by Dennis Mulondo
Dekish Business Services provides business consultancy to small businesses in Mukono, Uganda. Since the Company is still just growing, we have only 3 team members:
- Dennis Mulondo- Managing Director
- Umar Katende- Operations/Finance
- Prossy Naigaga-Secretary
Solution & Positioning
There are so many small businesses that are ignored by all other competitors in our space. Our company is willing to support them in any solution that is seen fit. We help save small companies through business training to both owners and employees. We offer free monthly financial literacy training in different locations to help businesses solve some of their existing challenges. Other companies only look at offering their services to big companies because they think they will offer them big sums of money. We are positioned to offer services to even very small businesses that are struggling so that we could see them grow.
The business market that we are targeting is growing every day with a number of businesses being formed. We determined our market by doing a market survey around Mukono Central Division and we found out that in just Kitete subarea, there are 357 businesses owned by different entrepreneurs. Now if we expand to the whole district that has over 119 sub-areas, we hope to have a very big market.
If given a loan, I will purchase a printer and paper to make my own revenue and expense logs for clients to purchase. This is our primary source of revenue and will save me about $800 per year in outsourced printing costs.
Competitor Analysis
There are so many companies that offer financial services to companies, BUT from our market search, we have not seen any company that is targeting our customers. Our unique competitive advantages are:
• We offer free financial literacy training in different locations
• Our services fit the budget of very small businesses (priced depending on the financial capital of the client)
• We offer quality services
• Our services are easily understood by everyone because they are simplified so that even the uneducated can understand them
We also use the Affiliate revenue model where we show the business the best service providers they should use. Since we have a variety of businesses that we are connected to, we promote businesses among them and we get a small percentage from the selling client since we have found them the market. We have been able to get market for Katende’s egg business to broadway confectionary services limited. We connected the two business and we have a small percentage that we get for every tray of eggs sold to Broadway specifically.
How many different customers have you sold to and who are they (name, type of business, size)?
As of now, we have a customer base of 129 clients ranging from Broadway Confectionary Services Ltd ( bakery), Maama Molly Services (charcoal sellers), Prossy Poultry Farm, Katende Egg Sales Point, New park Restuarant, Mo Juice, Kikoyo’s Jewry should and among others.
How many customers do you have to approach to make 1 sale? 1 in 10?
I in 3 customers to make a sale
Below are photos of the printed booklets sold to customers.
The sales approach we use is referral basis and direct contact by visiting businesses during non-busy hours so that we can talk to the bosses with copies of the Income and Expense log books. Many times we make sure that we talk to the client and explain to them the importance of having good record-keeping skills to help monitor the progress of their businesses. We do not sell books to someone until we have explained their use.
We have so far have held two literacy trainings. In the first training we had 37 women and 27 of these became clients. In second training we had 21 women and 19 new clients joined.
Financials
My business expenses include transportation, printing, electricity, commission, office rent, internet, stationary, marketing, and branding. Profits have averaged $289 per month.
Cash Flow Statement
| Dennis’ Projected Cash Flow Statement | ||||||
| 2 months ago | Current Month | Future Month 1 | Future Month 2 | Future Month 3 | Future Month 4 | |
| Income | $271 | $350 | $400 | $500 | $500 | $500 |
| – Fixed expenses | $75 | $127 | $127 | $127 | $127 | $127 |
| – Loan payment | $0 | $0 | -$42 | -$42 | -$42 | -$42 |
| – Variable expenses | $50 | $50 | $50 | $30 | $30 | $30 |
| = Profit (or loss) | $146 | $173 | $265 | $385 | $385 | $385 |
| Starting cash | $0 | $146 | $319 | $584 | $968 | $1,353 |
| Available cash | $146 | $319 | $584 | $968 | $1,353 | $1,737 |
Use of Funds
If given a loan, I will purchase a printer and paper to make my own revenue and expense logs for clients to purchase. This will save about $800 per year in outsourced printing costs. I will also rent office space for $201 per year and furnish it as shown below.
| Item | Qty | Unity Cost | Total |
| Rent | 3 | $67 | $201 |
| Printer | 1 | $350 | $350 |
| Office Table | 2 | $57.5 | $115 |
| Office chairs | 2 | $47 | $47 |
| Reams of Paper | 5 | $5.6 | 28 |
| Box files | 15 | $2.27 | $34 |
Loan Repayment
The loan shall be repaid monthly. Payments of around $42 dollars will be paid to the Rotary Club of Mukono Central. We also anticipate to pay back the Loan in 2 years. The first two months after receiving the loan, we shall not be paying and start in the third month to make initial deposits.
The revenue and expense logs shown below include all sales and expenses from February through March 2024. Note that in Africa dates are expressed as dd/mm/yyyy.
| Revenue and Expense Log For February 2024 | ||||
| Day | Description | Expense | Revenue | Account Balance |
| My Business Starting Balance | ||||
| 5/2/2024 | Transport to Broadway Confectionary | $ 2 | $ (2) | |
| 6/2/2024 | Printing of Revenue and Expense Booklets | $120 | $(122) | |
| 9/2/2024 | Marketing at Nasuti area(Transport) | $ 6 | $(128) | |
| 9/2/2024 | Sale from Revenue and Marketing Booklets | $ 298 | $ 170 | |
| 9/2/2024 | Refreshments during marketinng | $ 9 | $ 161 | |
| 9/2/2024 | Commission for booklet sales | $ 24 | $ 137 | |
| 10/2/2024 | Printing of Revenue and Expense Booklets | $180 | $ (43) | |
| 12/2/2024 | Sales from Revenue and Expense Booklets | $ 259 | $ 216 | |
| 12/2/2024 | Marketing at Kitete Area(Transport) | $ 4 | $ 212 | |
| 12/2/2024 | Commission for booklet sales | $ 38 | $ 174 | |
| 12/2/2024 | Refreshments during marketing | $ 7 | $ 167 | |
| 21/2/2024 | Financial Literacy training at Kitete Women’s Group | $ 10 | $ 177 | |
| 29/2/2024 | Payment from Broadway Confectionary | $ 94 | $ 271 | |
| My Business ending Balance | $ 271 | |||
| Revenue and Expense Log For March and April 2024 | ||||
| Day | Description | Expense | Revenue | Account Balance |
| My Business Starting Balance | ||||
| 1/3/2024 | Marketing to Nabuti (Transport) | $ 5 | $ (5) | |
| 2/3/2024 | Payment from Broadway Confectionary | $ 94 | $ 90 | |
| 4/3/2024 | Pay Prossy’s Stipend | $ 15 | $ 75 | |
| 5/3/2024 | Printing of Revenue and Expense Booklets | $ 30 | $ 45 | |
| 10/3/2024 | Marketing at Nakabago area(Transport) | $ 3 | $ 42 | |
| 15/3/2024 | Sale from Revenue and Marketing Booklets | $ 51 | $ 93 | |
| 15/3/2024 | Commission for booklet sales | $ 6 | $ 87 | |
| 16/2/2024 | Sales from Revenue and Expense Booklets | $ 3 | $ 90 | |
| 16/3/2024 | Audting new park restaurant | $ 150 | $ 240 | |
| 16/3/2024 | Payment of Dennis, Umar and Prossy’s stipend | $ 90 | $ 150 | |
| 16/3/2024 | Transportation to the restaurant to do auditing | $ 13 | $ 137 | |
| 24/3/24 | Marketing to Nabuti (Transport) | $ 5 | $ 132 | |
| 28/3/2024 | Financial Literacy training at Kitete Women’s Group | $ 10 | $ 142 | |
| 28/3/2024 | Sales from Revenue and Expense Booklets | $ 72 | $ 214 | |
| 6/4/2024 | Payment from Broadway Confectionary | $ 94 | $ 308 | |
| 6/4/2024 | Pay Umar’s stipend | $ 40 | $ 268 | |
| 9/4/2024 | Sales from Revenue and Expense Booklets | $ 70 | $ 338 | |
| 9/4/2024 | Commission for booklet sales | $ 9 | $ 329 | |
| 12/4/2024 | Marketing at Mukono main markert (Refreshment) | $ 15 | $ 314 | |
| 16/42024 | Auditing Kikoyo’s jewery shop | $ 79 | $ 393 | |
| 16/4/2024 | Sales from Revenue and Expense Booklets | $ 3 | $ 396 | |
| 23/4/2024 | Ordering of Revenue and Expense books | $ 200 | $ 196 | |
| 23/4/2024 | Sales from Revenue and Expense Booklets | $ 47 | $ 243 | |
| 23/4/2024 | Commission for booklet sales | $ 6 | $ 237 | |
| 25/4/2024 | Registration of 4 businesses with URBs | $ 192 | $ 429 | |
| 26/4/2024 | Stipend to Umar for business registration | $ 70 | $ 359 | |
| My Business ending Balance | $ 359 | |||