other small bits and pieces. The idea is that partner restaurants/caterers do not need to purchase anything else to start selling burgers. Two of the three grills I have here now are fully equipped, and out there in the market.

(c) the payment system is ready. The only way for the business to be sustainable is if burgers are prepaid, the way that one would load phone credit in advance. I already introduced the idea to my two current customers. The payments will be made with this convenient system called MTN money. MTN is Uganda's largest mobile phone operator and money function allows you to transfer money among MTN phones by sms. That way I can receive payments without having to put my client through bank queues to transfer money; which wouldn't be sustainable.

(d) I raised the price of my burgers to 1700Ush, from 1500, without encountering much resistance.

But here's what is still missing:

(a) The whole marketing package is not ready. Ideally, whenever I sign up a client I would like to deliver the equipment package and a number of marketing materials to let their customers know they are eating Matt's Burgers. I need pull out posters, menu cards and fliers for restaurants. For my catering clients I need branded aprons, pull out posers, business cards, ad branded boxes. I still haven't finalized the logo yet, and I need to take professional pictures of the burgers.

(b) I need a brand and equipment rental agreement, which I will have every client sign. I also will need to label each piece of equipment I supply to my clients, so that if we decide to break the business relationship off, I can recover all the things I had given them on loan.

FInally, to really take the business beyond its current micro level, I need o rent a commercial location closer to my clients, and hire a production manager and a worker to take the preparation of the ingredients out of my kitchen. I figure I need to be able to sell 3000-4000 burgers a month to make it financially sustainable. I think I will get there by June, but I want to move the production side of the business out of my house, and out of my direct supervision, as soon as the missing bits above are ready.

Me bribing a Ugandan policewoman

2010-02-19T02:18:00.000-08:00

Lol, so, police here is cracking down on bike riders. We are apparently required to wear reflector jackets and gloves at all times. Yesterday I was stopped at midday by Jennifer, a "trafficmanoffisa" on Yusuf Lule Rd. Using my phone I managed to record the negotiation on the bribe - the outcome is hilarious.

Here goes the link to the recording.

Rwanda snaps

2010-02-16T10:48:00.001-08:00

Kigali prettyness
Originally uploaded by madebi85

You can find more pics of my trip on my Flickr page

Visa and other updates

2010-02-13T09:27:00.001-08:00

All is good! I'm in Masaka now; all went well at the boarder. I now feel kinda silly about panicking all this time, when all i had to do really was crossing to Rwanda. The latter country, then, is a marvel of efficiency! The roads are spotless, Kigali is extraordinarily clean and uncongested. I'll write some more about, and post some pictures of, the trip if i get the time.

On other news, this week has been the first time that i sold burgers the way i want, the sustainable way. Wednesday morning i delivered 72 ingredient packages to Anne and Faith which they sold during the Thursday performance at the National Theatre. The reassuring part for me was that my involvement was limited to supplying ingredients. The burgers sold out, almost. I'll be writing more about how i want to develop the business relationship with my first two clients, and the problems i foresee surfacing.

Visa upate

2010-02-09T19:11:00.000-08:00

It's 5am here, I'm about to leave for town to catch a 12 hour bus to Kigali, Rwanda. All went well at the embassy, the visa was ready by mid-day. Fingers crossed for the way back ;)

Visa updates

2010-02-08T03:25:00.000-08:00

Good news, to some extent. At the Rwanda embassy they told me it takes 24 hours to get a visa. Typical Rwandese efficiency. I did get some funny questions as to what i am doing here in Uganda, and why I had been around for this long, all of which made me panic a little, but the lady at the counter told me to come back tomorrow to pick up my passport. Fingers crossed. I also went past teh Emirates office in Kimathi avenue where I changed my return flight to Italy to the 12th of April. When I cross the border back into Uganda on Sunday, I will ask for a 3 month tourist visa, as opposed to a 1 month one, since my flight back to Italy leaves in April. Bless will also be coming with me, which turns the journey from a dull administrative formality into a Smirnoff powered, carpediesque Road Trip. Lol, plus we'll be crossing the boarder from Kisoro, so if I run into a uncooperative official at the post I figure we can ask Blesses uncle to intercede, he is the district MP.

Anyways, at the Rwanda embassy today I got to meet Mr. Abdullah Kanie, a Somali businessman who deals in live shellfish. He imports teh latter from the Puntland to supply Kampala's swelling league of 5 star hotels. He is such an exquisite, elderly man...and is perfectly fluent in Italian too. He spent his youth in Turin, and studied engineering at the Polytechnic there. We agreed to meet again for coffee after we return from Rwanda, though I'm secretly hoping I can cook some Spaghetti allo Scoglio with the good seafood he brings in from Somalia.

Logo updates...

2010-02-04T21:46:00.000-08:00

Lol, by the way, this looks like an adaptation of Andy Warhol's portrait of Marylin Monroe. Anyways, the point here was to make some tiny changes to the font. Once we have that one sorted we'll be playing around with colours.

Logo aside, I'm most likely be going home for a week on wednesday, home being Italy. I wish I had brought a winter jacket. I'll be at the airport wearing all the t-shirts I've got.

Of being screwed...

2010-02-03T02:06:00.000-08:00

Extending a Special pass - a sort of temporary work visa for people with unorthodox immigration needs - is not as easy as I thought it would be. My reasoning was that owning an incorporated company would be proof sufficient to grant an extension, along with the promise to apply for a proper work permit once the passes timeframe has expired. Equipped with this assumption, and with the confidence stemming form my freshly rubber stamped Certificate of Incorporation, I convinced myself that this is an issue that could be handled by me directly, without requiring the intermediation of some well-connected middleman. And so, candidly I made my way to the Uganda Immigration Control Board, with my forms duly filled out and a 6 page cover letter (letter plus attachments) detailing my situation. But - paraphrasing from somewhere - reasoning with Ugandan bureaucrats is a noble, yet futile pursuit.

Now, the options are:

- taking a flight home and coming back after the expiry of the pass, and getting a tourist visa at the airport

- talking to a well-connected middleman, Pascal is his name, to get either a tourist visa without having to leave the country or a special pass extension.

As the day goes by, I will be tweeting live about which of those options is gonna work out.

Week's recap

2010-02-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

Well, for starters my apologies for taking so long to write. As last I predicted in my last post, this last week has been serious madness. But a lot got done! On the production side, the workshop in the house is now ready. Well, workshop is a bit of an overstatement. The main additions there were a fridge and a vacuum packer. The latter is a real Chuck Norris of semi-commercial kitchen equipment; it's made in China (the brand is Golden Camel; if I get the time I'll scan and upload the English version of the user manual - some funny stuff there) but it seriously does miracles. But going back to the kitchen, it's all is ready and the processes have been tested. I figure that my current capacity from there is about 90 burgers per day, so until April the production side of the business is taken care of, and no more investments are needed til then. I now have three grills by the way. Two more came from Italy last week. Again, that should be enough til April.

Then , there is the marketing side of it all. I found a great team of graphic designers, who are helping me to convert the logo I had drawn and posted some time back into a set of marketing materials. Above here is the first draft. I'll keep posting the updates to it.

Other bits and pieces; the incorporation certificate for the company (Match Foods (U) limited) should be ready by tomorrow. Now the last, administrative (and possibly bribe intensive) roadblock is the renewal of the special pass, which allows me to stay in the country. That one should be cleared by next week.

Will keep posting! Lol, I have internet at home now so there will be no more excuses.

Preview for next week

2010-01-24T06:31:00.001-08:00

Still posting from the phone, my modem at home is not yet operational.

So, next week will be pretty stressful. Two more grills coming im tomorrow; the workshop in my house has to be online by tuesday latest; meanwhile i have to wrap up incorporation by friday, so that next week i can hand in the papers to extend extending my special pass; and then there is the logo and the marketing materials (menues, posters and branded burger-containers, for lack of a better work).

I would also like to write, and post, about the more strategic vision for the business model, and come up with some updated financial projections so that i can set financial objectives for the business.

New house

2010-01-22T07:18:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the delay in posting, the thing is I'm moving out of Blesses house into my apartment in Mbuya and it's taking up a lot of time to furnish the place. The apartment is great, I will post pictures soon.

Moving also forced me to think outside the box im terms of securing my supply chain. I'm now preparing my second bedroom to be a workshop, from where the patties, salads and sauces will prepared. It's an interim solution, but it seems to be unavoidable. I'll write more about this decision in my next post.

I'm also moving forward with the incorporation of the company. It'm at the first step now, registration of the name. It's Match Foods.

Finally, I'm working with Faith's fiance, who is a graphic artist, on the company's first brand, Matt's Burgers. The logo is based on the design I had previously posted. I'm actually really happy with the concepts. Again, pictures will go online soon.

That's all I've got for now. Well, im actual fact there is more i want to write about, but i'm posting this with my phone and my thumb is paining...

Not so good after all

2010-01-14T05:56:00.001-08:00

Today's meeting at top cuts was a major setback for my business. After 3 weeks of hustling, and getting no results, i lost my cool with John. Still packaging, and still that irritating 'can't do' attitude. I will try to negotiate with the MD directly, but i realised that i made a mistake not setting up negotiations with other potential patty suppliers. The truth is, i got lazy, and that cost me a 3 week setback. And that's just one element of the supply chain. I expect similar issues with salads and sauces.

Only 3 patties per bag, and sub-par vacuum sealing.

The other key realization i made was that i need to think of supermarkets as my main distribution channels. Burgers are not that popular here. If i am to make burgers mainstream, every small restaurant selling sausages (which are a hit here) and chips needs to be able to buy patties, buns and lettucce from the same place they buy sausages. That is, supermarkets. I assumed that large restaurants capable of selling 30 burgers a day are my target market. Truth is, they're a niche. The small, unlicensed, owner operated joints are the money maker. This realization, late as it is, means that my business model has to change radically. Getting into supermarkets, then, adds another 2 months to the timeline when the business will start making some money. Which in turn means i have to ration my capital harder.

Some major re-strategising is, at this stage, no longer postponable...

Of meetings, and cyclists.

2010-01-11T05:37:00.000-08:00

Great start of the week!

For one thing this week I am finally able to ride around town by bike, freely and confidently. I can't describe how liberating it is not to have to negotiate with boda drivers, walk to and from the taxi stand, being stuck in traffic and all that. Lol, on top of that, I kinda like my new biker look...leather jacket and all.

Anyways, the day started off with a very productive meeting with Faith. I updated her about where my business is at and where I want to bring it to over the next 3 months. She agreed with my plan to find external suppliers for all the ingredients, although she warned me that at some point, one of those suppliers might end up becoming a competitor. She suggested to move fast on the branding issue, which is something I neglected so far. And she gave me feedback about what ingredients should and should not be in the packge I offer to clients. Currently, the burgers I make contain 6 ingredients. The bun, the patty, the lettuce, the tomatoes, mayonnaise and ketchup. She suggested to supply only the first 4, and to leave the tomatoes uncut.

Anyways, on top of the good meeting with Faith, I just talked to John at Top Cuts and he told me that he had solved the packaging issue I had mentioned in the previous post. I'm meeting him and seeing some samples tomorrow. Then, I went by the Payless bakery and Alex, by very favorite baker, is now back for good. We exchanged numbers and he promised he'd call if he were to leave the company again. Finally, Grace will resume making burgers, and taking care of the whole process, from Wednesday onwards.

So all is good on those fronts! My house-hunting has also begun, my visa issues should be solvable though a short trip to Kigali in February (I'll be back on a tourist visa then) and....what else? I'm siting on my bed in Ktintale now coming up with names for the competition law consultancy me and Jeff Otim are setting up.

On a closing note, here is a video I took of a mad Ugandan cyclist, whom I saw effortlessly riding past our motorbike in the midst of the worst peak hour traffic on Jinja road. The video quality isn't that great, but I'm sure it won't be hard to realize that the man had guts.

Here is the link

Burgers and competition policy

2010-01-08T05:18:00.000-08:00

This week has been one that i'll mark in my diary. I moved forward on four fronts. On the drivers permit issue, I am now sorted, at least until my learning permit expires. I still don't have a work permit, but through Pascal I should either be able to get a student visa, or to revert to a tourist visa.

But getting down to the real good news, the meeting I had on Wednesday at Top Cuts butchery went very well. I first had gotten annoyed at John, the Top Cuts employee I was talking to; he was taking his sweet time to set up the meeting with the MD and he had a 'it can't be done' attitude with regards to certain aspects of the packaging of the patties. But during the tripartite meeting I thought that the Francis (the director) saw value in the business.I have a good feeling about Francis. He is a very quiet man, the quiet that communicates authority and...honesty. At some point during the meeting I raised the issue of capacity; will the butchery be able to handle 30-40 kilos of minced meet a day? John, assured me that it was 'no problem, absolutely'. And while he was finishing the sentence, Francis interrupted him and told him to check if there was enough storage space. It was a small gesture, but I think if ever there was something the butchery couldn't handle, I would know about it. Anyways, the butchery is only one of the suppliers I have to set up. Salads and mayonnaise are up next. So far I have been pretty lucky; the bakers I use are not all that straight forward, and their quality sometimes is variable, but I like their collaorative attitude, the product and their price. And I already spoke about teh butchery. Hopefully the other suppliers will be as satisfying.

On another note, and this really has been the emotional pinnacle of the week, on Wednesday I met with Jeff Otim, one of the lawyers I had approached about my visa issue. But the meeting wasn't about the visa issue. East Africa is forming a customs union and, just recently announced plans to establish a competition policy regime across member countries. CP is what my degree at Warwick was all about, so I suggested to Jeff to set up a consultancy to provide training and consulting to Ugandan lawyers and policy makers about CP. Suprisingly, and with only few reservation, Jeff accepted. He suggested to incorporate under a limited liability structure, with me in the managing director position. Lol, business cards and letterheads are already on their way. I'll keep you posted!

New year's developments

2010-01-04T23:49:00.001-08:00

I'm writing this post using my phone, please condone any typos and the poor formatting :) . I'm currently waiting outside the Ug. Revenue Auth. for Solomon to come back. Solomon 'gets things done'...at least with regards to driving permits. Later on i'll be meeting Pascal, he gets immigration things done. It's a bit irritating, i realise most of the running around this week will be about things not related to my business. And this week i also wanted to start looking for a house. In terms of the business, i have decided to freeze my operations until i have finalised the suppliers for the processed ingredients. I don't want to cut salads and press patties anymore, i want to outsource that and limit my involvement to managing the chain. Realistically, it's gonna take me a month to get there. This break is going to affect Grace, who is currenty my only client. What i will suggest to her is to take charge of the whole production process. She will press the patties, cut the salads, make the sauces and, well, keep all the revenue from each sale. It will be an interesting experiment for me because as of now, my biggest threat are restaurants deciding to do away with me and make their own burger ingredients. Grace's taking charge of the whole process will tell me just how serious that threat is. So that's where we are at right now. I will keep you posted.

Trip to Ssesse

2010-01-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Fun times...

Chistmas in Kabale

2009-12-31T05:42:00.000-08:00

I'm posting the link to the photo album of my Christmas break in Kabale. I think the link also works if you don't have Facebook; if it doesn't post a comment and I will try linking them to my Flickr page instead.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2250620&id=61306016&l=e7f2fa207d

Anyways, the trip was fantastic. The western part of Uganda - and lake Bunyony especially - are rough, but gorgeous.

Saetta & me

2009-12-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

Saetta means arrow in Italian.

Christmas break...

2009-12-21T03:56:00.001-08:00

I decided that until January i'll be taking a break from burgers. I don't think i'll be blogging much until January, safe for posting some pictures of Saetta as I had promised. Oh, by the way, I have my permit now; the wrong one...in that it doesn't allow me to drive bikes, but we shall fix that...Anyways, I still be sending short updates to my twitter account. It used to be possible to see those on my blog, but I think the gadget got spoiled. So, if you want to follow me on twitter, my account name is Madebi. See you there!

Fresh start

2009-12-16T22:13:00.001-08:00

My apologies for taking so long to post again. I should have done it earlier; this week was much less stressful than the one before. So, let me start with the good things:

I now am buying the ingredients for making patties every day, as opposed to every two days. It makes things much easier for me. I (and my suppliers) know that I fetch the meat, bread and salads between 530pm and 6.30 pm. Then I spend abut 1.5 hours making the patties and the mayo, and then my work is done. In the morning Grace opens the fridge, and finds supplies enough for 30 burgers. So far, it worked seamlessly.

I also introduced a new, simpler system for handling my relationship with Grace. Our roles are now more separated; although I still subsidize her samples and unsold burgers, she now is paying me for the burgers I supply to her. So there are essentially two businesses now. Me as a supplier of raw ingredients to Grace, and her as a supplier of cooked burgers to supermarkets and restaurants.

The two issues I have been working on this week were sorting out my visa problems - over which I am panicking, kinda. And outsourcing the patty production to a butchery. I'm meeting with the Top Cuts MD on Friday about it. John, whom I believe I mentioned in a previous post (he is a quality supervisor I befriended at Top Cuts) is helping me negotiate on the price. It is a custom made patty; so I get to tell them the exact quantities of what goes into them. It also means that I know what the marginal cost of the patty is down to the last shilling, so the negotiation will be about the margin the butchery is to apply. I look forward to fridays meeting, it will be fun :).

By next week I hope that visa and patties will be solved issues. There will be a Christmas break (I'll be in Kabale and then Ssese island) and after that a new phase of the business will start. In Jan I'll be starting to look for customers in town and I'll begin on ironing out the marketing strategy.

On other news, the bike is here! Below is a picture, the guys at the workshop were applying the finishing touches. She's gorgeous by the way; I named her Saetta...or Nuvola. I haven't decided yet.

Some problems...

2009-12-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

This week has not been good so far. The bread supplier fell out...their baker, Alex, quit. So their buns now suck, and I had to revert to Easy Bakers on Seventh street. They are expensive, and their bread isn't as good as the one I used to use. Then, the guy who was supposed to set up a meeting for me with the Top Cuts manager (to get the patty pressing outsourced) also quit the job. I did manage to 'outsource' the salads cutting to Junis in Bugolobi (see dreadful picture on the side) but I found out that the lettuce bought already cut barely lasts a day in the fridge. The latter one is - by the way - not working properly.

What else...oh, the drivig permit processing is taking longer and giving me more headaches than I thought. Then, there is a package with some clothes of mine that is being held hostage by Customs at Entebbe Airport, until I pay a bribe. And my lawyer isn't getting back to be about my working permit. And my digital scale broke down this morning. And the bike is only available in red. Which is alright I guess.

Sunday afternoon

2009-12-06T05:37:00.000-08:00

I just want to lay this out there, but of the places I've been and seen Kampala on a Sunday afternoon has to be my favorite . The air is tiptoeing on the thin line between warm and hot. The streets are empty; just some local music in the background from a shortwave radio playing somewhere. And as you slope down Kimathi avenue, or Cornville street, you really get to appreciate the unique atmosphere of this young city.

I actually came to town for a shave today. A friend called Anne (the same who introduced me to Faith...see below) showed me to a this place on Dewington road where the barbers (its a barber shop, stickily no servicesfor women). The place seems like it has remained the same since the 60s. But not the pretentious, golden times, movies-like kind of 60s; film directors seem to work with the assumption that dirt didn't exist in those years. And the place is - I wouldn't say dirty - but it's real, you know, with some dust here and there, just like every other barbershop. And that's what makes it so amazing. It's a place that, effortlessly and somewhat casually, has so much character. And the shave...oh Baby Jesus, the shave!! With real blades, and cream, and burning alcohol in the end (to clear the shaving bumps, for the unaccustomed). All in all, an epiphanic experience....I'm never going back to disposables again, no matter how many blades they manage to fit on a head.

Anyways, after the shave, and the stroll through town, I headed to la Bonita theater to see Isaiah K...something; I forget the surname. He is a Ugandan jazz musician, a very famous one I understand, and a very good one I now know. The concert was fantastic. Well...save the part where a gospel-rapper came to join the scene for a few songs. That was a bit lame, I thought, but that's just my personal view... He did have a pretty awesome voice. But the lyrics were a bit generic. Anyways, back to the concert! So, save for that issue it was so engaging, and there was such a close feeling between the artist and the audience. At some point then a kid came on stage, a Ugandan kora player. Now, the kora is a West African instrument and is little known here. I had heard it before (Toumani Diabate...I'z a fan), and I got really excited when this dude came on stage. But the rest of the audience was a bit perplexed at the sight of this weird instrument, which is played standing, and kinda extends upwards from the players crouch. They were perplexed, that is, ...until the guy started playing. He started playing a very easy, melodic song alongside with an acoustic guitar. And then, when nobody was expecting it, he went off on a riff that lit eyes, froze smiles and sampled surprise into the expressions of everyone sitting around me. This guy...I wish I remembered his name...was such a hit. I actually have a video...I'll post that soon.

Anyways, I better wrap this up. Today I payed Salomon at the Revenue Authority to process my driving permit papers :) Lucky bugger is gonna have a party with all the cash I dropped with him, but at least by Thursday I will have my permit. Zoom zoom!!

Quick recap

2009-12-05T03:32:00.000-08:00

Things have been moving great since my last post. I'm working on two ends: creating a market in Ktintale and Bugolobi with (or rather for) Grace, and working with my suppliers to get me ready-to-cook ingredients for the burgers. That means pressed patties as opposed to meat I have to mix and press myself; salads that are already cut, and bread that is already sliced.

I then am in the process of converting my drivers permit (bribe required; I don't have a residence permit) and of getting my residence permit (bribe again required, to register as an employee of my law office. Employees pay 500USD in permit fees, as opposed to 1500 for investors). Oh, and then I'm getting my bike on Thursday (hahaha, yeah by the way, bribe required again, to speed up the process of getting the license plate. From 7 to 3 days)

Anyways, I didn't want this to be about bribing. So, on a good note, the burgers sold REALLY well at the national Theater.

This is me on a mototaxi (Boda, as called here) on
Kampala Rd. with the first delivery for the Nat. Theater.

Some more issues

2009-12-02T06:38:00.000-08:00

Business so far this week has been ok. Payless supermarket did not place those high orders they thought they'd give me, and so me and Grace (Blesses sister, who is managing the distribution of the burgers in Bugolobi/Ktintale) have been trying to find other reliable partners. It's not as easy as I thought. Hungry Fellas fell out because they can't rise the price of their burgers to 2000; reason being that it's the end of term, so students around MUBS are broke. Red sun has the same issue. Payless is buying 5 burgers a day, which is peanuts. Gosam Takeaway also is buying 5 a day, and struggling to pay on delivery, because of poor (or rather no) bookkeeping.

So, the market for ready made burgers is not straightforward. There are some interesting opportunities though. Lea, the Red Sun owner suggested selling burgers during visitation days at boarding schools. Boarding schools here are very common, and host about 2-3000 students. Visitation day is a big thing; families visit, bring food, see their kids's grades...it's a social event that draws a lot of people. The idea is to lease the grill to Lea, who'd take it to one of the larger boarding school, and cook the burgers on the spot for students and their families.

Another opportunity came up just this week. A very good friend of mine, who works as an actress at the Theater Factory, introduced me to a lady called Fiona today. She sells food during Comedy Night, which is a fantastic open air event at the National Theater gardens held every Thursday.The event draws about a thousand people and tomorrow we are bringing over 15 pieces to see how the crowd responds. Fingers crossed!

On other news, my quest for my motorbike is coming along well. Tomorrow I'll place the order, and I should be able to ride it in about a weeks time. Here is a brochure pic by the way.

You see me rollin', patrolin'....lol, just kidding

Mah first invoice

2009-11-30T04:43:00.000-08:00

Here it is, ca. 3 euros made on 30/11/09

In Kisoro

2009-11-27T07:36:00.000-08:00

So, after a pretty rocky night ride from Kampala, Yesterday Bless, me an Andrew ( a cousin of Bless) finally arrived in Kisoro, a town on the boarder of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo. We arrived at about 5 am. and we had to wait for some time in our hosts's garden because we didn't want to wake her up that early in the morning. Wile we were waiting, I got a chance to experience how immensely beautiful the night sky can be in the countryside, when the sight isn't disturbed by electrical lights. I wish I could have taken pictures, but even then it's difficult to describe how deep and crisp the sky was.

Mutanda Road in Kisoro, and Rwandese hills in the back

Anyways, I'm going to be in Kisoro until Sunday; Bless is apprising a business opportunity in the hotel sector here. For me it's a chance to take a break before beginning to supply my first client on Monday. I don't think I mentioned this before actually, but I landed a deal with Payless supermarket in Bugolobi, for 20-30 burgers per day. It's a great way to get used to the work, although the product - ready made cling film wrapped burgers - are not the business I want to be in in the long term.

On a closing note, on Monday I will be purchasing my first vehicle! A motorbike, to be more specific. Transport costs are really becoming my biggest expense here, so armed with the advice of half a dozen boda drivers, and or Ashaf - a local mechanic who builds his own bikes out of spares - I decided to buy a 125cc Bajaj bike. It's pretty gorgeous; I'll post pictures soon.

The product, distribution...

2009-11-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

I didn't mention this explicitly, but as the images in the previous post stand to witness, the issues I had with the gas, meat and bread were pretty much resolved. I spent most of last week preparing samples, and taking measures - with a digital scale I found at Game - of how much of each ingredient goes into a burger. I finalized the recipe, and I have a very exact figure for the cost of making each burger. The feedback from the samples that I brought to Hungry Fellas and Sufian were also very good.

Today I was supposed to supply my first batch of burgers to Sufian. Disappointingly however, Sufian seems to have gotten cold feet about that. Which is weird. It's really not that complicated - and I am a little annoyed. It is a product that anywhere in Kampala goes for at least 4000 - he can sell it at 2000 and still make a 25% margin. The feedback from the free samples was great. He has got the distribution network on campus. He gets a free initial supply of 30 burgers.

But in Sufian's view, if burgers are sold through hawkers that will reduce the perceived quality of the product, and people will not be willing to purchase at 2000. I understand his stance, and I know that for him, selling an item hat goes for 2000 is a big step - the products he sold up to now were never above 500 shillings. So, in the phonecall we had yesterday I pushed the ball in his court and asked him to be the one approaching me, once he feels ready to take on the new product.

In the meant time I will be working with Hungry Fellas and this restaurant called Red Sun cafe. I had met the oner of the latter place, Lea, at an Enterprise Uganda showcase event. She told me that she was thinking of selling fast foods (which stands for chips, chaps and sauages...and burgers, now) and phase out the traditional foods her restaurant sells. That was kind of a blow...ever since i came in '07 I loved the Red Sun, they have the best chicken stew and posho in the world. But I guess that times have caught up with them as well, and now people are expecting to be served new things.

My first burgers...proudly made in Uganda

2009-11-19T00:55:00.001-08:00

First problems, delays

2009-11-17T23:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was, on every account a pretty brilliant day. I got all the items I needed to start production, and Sufian (yes, he is back in the game...I will write more about that later in the week) introduced me to some vendors at Nakawa market who allowed me to cut marginal cost by about 20%. The biggest saving came from the meat supplier I found, who sells minced meat at 4000 shillings per kilo. Normally, mince would go for about 6000 (>2 euros)

Today that backfired. I woke up at about seven to fire up the grill and prepare my first run of burgers. I was meant to do some experimentation last night but I ended up postponing that to today. So here is what i discovered:

- the regulator valve on the gas cylinder is too small, meaning that too little gas comes to the grill, which in turn can't heat up very much. It's still good for cooking, but it takes a lot longer. That's a problem I got to live with - for now - because there is only one type of regulator available here.

- the bread I had bought at my supplier's outlet was mold. I hadn't ordered a fresh batch, I just picked three bags from the rack making the somewhat naive assumption that a bakery would not sell mold bread. I just called Shahid for to prepare a fresh batch by the afternoon, so hopefully that will be the first and last time I have to deal with that issue,

- As with regards to the meat, it seems like is no such thing as a free lunch in the minced beef business. The one I bought is bloody, which is why its cheap. To soak up the blood I had to add a lot of breadcrumbs, but I did not add enough egg, so as soon as I cooked the patties they started crumbling. More pressing however is the issue of taste. I can't really describe it, but it's just not right. I will try to fix that today by adding beef cube instead of salt. Hopefully that will help.

Because of the issues above I had to call up Suliman (Hungry Fellas owner) and Sufian to tell them that I won't be able to deliver any of the samples today. So yeah..... it's 10 am now and hopefully the rest of the day will tun out better.

New directions

2009-11-16T12:24:00.000-08:00

No picture today, sorry!

So, a quick update. Sufian has most definitely fallen out...I don't want to blame him, space is short in supply on MUBS campus, but I think I should have been more involved with securing that location. It doesn't matter though, the important bit is that we got to know each other and I think we will find a way to work together in future.

I have however found a first outlet for the burgers. Its a restaurant near MUBS called Hungry Fellas (yeah, i love the name too) which currently serves burgers at 1500 (0.60 cents). I think I mentioned it below, but they prepare them in advance and keep them in a warmer.

At first I abhorred the idea of pre-packed burgers, but there was a good feeling with Suliman, the joint's owner, and we agreed that I would bring him some samples as soon as I get my equipment up and running. My goal now is to get him to outsource the burgers he makes to me. But first I have to get him to raise his prices to 2000... :) I will write about that soon!

The grill from Italy has arrived

2009-11-14T10:44:00.000-08:00

Found the sealer...

2009-11-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

So, if someone had told me six months ago what vacuum sealer is, I would not have had a clue, but here is what one looks like. It's used by butcheries to pack cold cuts.

I've been to about 20 stores, in every corner of the city to find this f*ing thing, and last week I finally,

finally found it. So I decided to take a picture of it. The shop is called the Tamalese, in Arua park - in case anyone needed to know.

Plastics, incentives and grashoppers

2009-11-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in a previous post about meeting with a guy called Roey, who is also fresh out of college and who too, for intricate enough reasons, is here in Kla to start a business.

Last week he introduced Bless and me to a business opportunity in plastic recycling. It turns out that Chinese textile manufacturers pay about 1000 dollars per ton of plastic, which they turn into synthetic cloth. That’s 1 dollar a kilo, and in a country where a graduate’s salary is about 80 dollars, it seemed surprising to us that the plant that processes this plastic is running at 30% capacity. Kampala produces 150 tons of plastic a week, and recycles 6 of them.

Above, the entry to the plastics factory

We spent about some time trying to figure out if we could make a quick buck in helping the factory solving its supply problems. We thought that we could make that happen without too much effort, using an empty plot that Bless manages. But we realized that the thing would require too much involvement with managing the people who do the picking of the plastics, so we had to kill the idea.

Anyways, plastics, my grill is now stuck at customs, and it will be another 100 bucks to clear it (ma first bribe!) And Sufian is not returning my calls, so I guess he hasn’t finalised the location. Finally, my passport - which was supposed to be returned to me on Monday - is still at the Ministry waiting for my Special Permit to be cleared. But I ate grasshoppers last night! They’re pretty awesome.

'tis here!!

2009-11-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

So, the grill has arrived! In only 7 days, which is close to a miracle for Poste Italiane, the package has been delivered. On top of that, Sufian confirmed today that the location has been secured...almost :) And in a moment of divine extravagance, I was also able to find a supplier of a vacuum sealer. This kinda scrambles up my plan for the next two weeks, in that production is ready, but i have not built up any marketing support for the launch of the burgers at MUBS. And I haven't finalized my suppliers. I will post about these challenges, and an interesting side-opportunity in plastic recycling that came up through Roey, tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Itty bitty buger committee

2009-11-06T02:52:00.000-08:00

Bless, Sufian and me

Things done, things to do...

2009-11-05T23:21:00.000-08:00

This week has been a little disappointing in terms of how things are moving on at MUBS. Sufian has not yet sealed the deal for a location on campus, the grill has yet to arrive and there is no retailer of vacuum packaging equipment in Uganda.
But other things are moving on. On Monday I talked with a guy running a small restaurant near MUBS, selling burgers at 1500 shillings - about 53 euro cents. He sells abt 30 a day, with a margin of 300 sh. per piece. Interestingly, he pre -cooks at 3 and them and keeps them in a warmer until they are sold out (at about 8). Distributing pre-cooked burgers is something that I didn't want to consider, but it seems like I will have to get accustomed to the idea.
Today I will go and meet a guy called John at Top Cut butchery. He says he can get me a vacuum sealer and supply the bags; i doubt it, but it's worth a try.
Finally, on Tuesday I met a fella called Roey, who like me came to UG to start a business; he's American. He's into solar powered lighting - which sounds a tad more exciting than burgers - but as far as I know he hasn't got a blog ;). Anyways, the guy is great and I have the feeling we might end up working on something together.

Logo concepts

2009-11-03T04:26:00.000-08:00

I spent yesterday and today working on the logo for my brand. I know it's not very inventive, but I settled for the name Matt's Burgers. Yes - I know - it's not particularly original, and it's a bit self centered. But the swaying M makes up for it...

the extended version

the logo version

Partnerships et al.

2009-10-30T06:59:00.001-07:00

Aside from the freakishly vivid dreams I get from my antimalarial drug - Lariam - thinks went reasonably well this week. In my previous post I mentioned meeting with Sufian, a young entrepreneur who prepares and distributes local snacks at the MUBS campus. I met with him again on Sunday, and together we layed out plans fro a partnership to lunch my burgers in the MUBS market. As Bless so candidly put it, "if you break the buck at MUBS, you'll make it anywhere".

The meeting went well, Sufian was very positive about the opportunity and understood the business model well. This week he has been working on securing a location close to the campus restaurants from where to supply burgers on a catering basis. The location is small, about half a container, but in 30 second walking distance from 12 restaurants, which makes it possible for Sufian's employee to take orders, cook and supply restaurants directly, without them having to be issued a grill. And since we do the cooking, we can squeeze the margins of our partner restaurants :)

On other fronts, I paid visits to a few suppliers of burger buns and minced meet. These count for 27 and 41 % of my production costs so it's crucial that I negotiate low prices. The meetings were challenging; being foreigner people seem to expect that I pay a lot. Waht concerns me the most are the prices of buns. In my partnership with Sufian, I need to be able to supply buns and patties, in order to maintain control on how many burgers he is selling for me. If he can get the patties and the bread at a cheaper price than me, I am of no use to the partnership.

Finally, today I had my parents send my grill from Italy via express courier. It should be here next week. Interestingly enough, getting an address where to send it to was a challenge. Road-naming in Kampala has somehow failed to keep up with house-building, so most residential houses do not have an address...weird as this might sound. Once the grill is here, Bless tells me that it should be possible to have it copied down to the last detail by local artisans in the ironworks district of Kampala.

Next week I will post about branding my burgers...Obama burgers? Just kidding.

The idea in a nutshell...

2009-10-24T06:45:00.001-07:00

I guess that I should me more specific about my vision for the company I am setting up. I want to do that periodically - for two reasons. On one hand new readers should be able to understand my posts without having to look up in the archive what my business is about. On the other hand, it is a useful exercise for me, in that defining my business every month or so allows me to keep track of the inevitable changes my vision will experience.

So far I see the mission of my business to be making hamburgers a mainstream meal in Uganda. So far burgers are a niche market here, the few restaurants that serve them offer poor quality at exorbitant prices. I want to change that.

I want my company to be the one stop shop for restaurants that want to serve into burgers. By signing up as many restaurants as possible, I will increase competition among them, driving burger prices down while maintaining uniform quality as I am the sole supplier for all of them. I want to secure my competitive advantage by branding my burgers. Moreover, by negotiating lower prices from suppliers of raw inputs (bread, meat, vegetables etc) I want to prevent entry into the burger wholesaling market.

More feedback...

2009-10-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

The market research is going really quite well. On Wednesday iItalked to three more restaurant managers who were very supportive of the idea, and provided me with great raw data. I also got a quote from DHL for shipping my grills from Italy to here. Also, yesterday I had an inspiring chat which young entrepreneur called Sufian, who runs a very successful pancake business at Makarere Business School (MUBS for short) campus.

This week's work allowed me to narrow down my target market further; I made that the realization that I need to focus on restaurants that can sell at least 10 burgers a day. Bringing in the grills is pretty expensive - about 600 euro a piece. At that price, I can afford to bring in 5 grills, so I need to select five restaurants that can can sell a LOT of burgers. If restaurants can average 10 a day, and I can earn 0.17 euro per burger (that's 500 shillings), in 12 months I will have recovered the investment in those 5 grills. That's my math so far....but I still have to work out the marginal cost of my burgers here, so the figures are tentative.

Next week's focus will be on finding cheaper shipping options for the grills, working out the cost per burgers, and checking out a promising location for my processing site at MUBS, which Sufian had showed me.

From Kampala

2009-10-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

Well, so here we are. It has been one week after arriving and...it was one hell of a week. Contrary to any expectation of mine, and to all odds, thins here are great. I received a lot of great feedback about the idea I want to implement from the people I have met so far.

Yesterday was the fist day of 'hard' research, with me walking up and down Kampala Road, looking for fast food restaurants who do - or do not - sell burgers. The results are superficial still, but great so far - the gap in the market seems to be there.

I feel truly privileged to be hosted by Bless, whom I had met the last time I came. As he has a number of business experiences under his belt, and plenty of time on his hands, I cannot think of a better guide to the Ugandan way of doing business.

On a closing note, doing business here is surprisingly simple. Paraphrasing Nike's tagline, if you got an idea, you just do it. Permits, registration, receipts, taxes etc. only become relevant once the business has taken off, so for a first time entrepreneur like me, this makes Uganda the best place to take my first shot....at least until my turist visa expires :)

Waiting in Dubai

2009-10-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I' half way there....I'm sitting in Dubai airport now, after a pretty electrifying flight in Emirates First Class, to which I was upgraded for free...surely it was my looks :)

I have to say that today I am/was much less intimidated by the project I embarked in as the day before. At this stage, I think that the attitude I will form when I get there, the confidence (or lack thereof ) I will be able to build in the first...well minutes, will be crucial. So it's significant I am not intimidated a this point....I hope it will last.

Getting there...

2009-10-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

In one week exactly I should be in Kampala. I'm trying to think what I need to do before that.There is a flood of thoughts, sudden spikes of anyxiety (everytime I realize that I have to do this or that before I leave), and preparations that seem to be becoming increasinly 'last minute'.

But aside from that all - which is fun in a way - my only real preoccupation is; will I start off on the right foot? I think that this experience could easily turn into a holiday if I am not consistent with the research I am planning to do. Or it could just be a "CV experience" - whereby I justify failure for lack of going an extra mail by thinking that whatever I have done so far would sill look good on a CV.

So the crucial issue, I think, is keeping an eye on my objectives, and striking the right balance between the (many) different thinks I want have to do while I am there. So, I want to asses the business ideas I have against the local possibilities. I want to learn about the African business enviroinment, and keep blogging about my discoveries (see my other blog). I have to take a GRE test and apply for a master's degree, as well as a summer internship (these are by 'B' plans). And I want to nourish the feindships I forged the last time I was in Uganda.

Great article

2009-09-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

There was a pretty interesting article on Business week on the 18th about business between US and African SMEs. The article gave me a lot of confidence...when I tell people that I am moving to Uganda to open a business they think I am crazy, and at times I wonder. So coming across this article, and the CCA group mentioned in it, gave me a boost.

Click below:

Advice on Doing Business in Africa

Some valuable feedback

2009-09-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, a few weeks ago I wrote to Bless - a recent graduate and entrepreneur in Uganda - about my business idea. On Friday he replied with some detailed feedback about what I have in mind.

His email made me question an assumption that i had been making so far; that Ugandans want to eat burgers. It might be true, that if offered affordable burgers in accessible places, they will be bought. But since my business idea is bringing burgers into local, cheap restaurants, I better damn be sure that they will be bought.

So, Blesse's email lead me to two realizations. (A) I have two customers to whom I have to appeal to; restaurant owners, and clients of restaurant owners. If I am to be successful, it is not enough that i convince Restaurant XY to carry burgers, I also have to make sure that they get sold! (B) shattering assumptions is good. In fact, there are probably a number of other things I am assuming and which need to be proven.

I think that many entrepreneurs skip the market research bit out of fear to discover that the idea won't fly. For people like me who know nothing about business (and business in Uganda) the approach should be the opposite. A very thorough research might lead to giving up on your original idea, but discovering something else much more promising.

I think I should set myself the goal not to 'test the market' like it was a tick-box, but as a learning experience in itself; a patient descent into a whole new world (the Ugandan small business community) of which I know nothing.

Promoting online presence

2009-09-15T23:43:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/qj7vbp

I want to follow up on the link above. I think that it is really important to maintain a good online presence and make the most out of social networks and Web2.0 applications that are available, not necessarily to gain customers but to open up opportunities - in a very general sense. I think that the latter is precisely what the buzz about social network marketing is all about. The link above is a good guide on how to levae a sound 'social' imprint online.

10 ideas for the business..

2009-09-03T01:24:00.000-07:00

I keep having ideas for how to implement my business idea when I will be starting up in Uganda next month. Many of the are somewhat speculative - I obviously know very little about how business is done in Uganda and I cannot plan very far ahead. Nevertheless, I think some of those ideas are valid. After a bit of brainstorming, I wrote down 10 of them:

1. Keep it simple. Fanciness is bad in general, and is particularly bad in a start up. So when buying a product or service for the business, ask yourself: can I do without it? Is there a simpler way to do this?

2. Know your product. You're selling burgers; do you know how many grams of salt go in the patties for each gram of meat? Do you know how long a patty takes to cook?

3. Keep an up-to date business plan. Take your time in developing one as it is the best way to get to know your market, your competitors and your suppliers. Keep it up-to-date once you got started.

4. Be a service company, not a product company. Everyone can make patties, everyone can wholesale burger buns. Combine the products into a service that fits the need of your local partners.

5. Control your cash flow. Instead of chasing up clients at the end of every month, convince them to purchase credit in advance.

6. Differentiate your product. Clients are likely to demand different amounts of burgers and different types of equipment. A client ordering 100 burgers a month should not pay the same as one ordering 100 a day.

7. Evaluate time trade/offs. Time is your most valuable asset. Ask yourself: does it make sense to do something myself, or do I save time by delegating and supervising?

8. Keep accurate accounts. You need have total control about money going in and out of your business, down to the last shilling.

9. Know the law. Uganda is probably not a Rechtsstaat as Weber envisioned it, but as in every place, the law is strongest with those who know it. Knowing the law better than your clients, competitors and suppliers gives you an edge over them.

10.Keep it simple! Yes, this was mentioned before but you need to remember that this is first and foremost a learning experience. Preserve your capital, keep your business a bare bone one.

Some experimening...

2009-08-29T05:38:00.001-07:00

The idea, revised

2009-08-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

A few months have passed since my earlier post about what business I want to start, and I made some adaptations to the idea. I kept the initial focus on an "easy" product in the food industy (burgers) but I felt that in order to strip the idea down to the most easy, unfancy, and financially un-demanding business, I needed to move up a noch on the value added chain. So here is a description of the new idea I made to a good freind of mine, Bless, in Kampala.

"The idea is to create a business that helps small restaurants in Kampala in expanding their product range. I want to start wit burgers, which are a reasonably simple product. I want to lease all the equipment a restaurant needs to serve burgers, and supply the restaurant with all the ingredients (buns, paddies, sauces, salads) that go into it. I can earn revenue on both ends, the equipment and the ingredients, and the restaurant would be able to offer a new product without having to purchase any equipment, not having to train and dedicate an employee to preparing the ingredients. Plus, because I hope to supply a number of restaurants, I will be able to get better prices from suppliers for buns, meat and salads that restaurants could achieve if they would purchase these inputs individually."

That's the niche am thinking of. The problem obviously is that from here I have no idea how "crowded" this niche is, and if it is even viable. So, I plan to spend the first two months in Uganda doing a lot of detailed market reseach - hopefully it will be worth it!

A long hiatus

2009-08-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't been posting on this blog in a while. Really, there wasn't much to post about until last week. I finally had the guts to book the flight to Kampala. I'm gonna fly on the 12th of October with Emirates. The ticked turned out to be surprisingly cheap, though it does involve a one night stopover in Dubai.

I resumed contact with the people I met in Uganda two years ago, and they were again very supportive. Coming as a big relief i the fact that accommodation is not going to be a problem for the first times.

I did change quite considerably the scope of the business venture. In fact I cancelled a few posts below which I feel are irrelevant now. I will post more details about the new idea soon. In the mean time, I will be grappling the idea that I am flying to Uganda in less than 2 months!!!

The idea...

2009-04-05T04:34:00.000-07:00

I guess that at this point I should mention what I am going to do in Uganda. My vision is to create Uganda's first branded restaurant chain. I think that food is a huge, untapped marked in Uganda. Kampalans - especially university students who will be my customer base - eat out a lot. Yet there is still little variety in what's on offer. I see the business opportunity in the fact that all mayor vegetables, spices and herbs are grown in Uganda for the export market, but that variety is not marketed and offered to Ugandans.

It seems reasonable to me to start with a type of food that is tasty, easy and cheap to make. The most natural choice to me seems burgers. They fit the requirements above and are an obviously 'scalable' business model (think of McDonald's). As far as I know there are no burger restaurants in Kampala and given that they are successful everywhere else, I think the product has the right chances to succeed in Uganda.

Lol, I just -so to speak- 'submitted' my idea for a reality check to two of my great Ugandan friends, Arnold and Lindsay. I will post as soon as I receive their feedback...fingers crossed. Over the last few months I have been experimenting quite a lot with burgers and items on my future menu. I'll upload dome pictures. Oh, I should mention - I love cooking - so that's another reason why I want to get started in the food industry :)

Another reason to go back - breathtaking beauty

2009-04-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Lake Victoria at sunset....

Back to Kampala

2009-04-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

I suppose that being about to finish university always releases a swirl of emotions; happiness to be done, excitement for the future, regrets - perhaps - for what one was not able to do, and a bit of fear of course. When I think about it, I realize that after finishing my last exam I will be as 'free' as it will ever get. I'm young, in good health, single :) and... I have no job offer. I am lucky to be able to see that in a positive light in the sense that this crisis has forced many of my friends to consider options and jobs that they wouldn't otherwise have considered. For me, it helped me to make a decision - going back to Uganda - that I always hoped to have the courage to take.

So...why Uganda? Well, two summers ago I had the opportunity to take part in an amazing project organized by the Ugandan branch of AIESEC, an international student organization I was involved with at Warwick. It was a truly exceptional experience because me and the other four international students who took part in it got to work with like-minded university students who showed us their country like no tourist would have been able to see it. The project was about Entrepreneurship and I got to know many people my age who - like me - were driven to take charge of their future by setting up their own business. Throughout the last two years I kept in touch with them and - when a few days ago I emailed them to tell them about my intention to come back - they were exceptionally supportive.

More broadly, I think that Uganda, and the whole of East Africa, is a few years away from experiencing an Asian Tiger like boom. Of course my view is biased, but I am no the only one to think this. I was there, I saw so much energy and potential - a crass difference with the prejudices about African economies we have in Europe. I hope to be on the forefront of this renaissance and to play my part it.