By Marxwell June 27, 2022 small startups 0 Comments

How to start a butcher shop in Uganda. (2022)

No one doesn’t love a “good” dish. And for most Ugandans, good means meat. Be it pasted, fried, liver, chicken, and whatsoever meat in restaurants and hotels, it’s from the butcher shop. What are you thinking now? I think I’ve opened your eyes a little. Don’t forget that homes too consume a lot of it and there is a lot more demand for meat as we are going to discuss in this post. I’ll discuss all you need to start a butcher shop and if it’s what you are after, then tighten your seat belt and we take the tours on how exactly you can start and successfully operate your butcher shop.

To start with, let’s get over these few issues so that we are all at the same starting point as we look at the details on how to start a butcher shop.

What is a butcher shop?

This is simply a place where meat is sold. Different types of meat are sold in this shop. Ranging from beef, chicken, goat meat, mattock, and sometimes fish. These all can be sold in a butcher shop. Usually, people confuse a butcher and a butcher shop. But the two are different.

Is a butcher the right business for you?

This is the first question you should ask yourself. The answer is obviously yes. Especially if you are hardworking, persistent, and willing to learn. There are ups and downs in this business too, but if you are focused, you can get along.

How much money is required to start a butcher shop in Uganda?

The Capital requirement for a butcher shop isn’t much. it all depends on your scale of production and the target market. There aren’t any serious equipment required either. You mainly need a room for your butcher shop, transport means, and possibly several kilograms of meat to start with. This can cost less than Five million Uganda shillings on a small scale.

How to start a butcher shop in Uganda.

Make a business plan for your business.

Just like any other business, it’s mandatory to plan your butcher shop. I’ll not head in first on the details of writing a business plan as we have a full article about how to make a business plan. Nevertheless, I’ll tackle the specific planning that you’ll urgently need to push your butcher to the next step.

Some key aspects you can look at while planning for a butcher are;

What meat are you going to deal in?

To start a butcher shop, you’ll have to select the meat to deal in carefully. You can deal in goat’s meat, beef, chicken, and many more types of meat based on your demand. This is a key point in the butcher business and you have to give it a thought.

What/ who is your source of meat?

You can get meat from many different sources i.e. You can slaughter the whole animal or buy from wholesalers. Your choice depends on your market and startup capital. Though slaughtering an animal brings in more profits. You need to have this well planned. You needn’t fail to work on some days because you have no animals to slaughter.

How do you deal with meat that has remained and wasn’t sold?

This is another plain truth, especially in the early stages of your butcher. There are many methods of preserving meat that you can adopt and the most ideal is the use of a freezer to preserve meat. Think about it.

Raise capital for your business.

Now that you’ve planned your butchery business, it’s now time to implement your plan and have your butcher on the wheels. Money! You should have planned on how you are to raise some for the butcher. Some of the common ways are through loans and savings. There are many more ways to raise money and if you don’t mind, you can read our full article on how to raise capital for your side business.

Register your butcher.

Registration is the way to go if you are going to start a butcher shop on a large scale. Nevertheless, a trading license can work especially if you are operating locally on a small scale. Acquiring a trading license is very easy, you need to go to the office of the responsible and you get a license that matches whatsoever you are doing.

A license is vital as officials often go through closing shops operating with no licenses. Don’t put your business at risk.

Understand the laws.

Yes, I mean the laws. Some laws govern the butcher business. You need to slaughter healthy animals. Animal meat is usually checked by the veterinary staff of the region you plan to start your butcher. The animal meat is stamped as a sign of its quality and palatability. Usually, there is a small fee charged for the stamp that varies with region.

Animals have a common slaughter point (slaughterhouse) where the slaughtering is carried out. It’s often not advisable to slaughter animals for commercial use at home.

There is no sale of meat that was not finished the previous day the next day as fresh. In some areas, it’s allowed to sell the meat up to midday. You should check out with your local authority for details pertaining to this law.

Sometimes, there are disease outbreaks in different regions, and a quarantine is implemented. In case of one, you need to follow it carefully to avoid conflict with the authority.

Moving/ transporting animals. To transport your animals from one place to another, you need a certificate to ensure your adherence to health guidelines as far as the animals are concerned.

Cleanliness at the workplace. There are minimum requirements for the cleanliness of the butcher. Butcher personnel should wear white boots and white overcoats. This is simply because they are dealing in food. Some level of cleanliness is paramount.

The scale that you use in the business should be checked and certified by UNBS. Do not use scales that are not certified by UNBS. This is a way of cheating your clients or yourself.

If you have all these right, then you are almost ready to start your butcher, officials shall inspect and ensure compliance to all these before granting an operation license.

Look for a good location for your butcher.

To start a butcher shop, location is an important aspect as far as a butcher shop is concerned. Get an;

Accessible location, a place with ample parking space for your customers, and a highly populated busy area. An area with people who are your potential buyers.

Purchase equipment and tools.

start a butcher shop — Photo by SHOT on Unsplash

What equipment and tools do you need in your butcher;

A scale that is standardized and certified by UNBS

Transport means bringing in meat and animals for slaughter.

Pangas and knives to cut the meat.

Meat hooks to hand the meat.

Freezers for storing meat and keeping it fresh

Hire staff.

Now that you have all these up, next is to hire staff to work in your butcher. You need someone that shall slaughter the animals, and a salesperson to sell meat to the final consumer.

One most important person you need is the one who determines the price you should pay for live animal and make the right prediction of how much money you’ll make from that specific animal. This comes with experience and you may need time to master it. You may need help from an experienced person at the start.

Watch out for the staff or whoever you Employ at the slaughterhouse. Slaughtermen have a habit of stealing meat which shall negatively impact your business.

Look for animal suppliers.

There are the middlemen who look for animals in villages or rearing areas. You try to befriend them to get a steady supply of animals to slaughter. If you have time, it doesn’t do you harm to look for the animals yourself. It instead helps you get the animals cheaply as you’ll have eliminated a middle man.

Start a butcher shop.

When you’re through with all the above, what’s next is officially opening the butcher. Make sure to follow your plan to the dot. Starting small is the way to go at the start as you get customers for your butcher shop.

Advertise and find a market for your meat.

You can use any means of the advertisement but usually, moving around your locality and telling potential customers such as restaurant owners about your business can get you up the ladder so fast.

Tips to get ahead in the butcher shop business.

Look for the animals yourself where possible and eliminate the middle man. This will help you make more profit as you’ll have eliminated the middle man.

Never fail to work in the name of no meat or animal to slaughter. You’ll lose customers if you do so. When they come and don’t find you, they’ll think you are out of business. It is better to buy from wholesalers if there is no animal to slaughter.

Prioritize more on slaughtering your animal rather than buying meat from wholesalers. It’s more profitable.

Look out for hotels and restaurants to supply meat. These can be your first customers and they can make a difference.

Conclusion.

Now that you have this information fresh at your fingertips. You can start a butcher shop right away. Time waits for no man. And remembers you can’t get rich off your salary alone. So take the next step and follow this write-out to the dot. You’ll live to testify how this was a game changer in your life. If you get stuck somewhere, feel free to hit us up. We can give some free advice when it comes to a butcher business.