How to start a saloon.

lets dive in headfirst on the different steps and procedures you should take while starting your saloon business.

Plan your saloon business.

This is the first step in you journey starting a saloon. Miss it and loose it. Just like the saying goes, not planning is planning to fail, so you have  to look at the different aspects of a plan and get them intact for your saloon. 

Below, we highlighted the aspects you need to look into and get them right in your business plan.

Executive summary

An executive summary should contain a brief introduction and summary of your entire business plan

Business description

Here, you’ll clearly describe your business and Plan for the different operations of your saloon.

Generally, business that goes on in a saloon is cutting and playing hair. But today, modern saloons have surpassed that. There are a lot more activities that go on in a saloon. The main activity being cutting and plating hair, here are different activities you can plan and have your saloon provide.

• Cutting and plating hair.

As the name goes ‘saloon’, this is what most people expect as the main service in a saloon. Obviously, this shall be your main business as you have to include it without fail.

• Making nails.

This is another service you can provide in a saloon. This ranges from cutting and shaping nails, painting them and nail improvement with artificial. This isn’t a very common business addition to saloon but is a worthy addition.

• Head message and face scrubbing.

This too isn’t a common service but many saloons are adapting and including it amongst the services they offer. As you are planning out your saloon, you too can have this well planned and enlisted as one of the services you can offer.

As you are planning out your saloon business, those are some of the services you can offer. Feel free to incorporate any of them into the list of services you offer.

Business goals and objectives including production strategies

What do you want to achieve in your saloon business and how do you plan to achieve it?

Market analysis

Organization and management structure.

Know your competitors, their strength, and weaknesses. This helps you exploit their weaknesses to your advantage.

Sales strategies

Sales strategies are plans for promoting and selling your services to buyers in a unique way from those of your competitors. This can help you can make more sales.

Funding and financial projections and mores others.

You want to start a saloon. Where are you going to get funds to start off your saloon business? How much do you expect to earn from your saloon business? This is what this is all about. Consider the article for details on how to write a business plan for your juice fruit business.

We’ve just highlighted a few aspects here, but if you don’t mind, you can find out the details of every aspect of a business plan just by following the link below..

Read More: How to write a business Plan.

Decide what type of saloon you want to have.

Practically, there are two types. That is, feminine and masculine. You can choose one bases on your priorities. Nevertheless, if you don’t mind, you can start off a unisex saloon. It is more profitable but is more demanding in terms of resources.

Find a location to open up your saloon.

Location is very important when it comes to a saloon business. Some important elements of the location are accessibility and enough space for parking for customers. Have this at the back of your mind while choosing a location for your saloon.

Create a name for your saloon.

A name is very essential for your saloon. A good name  should be simple and memorable. It should be unique and closely related to the saloon business. Try out something New. Make the name unique and let your saloon stand out starting from the name.

Design the interior of your saloon and make it unique.

Beauty is very important when it comes to a saloon business. Design the saloon with an attractive interior. Look out for accessories that provide comfort to the people and let them feel at home. You’ll have this kind of environment attract many customers to your saloon.

Buy tools and equipment.

Almost there. Now that you have your saloon well designed start off with purchasing tools and equipment for it. some of the essential tools for a saloon include, dryers, irons, trimmers, seats combs, a music system and many more.

Hire employees to run day-to-day operations.

You’ll not work in the saloon alone. Employees will help you run day to day activities and smoothen the operation of the saloon. All workers are essential starting from cleaners, saloon men and women, a manager if the saloon is very big. You should go through thorough sieving in the selection process. Here are some points to o consider when selecting workers.

• Avoid cheap in presentable workers. Some of the high class customers prefer to be worked on by clean presentable people.
• Let one person handle the cash. Preferably yourself if you plan to actively involved yourself in the business. None shall cause maunderings between workers and often times if it ain’t controlled well, it shall lead to direct loses.
• Avoid friends and family in business as workers or whatsoever.

Promote your new Business using social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

You’ll spend some time getting your business known. Some of the social media platforms shall help you get better known. Nevertheless, a classic and unique place shall get easily known. Strive to make the place classic and unique at all costs.

Tips to get ahead of others in this business

Create a unisex saloon. It serves more purposes and hence more customers and money.

Offer a full service. Let it include facial scrub, head clean  and many more services.

Conclusion.

There you go. It takes courage to start your own business. It’s a risk and if positive, it can move you from rugs to riches. Therefore, it’s worth all the efforts to give it a try. If you got any thoughts or suggestions as far as starting a saloon business is concerned, feel free to share with us in the comments box below.

Why you should start a juice business in Uganda.

There are many reasons you should start a juice business in Uganda.

One of which being the ready market for juice. Given the unfavorable climate, most people are forced to refresh during day. This is positive to your juice business.

Side income is another. Who doesn’t want side income? With a juice making business, you can be able to realize some.

For more of these, you can do more reading on reasons why you need a side business.

Who is this business for?

Anyone who is ambitious enough to take on the challenge. It doesn’t require a lot, better if you have a shop and you incorporate this business in your shop. Those with restaurants and you don’t have this, you are missing out. Remember, this is already in your sector of food and refreshments.

Is the juice business profitable?

Since we do business for profits, it’s worth all our time to look at how profitable the business might be prior to start up. Surely, juice fruit making is profitable. For your case, you need to do research in your area. You can also do the business on a small scale prior to expansion to do a thorough analysis of how profitable the business is.

How to start a juice business in Uganda.

Now that we clearly know what a juice business is all about, let’s take a look at the break down. The actual steps to take while starting off your juice business in Uganda.

Read also: How to start a cosmetics shop in Uganda.

Determine your niche.

What juice exactly are you going to produce? Or are you going to blend different fruits to produce a given recipe. Whatever the case is, what is most important is being sure of what you are going to produce and if it’s marketable. You’ll need to do some research in your area to find out what people prefer.

Some of the factors you should consider while choosing a niche.

• Availability of the different ingredients especially fruits in your area. Your ingredients should be readily available.
• Cost of the different ingredients. Ingredients should be affordable to bring out the element of profitability in the business.

Business plan.

Next is a business plan for your juice business. Often times we tend to forego this. This is one of the mistakes we make while starting new business. But for this, let’s not blunder. You should write a clear business plan to clearly streamline your business.

Some of the elements you should include in your business plan are;

Executive summary:

An executive summary should contain a brief introduction and summary of your entire business plan.

Business description:

This is a clear description of where your juice business will be located, the products or different blends you’ll sell, and who your target customers are, your projected growth, your partners in business, the different opportunities your business offers, and more.

Business goals and objectives including production strategies:

 What do you want to achieve in your juice business and how do you plan to achieve it?

Market analysis: 

Know your competitors, their strength, and weaknesses. This helps you exploit their weaknesses to your advantage.

Organization and management structure:

 How does work flow through your business with the main goal of achieving the business’ goals and objectives.

Sales strategies: 

Sales strategies are plans for promoting and selling your juice to buyers in a unique way from those of your competitors. This can help you can make more sales.

Funding and financial projections: 

You want to start a juice business. Where are you going to get funds to start off your juice business? How much do you expect to earn from your juice business? This is what this is all about. Consider the article for details on how to write a business plan for your juice fruit business.

Create juice recipes.

Now that you have planned your business and chosen your niche, it’s also important you create recipes. If say you’ve chosen to produce passion fruit juice, then you need to streamline and determine the different quantities you’ll use while making the juice, the different flavors you may add to make the juice special and give it a unique taste.

Read also: How to start a dairy farming business.

Get permits and licenses.

The food law may not be so tight in your area. Nevertheless, don’t take chances, get a food production permit to show authenticity. A business operation license is a must in all locations in Uganda. To avoid distance from the authority, better get yourself one prior to start of operations.

Look for supplies.

Fruits. This is all what the juice business is about. Look out for possible suppliers in your area of whatever fruits you’ve chosen to deal in.  This shouldn’t be a great issues given you chose your niche based on this.

Get a good location and premises.

No need to worry if capital is a problem. You can have this side hustle just at the front of one of your businesses. Nevertheless, if you don’t mind, you can have a unique startup. Rent out space and make a juice parlor. It’s a smarter and more demanding start but it pays off in the long run. Give it’s a try.

Start off your juice business

It’s always a big challenge to start off but it pays off when things go well. For your juice business, having all the above in order with your business well planned, start off.

Market your business.

Get your juice business a brand name. Preferably one that gives customers a hint of what you deal in, one that is memorable and easy to pronounce.

Make out banners and stickers of your juice business and post them on vehicles, walls and door entrances.

Brand your juice packaging to give your juice an origin and a nice attractive look.

Create social media pages for your juice business on different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and more. Advertisement on the different social media platforms too can give your juice business a boost.

Read also: How to start a cosmetics shop.

Tips to get your juice business ahead of others.

• Have juice ladies to move your juice all around town looking for customers to improve sales.
• Have your juice natural as it’s what most people prefer. Avoid food color or any other additive in juice.
• Cleanliness and quality juice will get you the numbers.

Conclusion.

Juice business is one of the businesses that require little startup capital. Incase capital is a problem or you are a low income earner, you can look into juice fruit business as a way of bolstering your revenues and getting your pockets happy. Some of the things to have in mind is that, things don’t always work out as planned, but with perseverance, they get along. how to start a juice business has been discussed and All the best in your juice business. All the best of luck.

Businesses to start with little money.

Below is a list of top 5 businesses you can start with little money.

Brokerage/ middle man.

Bring two people together i.e. the seller and the buyer, then earn a commission for it. You can do this for your area of expertise or anything as long as there shall be a commission earned. Products of interest range from automotive like cars, motorcycles, land , houses for both rent and for sale  and more of the sort. This is real as you can earn up to six figures in the business with close to zero capital investment.

Read also: How to start a dairy farming business.

Sales Agent.

This sounds like a broker but not exactly. This has gained popularity of recent given the growth in the production sector and the outburst of wholesalers. Now days, you can crack a deal with a wholesaler gives you their products to sell and thereafter, rewards you at the end of the day based on your sales or something as per the agreement.

The advantage with this is most times, when the seller trusts you, they can give you goods at no cost. The offset in price between the sellers price and the price you actually sale the product goes to your pocket. This is an addition to the reward the seller shall give for sale of his products. Hence killing two birds with one stone.

Some of the products being dealt in in this sector include shoes, plastics and more of the sort.

Water retailing.

Water, One of the goods that can be free and at the same time super expensive when scarce. For this business, do as below.

• First thing  to do is research to determine areas where water is actually scarce. These are the areas of interest. The problem you are going to solve is bring water closer to people at a cost.
• In these areas, get a cheap or free source of water. It can be a spring or a cheaper source like public water pipelines. This is your source where you’ll be getting the water.
• Get a means of transportation. This involves both the containers to carry water preferably jerrycans and maybe a wheelbarrow, bicycle or motorcycle to transport water easily. Manual transportation can also be an alternative though its a little tiresome.
• Go on, get the clients and serve them with water at a cost. The cheaper the better.

Read also: Top small startup side hustle ideas in Uganda.

Cleaning / laundry service.

Laundry business is a good one to start at a cheap. You nearly need nothing to start off especially if you are determined. Look out for customers and let them provide all the requirements for washing. Do the job and walk away with the pay. Its that simple.

Land scaping and compound maintenance.

This is another business to start off at a cheap. You may need a mower to make a difference. That can go for around 400k to 600k Ugandan shillings. You may need other simple tools for live fences, hoes for land scaping and simply get off with good work done. Try it and make an difference.

Digital marketer and social media management.

This sounds impossible yet its another on the list of businesses to start with little money. I’ve managed some social media accounts and also marketed some products on different social media platforms. This simply requires a smart phone with an internet connection. That’s what you perhaps have already but you are wasting the resource. A hint on how to get along with this, get to people you think need your service and pitch to them what you can do, and how important it is to them.

Conclusion.

Hands up. It’s super hard to find a business that you’ll start off without money. But we can round up little to close to no money. That’s the list and most of those there are service oriented where you need to just use your body or be a little creative. You may need some tools and equipment to run most of those, that’s where the element of “little” money comes into play. Nevertheless, find something you can do to keep yourself going as far as money is concerned. That’s it for businesses to start with little money.

Anything you think one can do that doesn’t call for serious capital investment, and is of very low risk to the small monetary input and ones health, is welcome in the comment box below. Feel free. Sharing is caring.

What is a cosmetics shop and who is this business good for?

A cosmetics is a specialty retailer that sells cosmetics, hair-care products and/or beauty tools. this business is good for anyone that is willing to invest. some of the products to deal in include; Shower soaps and gels, skin care products like creams and anti stains and anti-pimple products, hair and nail improvement products or artificials of these, perfumes, deodorants and sprays

Why you should start a cosmetics shop.

• There is ready market for cosmetics products
• It’s easy to start one. There is no special skill required to operate a cosmetics shop.
• To earn profits associated with a cosmetics shop.

There are many reasons to start a cosmetics shop but generally, all the advantages associated with starting your own side hustle come by. So starting one and persisting to see it grow is an all win case scenario.

How to start a cosmetics shop in Uganda?

Back to the subject matter. If this is the burning question inside your head, then tighten your seat belt! What it takes to start a cosmetics shop is discussed below.

Plan your business.

Think about how you’ll organize and start off your business chronologically and most importantly if it’s worthy especially in the area you are going to put it. Is the area favorable? This shall be based on your population and the number of cosmetics shops already in the area. Things of the sort just to clearly ascertain if your cosmetics shop is ideal in your area.

Some key aspects to deal with while planning your cosmetics shop are;

Executive summary: An executive summary should contain a brief introduction and summary of your entire business plan

Business description: This is a clear description of where your business will be located, the products you will sell, and who your target customers are, your projected growth, your partners in business, the different opportunities your business offers, and more.

Business goals and objectives including production strategies: what do you want to achieve and how do you plan to achieve it?

Market analysis: know your competitors, their strength, and weaknesses. This helps you exploit their weaknesses to your advantage.

Organization and management structure: how does workflow through your business with the main goal of achieving the business’s goals and objectives

Sales strategies: sales strategies are plans for promoting and selling your product or service to buyers in a unique way from those of your competitors. This can help you can make more sales

Funding and financial projections and mores others: You want to start your business. Where are you going to get funds to start off your business? How much do you expect to earn from your cosmetics venture. This is what this is all about. consider the article for details on how to write a business plan for your cosmetics shop.

Source funds for the business.

To start a cosmetics shop, you need to give this serious attention. I know you did plan for this while planning your business.  Now, it’s time to put your plans into actions by raising funds for your cosmetics shop. We can suggest some ways, some of which are through bank loans, from your savings, from your national small starter funding programs and many more ways. If you don’t mind, we have a full article on how to raise money for your business. It can be of help.

Read also: How to start a Diary farming business in Uganda.

Find a good shop location.

Location is king and has a lot to play as far as the success of your business is concerned. If you are in a place that isn’t close to town, customers will find it hard to come to your shop. Remember your competitors are accessible. Look out for space in the busy town center with room for expansion and accessible to customers.

Find cosmetics to deal in and suppliers.

Cosmetics is a broad term that brings together a lot of products all geared towards improving beauty. You may not have all that is ‘cosmetic’ in your shop. It may even escalate the startup cost in the end. So you need to carry out research and determine the highly demanded products that you’ll readily avail people in your shop. The products range from, Shower soaps and gels, skin care products like creams and anti stains and anti-pimple products, hair and nail improvement products or artificials of these, perfumes, deodorants and sprays. The list is endless.

Now that you now know what products you are going to deal in. what about suppliers?

This shall heavily depend on your scale. You can purchase locally for small scale and import products if you are a large scale operator. Some of the products are manufactured in Uganda hence making it easy to purchase

Purchase tools and equipment.

These are aids to your cosmetics business. You’ll need these to ease your delivery of goods to your clients. Some of the tools you may need are shelves to aid product display, a counter for the same.

Look at your stay in the shop, you may need a fan just for fresh air. Some of these cosmetics too are not good to stay around them health wise. You may consider rotation of your staff, and ideally a fan as suggested before.

Look at security. You may need some cameras just to keep an eye on your staff especially if the shop is big. You can make considerable losses due to theft of products by workers. Consider this seriously.

Look at stock management. You may need a computer just to manage your stock. You can manage your stock manually but a computer may help you better as;

• It reminds you of products that will run out of stock in the near future
• It eases balancing your stock to easily know what is left. With this, you can easily track product theft by workers
• It can analyze your sales on a daily basis to clearly show products that are highly demanded and those with minimal demand to guide you stocking exercise

Read also: The key elements to success for a new business.

Hire staff for your cosmetics shop.

Based on your scale of production, you may need 1-5 workers in your cosmetics shop. It possible and best if you do the work yourself especially if you start your business on a small scale.

Start your business.

Now that you have everything in order, what’s left is officially starting your business. You may choose to launch with a party, run advertisements all over and a sound system move around town introducing your business to your town.

Tips to get ahead in the business.

• Have vendors to move the products to village markets during market days.
• Trade shows can help improve your business as you’ll showcase the different cosmetic products you deal in.  Whenever there is one in your area, book a place and get involved fully. You not only sell products there but also get people to know your business.
• In case of one-time customers, you can charge them based on how they present themselves. Since cosmetics are like medicine, people can pay higher based on how desperate they are to improve themselves. Use this as a stepping stone to restructure your charges.
• Trade offers, discounts and generally selling the products at a relatively low price especially at the start of your business will attract you tons of customers
• Carry out some research on which products actually work. If a customer’s problem say skin color is solved, they’ll develop trust I you and bring you more customers

Conclusion.

After going through all the information in this article, you have a clear understanding of what it takes to start a cosmetics shop.  Nevertheless, if you have some questions resonating in your mind n how to start a cosmetics shop, Let us know! We would be happy to answer any additional question about starting a new cosmetics shop in Uganda. Drop it down in the comment box.

 We are open to giving assistance to anyone bold enough to start off the business. Contact us through the contact form. Success in your business journey.

I’ll start off at a point where you all know what dairy farming is as it’s discussed above. Then why dairy farming? The reasons are many and I guess by the time you are searching for information on how to start a dairy farm, you have Some at the back of your mind. But then ill point out some here for your cross check. There some you may not know.

• The profits. Think about grass for feed and a reward of milk and meat.
• Ready market for milk and it’s by products countrywide.
• The Industry does not depend on rainfall. If you plan well, you can have hay to feed your cattle even when there is no rain. Isn’t that empowering.
• Stable milk prices hence assurance of your profits
• The demand for milk and its products is always strong. Both vegetarians and non-vegetarians drink milk. More still, it’s the main food for babies.
• Dairy farming is the only agricultural industry where income is generated on a monthly basis. Other farming ventures have two seasons a year, but you as a dairy farmer, you are exceptional.

Those are some of the reasons you should look into dairy farming.

Is dairy farming profitable?

The short answer is ‘super profitable”. I’ll further answer this question in a simple way. A Holstein Friesian produces 25- 30 liters of milk per day. Feeding on grass preferably cultivated. Factor in the operational costs of 0.35% and get the difference. That’s your ideal profit. It shall deviate from that a little. Guess you are answered.

Who is this business right for?

The best answer to this is everybody. But there is something tricky with animals. Use this to validate yourself if this business is right for you or not? Animals need care and love. Let’s not look at the option 1 of exploiting them. They too need good care and this is very important in dairy farming. If you can offer this, then you are the right person for this. Do you have that deep feeling/ love for the animal? If you do, then there shall be no instance you’ll fail. If you don’t, you’ll struggle. Nevertheless, you can develop it given the fact that you love money and they provide just that.

How to start a dairy farming business.

Now is the right time to start a dairy farming business. It’s not late and it’s also not early but right. Let’s get over how to start a dairy farming business.

Plan your business.

Think about how you’ll organize and start off your business chronologically and most importantly if it’s worthy especially in the area you are going to put it. Is the climate favorable as animals especially dairy cattle may not thrive in some climate. You can check out these with your veterinary personnel. You need to do some research about things of the sort.

Some key aspects to deal with while planning your dairy farming business are;

• Executive summary: An executive summary should contain a brief introduction and summary of your entire dairy farming business plan.
• Business description: This is a clear description of where your business will be located, the products you will sell, and who your target customers are, your projected growth, your partners in business, the different opportunities your business offers, and more.
• Business goals and objectives including production strategies: what do you want to achieve and how do you plan to achieve it?
• Market analysis: know your competitors, their strength, and weaknesses. This helps you exploit their weaknesses to your advantage.
• Organization and management structure: how does workflow through your business with the main goal of achieving the business’s goals and objectives
• Sales strategies: sales strategies are plans for promoting and selling your product or service to buyers in a unique way from those of your competitors. This can help you can make more sales
• Funding and financial projections and mores others: You want to start your business. Where are you going to get funds to start off your business? How much do you expect to earn from your cosmetics venture. This is what this is all about.

We’ve just highlighted the different components that you should include in your business plan. Nevertheless, you can read more about them in one of our blog posts on how to write a business plan.

Source funds for the dairy farm.

Just like any business, a dairy farm needs money too. You’ll need money to buy cattle, build shelters and many more as we shall discuss later. You can generate funds from friends and relatives, bank loans, personal savings and more. For details on how to raise funds for your dairy farm, consider the post.

Read also: How to raise money for your side business.

Get a good location

You need a strategic location when setting up your dairy farm. Here are some key points to consider.

• The location should be spacious for grazing cattle / or growing feeds.
• The area should be accessible for people who want the products. Or you can find a place that is more accessible.
• Dairy farming is highly dependent on water for animals to drink, cleaning sheds and more of the sort. Make sure you are located near a water source for all these uses.

Acquaint yourself with the basics.

In the dairy farming business, you’ll hire or consult experts. Nevertheless, it’s very important to get involved and get to know what is involved in the business. We shall take you through some of the many things you need to look at in dairy farming.

Cattle shelter and feeding methods.

There are many methods of sheltering animals the commonest in Africa being enclosing animals in a fence and them being there. This is not an ideal method of sheltering animals. They are exposed to poor weather and predators. We wouldn’t advise you to try this. And animal’s shelter should have a feeding, resting and exercising yard that is in the zero grazing system. There are many more sheltering/grazing systems but with a lot of setbacks. For exotic dairy breeds, you should adopt zero grazing system and feed brought and provided to the animal.

The shelter should be;

• Spacious and highly aerated to provide sufficient air for the animals.         
• Should be easy to clean as hygiene is very important in dairy farming          
• Heat is a very serious problem when it comes to dairy cattle. When planning your shelter, their roofs should either be raised high at a height of about 3m or have a ceiling to reduce on the heat from the roof.

Feeding cattle

Feeding cattle is very important in dairy farming. Remember the quantity of milk from dairy cows is proportional to the feed. The better the feed the more the milk. Cattle feeds can be classified into three categories. I.e. Roughages, concentrates, and minerals.

Roughages include pasture forages, hays, silages, and byproduct feeds that contain a high percentage of fiber. Concentrates on the other hand contain a lot of protein while minerals are rich in minerals and salts. The letter can be liked by animals while the others are feed. Generally, you need to feed your animals on a complete meal with all the nutrients. You can check out with your nearest feed supplier to get those feeds that can’t be produced locally on the farm.

Cattle should be given dry matter content of up to 5% of their body weight daily as feed. These should be sliced for easy chewing a d supplemented with salts and concentrates daily.

A tip to cut down feeding costs on your dairy farm is to grow some of these feeds and process them that is for hays and silages.

Animals should be given plenty of drinking water that is boiled or disinfected and is pathogen free.

Health care

Yes, dairy cattle are very delicate animals with low resistance to diseases. The good news is that you can do something about it. Below are some practices that shall help to keep your animals at bay as far as diseases are concerned.

Proper feeding. I.e. feeding your animals on a complete meal as far as all the above mentioned nutrients are concerned is important. This helps keep the animals healthy and the body is able to fight disease causing pathogens.

Bathe / spray animals daily or at least once every two days.  This is to help in fighting parasites and diseases caused by parasites like ticks.

Deworm animals frequently as shall be prescribed by your veterinary personnel to blow internal parasites.

Vaccinate your animals for common diseases in your area. In some areas, certain cattle disease are common. If you are in such an area, vaccinate your animals for that specific disease.

Milk animals regularly and quench calves to avoid any diseases associated with milk.

Breeding cattle

Reproduction is an important consideration in dairy farming. Without regular breeding and calving at the appropriate time, cattle rearing will not be profitable. A healthy animal should calf each year and this should be every farmer’s goal. Heifers at 2 years of age should be calving their first calves. To control and genetically modify animals, it’s a better idea to use artificial insemination. You can contact your veterinary officer for details concerning this.

Milking animals and milk care.

Milk is the main dairy farming product. Good dairy breeds as discussed above can give from 20-35 liters of milk. This is a lot of milk. Extraction of milk from the animal should be done every morning and evening ideally using machines as it’s a little hard to hand milk animals that yield a lot of milk.

Milking should be done in a clean environment and the milk itself should be kept tight in clean containers to control contamination. Milk should not be adulterated with water as it may cause contamination, it reduces the quality of milk and processing it to get by products such as ghee, cheese, yourghut to mention but a few may be hard when its adulterated

Calving and caring for calves.

Dairy cattle calf once a year after carrying calves for 9 months. Near calving animals should be feed on proper nutritious feed with plenty of water. Calendar dates should be noted to determine the correct estimate of when animals are most likely to calf.

After birth, clean the cow’s teats before the calf suckles of remove the calf right away and manually feed calves high-quality colostrum immediately. Provide clean and fresh calf starter, milk replacer and water every day. Offer calves water at least three times a day. Calves should be kept away from their mother and preferably manually fed.

Six to seven month is pre-weaning time for calves. During this period, make sure the calves’ diet (liquid feed, forage, and grain) are all high quality least you risk stunted growth and low resistance to disease.

It’s a good practice to keep the veterinary officer close to help animals with calving especially if you are not experienced, and when it’s the first time for the heifer to calf.

Generally;

• Calves should drink about 4-6 liters of fresh colostrum during the first 12 hours of life
• Ensure good routine hygiene and health practices
• Scrub all feeding equipment well with detergent.
• Isolate sick calves in a sick pen and provide them with necessary treatment and care.
• Frequently clean and disinfect pens where sick calves are treated.
• Provide and ensure calf bedding is regularly refreshed.
• Control calf and generally animal movement to control spread of diseases
• Calves must be checked daily for signs of ill health and treatment given when needed.
• Give calves water three times daily to prevent dehydration.

Below are some daily checks with calves;

Check that their Noses are clear of discharge and are moist and cool, Mouths are clear of ulcers, Calves can stand and walk normally, and all calves are feeding.

Find a source or animals.

There are many breeds of dairy cattle and many suppliers. So when you are set to get your first stock, you need to be careful and observant. You can seek the help of your veterinary office to help in choosing the right animal. Generally, below are some guidelines to follow.

• Get vaccinated animals with a certificate that proves the animal is disease free from a reputable source.
• Preferably, you should stock heifers that still have good time to give birth. This time is important for the animal to adopt to the new condition in the new area.
• Cross breeds with low percentages of exotic blood are ideal to start off with as they are a little more resistant to diseases and bad conditions. With these, you can learn the dos and don’ts with cattle so that by the time you get the animals with higher levels of exotic blood “the more delicate  animals”, you Cleary know what to do.

Some of the good diary breed s you can look out for are Friesians, Jersey, Ayrshire and Brown Swiss.

Prepare for your heard.

Prior to receiving your animals, you need to prepare for them.  Below are the different tasks you need to carry out in the preparation for your animals.

• Build them shelter.

As discussed above, you need to build your animals shelter. At this stage, I expect that you clearly know what is required of an animal’s shelter as we discussed it above. All that s left now is erecting one.

• Grow them feed.

On average, a cow can eat an acre of pastures without any external food aid. Before you bring in you animals, ensure you’ve grown pastures for them so that you cannot run short of pasture.

Hire laborers to cater for your heard.

You’ll not manage to do all the routine tasks with dairy farming. Therefore, you’ll need to hire external aid to clean, process pastures and generally care for the animals. Look out for experienced cattle keepers to have them by your side in the early stages of your dairy farming venture.

Start off your dairy farm with a small heard.

Two or three animals is a good number to always start off with. We don’t advise you to start off with many animals as it’s risky. Further, starting off with animals with a lower percentage of exotic genes (cross breeds) as discussed above is ideal. These are fairly resistant and can tolerate you in your learning stages as you better your knowledge in the industry.

Some of the commonest breed of dairy cattle to look out for in Uganda include Friesians, Jersey, Ayrshire and Brown Swiss. You can do more research on breeds of dairy cattle.

Look for market for your products.

As discussed at the top, one of the reasons why you should try dairy farming is because of the ready market for the dairy products. As you are looking to booster profits and market, here are some considerations.

The main product from dairy farming is milk. Process it to produce other products like yoghurt, pasteurize milk, and make cheese, ghee and many more products. A few people will tell you that there is a lot of money in processing not producing. A word to a wise man is enough.

Keep the milk pure. Mixing milk with water will lower its quality, reduce its life and make you lose customers.

Tips for success in dairy farming business.

• Be a manager yourself first. Through this, you’ll clearly learn what is required to operate successfully and you’ll build your farm on your shoulders. It can always survive as you can always be there for it.
• Disease control is very important in dairy farming. A lot of people will tell you that animal fall sick and treating them is expensive. This is true, but there are basic practices to prevent animals falling sick. To save you all the heavy costs of treating exotic animals.
• Clean the sheds regularly
• Bathe or spray the animals regularly
• Feed the animals on good nutritious feed
• Give the animals plenty clean of drinking water
• Vaccination of animals and deworming regularly are good practices
• Do not delay to milk animals
• Suckling of calved is not a good practice. These should be drenched

• Milk production is proportional to feeding. The better you feed your animals, the more milk they give. We expect you not to ever complain about milk yields. Just feed the animals well, give them plenty of drinking water, and keep them health.
• Process milk to create other products. There is a lot of money in value addition.

Read also: How to easily start a wholesale business in Uganda.

Conclusion.

With this, we hope you can successfully start your dairy farm and enjoy the profits. Love for animals is key to success of this business as you can do anything for an animal to be okay if you love it. That’s what is required in dairy farming. Good care for the animals. We wish you all the best in your dairy farming venture. Feel free to contact us about dairy farming. In case of any simple questions, feel free to drop them in the comment box below.

What is a wholesale business?

A whole sale business is an entity that buys goods in bulk from manufacturers and there after resells those at a higher price to retailers who also sell to the final consumer at a higher price.

How profitable is a wholesale business.

Very profitable is the short answer we can give for now. this is siply because;

• Wholesaers purchase in bulk from manufacturers at a very low cost. they are guranteed of their profit.
• Some mother companies bear the risk of expiry on behalf ogf yjr wholesalers hece reduced risk and more profit.
• Profits increase with quantity sold which is exactly what wholesalers do. sale in bulk.

Who is this business good for?

Every one that thinks that their full time job cant provide enough money to cater for all their financial needs. of you are reading this post, then you need not to worry, this business ifs good for you.

How to start a wholesale business.

Starting a wholesale business may seem hard but the assurance we’ll give you is that after this article, everything about it will be easy and you’ll smoothly go through the different steps and start your wholesale business.

Plan your business.

This is the first step in your journey starting a wholesale business. Miss it and loses it. Just like the saying goes, not planning is planning to fail, so you out to look at the different aspects of a plan and get them intact for your wholesale business. Ready to push it to the next level.

Below, we highlighted the aspects you need to look into and get them right in your business plan.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Business goals and objectives including production strategies
• Market analysis
• Organization and management structure
• Sales strategies
• Funding and financial projections and mores others.

We’ve just highlighted a few aspects here, but if you don’t mind, you can find out the details of every aspect of a business plan just by following the link below.

Read Also: How to write a business plan.

Choose a business strategy and the commodity to deal in.

The wholesale business is a wide one, with many strategies all geared towards achieving one goal. “Finding a living”. Now that you wish to join, find time and do some research of the product you wish to deal in. There after the strategy to resale it.

The two strategies you can prioritize in this business are

• General whole sale

This is simple, when you choose to be a general whole sale, then you are going to have many different products large sums ready for retailers to come and purchase from you. This type of strategy is easier to start as it requires less capital and space. Such whole sales are usually many in different locations.

• Selected commodity wholesaler.

This is a little complex as compared to the general wholesaler. In this strategy, you deal in few products (one or two) but in super big quantities. Generally, you are the outlet point of the products in the whole region or district.

This is a little tricky to start as you need to make an agreement with the mother company, you need a lot of cash and space.

Depending on your money, the choice of the strategy is yours.

Find a product or products to deal in.

After you’ve chooses the strategy, then you need to critically look out for a product to deal in. For the first strategy, it sound obvious but not always. You may deal in general consumer products like dry foods, salt, sugar and many more house hold consumables.

Then when it comes to the second, you need to scratch your head and find a distribution gap. Its super had because companies plan to close all gaps but finding one isn’t impossible.

Read Also: Why most businesses fail.

Find a good location for your business.

Location is a key factor that shall heavily determine your success in the whole sale business.

You need an accessible location, with enough space as you’ll have a lot of commodities around

With room for expansion especially if you are going to be a selected commodity wholesaler. Remember, loading and unloading of tracks shall be daily business at your business premises, so have this in mind as you are looking out for a suitable location

Raise capital for your business.

Just like any other business, a whole sale business too requires capital to start. How much? Is a question that shall depend on your location, strategy and many more of the sort? How to raise capital for your whole sale business is another question that we fully discussed in one of our blog posts. Some of the ways you can is through your personal savings, bank loans, sourcing funds from family and friends, to mention but a few.

Read Also: How to raise money for your side business.

Purchase tools and equipment

Purchase the different tools and equipment to aid and ease your business. These shall heavily depend on what products you are dealing in. An example of these for a breweries wholesale business are pallets and a forklift to ease the unloading of crates from trucks. The tools and equipment you’ll need heavily depend on your strategy.

Look for suppliers

Producers and super big wholesalers can be your suppliers in the wholesale business. In the process of starting off, you can enquire from other fellow wholesalers of who their source of products are. It’s easy, you can use social media or even a web search of the product of interest to clearly locate the different sources of different products.

Purchase products

Now that you clearly know the product you want to deal in and have all the contacts of your suppliers, purchasing the products is your next step. As it is the start, you ought to purchase a small manageable stock in reference to the size of your wholesale business. As it is the start, you shouldn’t expect to make heavy sales so it is wise to purchase with this at the back of your mind.

Get a payment mechanism

Payments in cash are the commonest means of payment for small money. When it comes to a whole sale business, where some customers are expected to purchase in bulk, you need other mechanisms like bank transfer, and many more different ways to ease the process of purchasing.

Hire staff.

On your way to start off officially, you’ll need to hire staff to help in operation of the business. The number and expertise shall heavily depend on your scale of production and type of wholesale business respectively.

Start your business

Now that you have all these set, next is officially starting your business.

Advertise and provide incentives to attract more customers.

Advertise your business to improve exposure and get yourself more customers. Incentives too can do you the magic especially when it comes to holding onto those customers you already got. Here are some small things you can do as incentives.

• Provide free loading for customers especially those who purchase in bulk.
• Free transportation to a given distance in the working area is another you can think about.
• Generally, maximizing sales instead of profits can speak miles and gain you the biggest chunk of customers over time. The choice is yours.

Tips to improve your wholesale business

• Purchasing from the manufacturer directly is ideal for a wholesaler as you get more profits.
• Development of loyalty to a given supplier is something you should strive for in order to be given goods on credit.
• Of the two strategies, sales maximization and profit maximization, you should choose sales maximization as your whole goal is to sale bulk amounts of goods and customers who prefer to purchase in bulk look for the cheapest source

Conclusion.

As you can see, starting a whole sale business is not as intimidating or difficult as it might seem at first. There are many ways to make the process easier for yourself and less stressful. By following these tips and tricks, I hope that your process will be much smoother than mine was! Here are some of my favorite points as you join the business world.

• A well planned and managed business cannot fail. It’s just a matter of time.
• The business succeeds as much as you work hard. The more effort you input, the more likely that it shall work out.
• You quit, you lose. I know you’ll face a lot of challenges in this but something you shouldn’t think about is quitting.

With these few points, I wish you all the best in your whole sale business. In case of any questions, feel free to drop them in our inbox. If you feel this post makes a difference, you can also comment in the comment box below. All the best.

To start with, we shall discuss a pre-cast concrete business prior to a complete guide on how to create it.

What is pre-cast concrete and what exactly shall you be dealing with in this business?

 Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in reusable formwork. Concrete is then cured, transported to the construction site, and then placed. In this business, you’ll be dealing in pre-casting concrete, curing it, and later selling it off at a profit.

Is there a market for pre-cast concrete products?

This is a question I answered already in the introduction. Though I suspect it slipped off your ears. This is the future of the construction sector. There is a shift from clay products to concrete ones. This is because of the immense advantages of concrete which you should keep inherent through practices such as quality control to give the cast concrete the required strength. You can’t go wrong with pre-cast concrete. There is just too much market for it. As long as you keep quality at your fingertips.

Who should start a pre-cast concrete business?

Just like any business, this also is for business people. Nevertheless, if you have some construction/engineering knowledge, then it’s perfect for you. If you are just a businessman, then you may need the help of a professional engineer.

How to start a pre-cast concrete business?

There we go. how to start a pre-cast concrete business is what is discussed onwards.

Talk to a professional engineer.

The first step in our guide on how to start a pre-cast concrete business is seeking professional guidance if you ain’t one. For most businesses, we start by writing business plans but this is a little complex. If you have engineering knowledge, then you clearly know what is required and what exactly you are going to do. Else, you need help from someone who knows. If you are a good researcher, then you can pitch out what exactly you need.

Write a Business plan.

Now that you know what exactly is needed, plan on how you are going to achieve that. We highly recommend you plan your business. Don’t start off without a clear plan. Here are key elements you should look at in your precast concrete business plan.

Executive summary, Business Description, Business goals and objectives, Market analysis, Sales strategies, Funding, and more.

For detail on what you should include in all these components, we have a detailed post about how to write a business plan. This can be of help.

Decide on the production strategy.

To start a pre-cast concrete business, you need to decide on a production strategy, this shall depend on the available finance. Some of the production strategies to consider and the respective capital requirements are;

labor only;

This type of strategy is ideal for you if you have fewer funds to start your pre-cast concrete business. Here, the client buys his materials such as sand, cement, and water and all you are paid for is labor. ie making the different pre-cast concrete products.

Wholesome;

This strategy is ideal if you have enough start-up capital. In this strategy, you produce all the products using your money and the client chooses what they want from the available products.

Hire professional top management staff.

These I mainly mean engineers or someone with experience. It’s not good and I don’t advise you to start off with any engineering material production without analysis and design by a knowledgeable person of the materials and more of the sort.

Make detailed drawings and designs of the products you are to produce.

If you are not a professional, now is the time to do detailed design because you’ll have the guidance of a knowledgeable person. Some products you can produce are culverts of different diameters, slabs, concrete blocks, pavers, fencing poles, and more. This is the time to do drawings for them. We recommend doing market research to determine how the different products are doing in your area before you decide to produce.

Look at the Fund requirement.

As you know, money is one of the main requirements to start any business and a pre-cast concrete business isn’t exceptional. The plain truth is that the monetary requirement for this business especially on a large scale is big. Though freedom is left to you to start small. The monetary requirement also depends on the products you’ll produce and who your target market is.

Location and Facilities.

The key points to look out for on a suitable site or location are;

A spacious location for curing the different concrete products, storage of materials, and expansion of the facilities when the need arises.

An accessible location with a good display yard where products can be displayed and trucks can pack and load materials.

Tools and equipment.

Further to start a pre-cast concrete business, you’ll need some tools and equipment to ease your work. some of the tools and equipment you’ll need include;

A concrete mixer to ease the mixing of the different constituents and improve the quality of work from the production of a good mix.

Formwork for all the different pre-cast concrete elements

A vehicle for transportation of the different materials.

a vibrator for compaction of concrete and many more tools used in casting concrete.

Materials and supply.

The materials required for this business are;

Water, coarse aggregates, fine aggregates, and cement. Some additives(admixtures) may be added to enhance the properties of concrete and reinforcements for some pieces like culverts.

I’ll not go into the detail of these, their properties, and so on as we have standards we follow for different pieces. I recommend that you hire the services of a professional engineer and you’ll get over these together.

Material suppliers: In this business, material suppliers are very important as different materials have different properties. You can call for bids for supplies of construction materials and check out clearly what each has to offer.

Advertise your business.

When you’ve started your business and have it running, think about how you are going to have your products across the lines. it’s through advertising. use technology to your advantage through, social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. moving around to get subcontracts from different contractors in your area to produce pre- cats concrete material for them too is an ideal way of advertising.

How to get ahead of others in this business.

Make quality. Remember concrete never lies. If you make it without good quality control, it shall fail and paint a bad name on you.

Purchasing materials in large quantities can save you lots of money. You can make special orders from the manufacturer if you are purchasing a great deal of material.

Prioritize large-scale production. With a registered business, you can look out for contracts or subcontracts to fix some of these materials such as pavers.

Prioritize your worker’s safety and well-being. this makes them more productive and hence getting you more profits

Conclusion.

If you are out there planning to start a concrete works business, then I think this post was informative and full of guidance. That’s where the world is moving. Away from grass lawns to paved ones, from clay bricks to concrete blocks. So I welcome you into the concrete works world. Feel free to comment and share your experience if you are in the business already, or you can hit us up for any help starting up a concrete works business. We got your back.

Have you ever thought about this as a money-making machine? Here we are. We shall discuss the topic in detail in this blog post. “How to start a money lending business” from scratch. We shall discuss how you can plan it out, how to deal with people and money, and finally, some tips to make the venture a success. All that is there to know in this business we shall discuss.

What is a money lending business?

A money lending business is an enterprise that lends money to different people and organizations that pay back with interest. Usually, there is security that the borrower provides to the lender for his money, and these range from property, bank guarantees, job payment cards, and more of the sort.

Is it worth it to start a money lending business?

I’ll not speak heaven and earth about the money lending business. It’s just about planning it well and managing finances like any other business. Take an example, you gave out a loan of 100000 to a Client at an interest rate of 10% monthly. They shall have to pay you back 1100000 by the end of the month. You earn 100000. This is how profitable it is to do money lending. It’s worth every penny investing in the money lending business the right way that we shall clearly discuss in this article.

How much money is needed to start?

Based on the scale of production and anticipated turn-up and the economy. But generally, money lending businesses require lots of cash. I advise you to get in hand with an expert to give a detailed cost estimate.

How does money lending work?

Money lending works in such a way that the lender gives the customer a given amount of money that is payable back to the lender after a given period of time at an interest rate of say 20%. By the time of paying back, the lender is paid back the initial sum and the interest as a reward for the service.

Procedures to start a money lending business.

A money lending business isn’t something you’ll just dive in headfirst. To start a money lending business, you need to make proper preparation with the challenge ahead in mind. As a lay businessman, you man not just research and know and have the full knowledge of what actually is required. There are a lot of legalities involved. For this matter, we recommend consulting a professional for advice and perhaps help in setting up the business and doing some documentation.

These are the steps to follow to start a money lending business.

Make a business plan for your money lending businesses.

This is a document that outlines the goals and objectives of your money lending business as well as how you will achieve them. It’s an essential tool for you as it shall help you take control over your future by clearly showing what you want from your money lending business. When writing this business plan, it’s important to follow an outline and address all points in order to create one that is good. Some of the key elements you can include in your money lending business plan include;

Executive Summary

An executive summary should contain a brief introduction and summary of your entire business plan. It should describe the business, the problem that it solves, your target market, financial sources, and all one needs to know.

Business Description.

In this part, you describe your business in full depth clearly describing where your business will be located, the products you will sell, who your target customers are, your projected growth, and more of the sort.

Business goals and objectives

Goals are guidelines or achievements you want to attain. On the other hand, Objectives implementation steps to attain the identified goals. You should have these clear if you are on the path of moving your business forward.

Market research.

Market research is an assurance of your market. It shall clearly show you how you can organize and implement your money lending business to fully serve customers well and raise your money lending business to heights. Some more components you can include in your plan are;

• Organization and Management Structure
• Sales Strategies
• Funding and Financial Projections.

You can consider one of our articles on how to write a business plan for more information on this.

Raise capital for your business

You surely need some reasonable money on whichever level you want to start your money lending business. Since it’s about money, then this should be sufficiently planned for. You can raise money through your savings, and bank loans to mention but a few.

Register your money lending business and acquire all licenses.

There are many benefits you’ll get from registering your money lending business, but what is most important is to avoid clashing with authority. To proceed with your money lending business in Uganda, you’ll need to acquire a money lending license from the Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority. (UMRA). for details on how to acquire this license, this link can be of use.

For details on how to register your money lending business in Uganda, you can read one of our articles at the link below. If you mind the stress, you can contact us and we perform for you the whole process in one piece.

Read also: How to register your business in Uganda.

Understand the laws.

There is a lot to do with the law when it comes to a money lending business. How do you deal with defaulters? What does the law say? How do you auction one’s security if they’ve failed to pay a loan? I know you’ll need the services of a lawyer but it is to your advantage if you know some of these things. As a driver in this business, you’ll speed fast if you know all these things off the head.

Come up with lending guidelines.

These can also be termed as terms and conditions that govern the two people that get into a contract that is legally binding. Usually, you should come up with terms and conditions which remove liability from your hands and the businesses’ but rather shift it to the client. They should be easy to understand and reserve the right to change them when you feel necessary. Nevertheless, it’s not a good idea to use terms and conditions to steal from clients. Some businessmen do this. It’s against God and the law.

Get a lending credibility measurement method.

What tells you as a lender that someone is capable of paying the money they have asked for? It’s the credibility measurement mechanism.

Some of the methods you can tell is through;

• Carefully study the borrower’s bank statement.
• Accepting valuable security from the borrower.
• A contract and proof of employment from the borrower.

Further, to start a money lending business, you’ll need to;

Obtain business insurance.

like most of them say “do not accept liability”, that’s their principle and so let’s let it hold. You should talk to experienced insurance personnel and determine the different business risks you need to ensure your business.

Establish an online presence.

This is one of the ways you can get yourself marketed in the money lending business. You need to develop this prior to the start of your business so that by the start, your website is up and running and people already know about your business and what you offer.

Read also: 3 ways to get your business online in Uganda.

Purchase equipment and tools.

To start a money lending business, you’ll need some key tools and equipment. most of these are office tools like tablets, computers, seats, printers, files, and books to keep records.

Hire staff.

Of course, you’ll not operate the money lending business, especially on a large scale alone. You’ll need to hire some staff for the Smith operation of your money lending business.

Some of the key staff you’ll need are, Lawyers, accountants, loan officers, managers,s and other minor staff to keep the business running.

Look for good office locations.

Depending on your target market, you can have offices in an accessible location or have an online system. With the development in technology, it’s possible to have an online system where customers can access the service online.

Start the business.

When you are through with all the above, what’s next is starting off with business. Having all that is mentioned above in place before officially starting your business will guarantee you success. All that shall be left is persistence and good management.

Advertise your business.

Now that you’ve started your money lending business, it’s time to look for some customers. This you’ll do through marketing. There are many ways you can achieve this. Some of the many for your consideration are.

Creating a website for your money lending business.

Leveraging the power of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.

Tips to make your business a success.

Here are some tips to make more money if you are to start a money lending business.

• Make the processes of loan acquisition simple and short.

This makes it easy for people to acquire a loan. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t forget that this can be a disadvantage as people can easily get loans and run with your money. Therefore, improve the loan credibility system and let the process be short.

• Have customer care and let your loans office be an easy person.

A persuasive loan officer can influence one to get a loan even though their intention wasn’t to.

• Have a fair interest rate.

Oftentimes, people don’t get loans due to high interest rates. 50, 40, 60 % rates. This is total madness. And it’s only the blind that take such loans. To get a customer in your loan business, let the interest rate be genuine.

• Have good capital.

It’s bad when someone wants a loan and your business can’t grant it even when they are credible. Invest good capital in the business and let it grow steadily to keep in business.

Conclusion.

There you are. You are now set to start a money lending business. Now is the right time to start. Remember doing business is one of the ways that shall set you and your family to financial freedom. So don’t look back on your decision to start a money lending business. In case of any issues starting, feel free to contact us and we shall be happy to help push for your money lending business to the next level. Thank you.

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.

Read also: How to start a poultry business in Uganda.

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.

Read also: How to register your business in Uganda.

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.

Read also: How to start a pig farming business.

Purchase equipment and tools.

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.

Read also: How to start an online business in Uganda.

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.

We’ve covered the basics and some more advanced information on how to start a pig farming business in case you’re considering branching out of your current career path into something new. Running any type of business comes with its challenges so make sure to do extensive research before embarking on piggery. This article will tackle that exactly.

What is piggery?

Piggery is the process of raising domestic pigs for their meat(pork) and waste as manure. It involves an establishment to provide shelter for pigs and there after caring for the pigs by providing for them feeds, and good health care.

This type of business is very common in Uganda especial in the Christian communities and there is very high demand for pork locally. If you want to join the business, then you are in the right place. Keep reading we shall turn all stones on how to start a pig farming business.

The benefits of raising pigs.

If you want to start a pig farming business, then you’re probably looking out for the benefits. Below are some of the benefits of raising pigs.

Pigs are on very high demand of late. So you’ll be producing products with ready market.

Pigs grow and mature very fast. You’ll be assured of your profits in a short while. A pig takes up to six months to mature. You’ll be assured of the return to investment in this short while.

You can get multiple products to sell from pigs i.e. pork, piglets, and manure.

How much it’s costs to start a piggery farm?

This shall depend on the scale of production. On a small scale, a presentable pig farming business can cost less than 2million Uganda shillings. On a large scale, a pig farming business may take all you have. Though it isn’t wise to go in headfirst. We would advise you to start small with up to ten pigs, there after expand slowly.

How to start a pig farming business in Uganda?

Below is a detailed guide on how to start a pig farming business in Uganda.

Draft up a business plan.

To start with in our outline on how to start a pig farming business, is a business plan for your piggery farm. Make sure it includes projections, marketing strategy, and detailed information about costs and revenues. You have to do a detailed market research to be able to determine costs and revenues.

Read also: How to write a business plan.

Choose a location and set up the farm.

Location of your pig farm is very important as a good one comes in with handy benefits. A good location should be accessible and with space for expansion.

Look at local laws, regulations and cultural beliefs that may affect your operation.

We have some religions that don’t eat pork. I need not to mention these. But it’s very important to locate your farm out of these zones. Pigs tend to make a lot of noise especially during feeding. You need to place your farm not in a residential area as it shall be a nuisance to people who are resting.

Decide on what type of pigs you want to raise and get your stock.

Choosing animals from reputable breeders who have tested their stock for common swine diseases is ideal. The breed you choose to raise depends on the available capital. Some breeds are expensive both to buy and care for.

Some of the good breeds you can choose from include Hampshire, Camborough, Large Black, large white and landrace.

Digging dipper into the cost of piglets in Uganda.

Piglet prices differ from different sellers in Uganda and also the type of breed comes into play. nevertheless, you can prepare from 100000Ugx-300000Ugx. I mean not to make a bad conclusion about cheap pigs, but generally piglets whose price goes below 100000Ugx are generally not good and you shouldn’t go for them.

Choose a strategy to follow.

To start a pig farming business, you’ll need a strategy. This shall depend on available resources like money, land to mention but a few. one of the strategies is raising pigs for meat. Here, you push for the pigs to fatten thereafter you sell off. This usually calls for good Capital and resources like land. The other strategy you can choose is breeding pigs and selling off piglets. If you have less resources, this is for you.

Raise capital

Just like any other business, to start a pig farming business you’ll need money. The money requirements differ and are based on your scale of production. Money can be raised in different way i.e. through bank loans, savings, loans from friends and more.

Read also; How to raise money for your side business.

Construct a Pig sty

This is one of the areas where you’ll spend a lot of startup capital. There are many styles of pig sty construction. I.e.

Raised pig sty.

These comprise of a raised wooden floor with gaps in between the floor as a passage for droppings. These are less durable as the wooden floor is susceptible to rotting. There is also a risk of pigs breaking their legs when the legs pass through the holes between the different floor timber.

Concrete floor pig sty

These have a concrete floor. The main draw back with these is that they smell. Though they are easy to clean, and they don’t put pigs at risk of breaking their legs.

Saw dust/ improved (I.M.O) pig sty.

This is a current innovation in the business. This pig sty comprises of an excavated hole of depth up to 1m which is filled with saw dust. The pigs live in the sty with the saw dust as a stepping platform. The saw dust is mixed with organic agent (I.M.O) to digest the pigs’ droppings. This is the best pig sty I would recommend to anyone starting piggery. Some of it’s drawbacks is that it’s expensive and in case of a disease outbreak, it’s hard to disinfect.

Its main advantages are;

• It doesn’t smell
• It’s a good source of manure as it collects dropping for up to 3+years
• It’s friendly to the pig as it keeps it busy playing with the dust and lying over as though it were a natural environment.

Start your business.

Now that you are tipped on how to start a piggery farm, this is the right time to dive in and start off. Its always good to start off small and learn the common practices and how to go over pig rearing before an explosion in number at your farm. Generally, starting off with ten pigs is good. Though you can do better.

Pig welfare.

Feeding.

To start a pig farming business, feeding pigs is one important aspect which should be given attention. Pigs should be given a proper well formulated meal to provide for all their growth and health needs. Pig feeds should be got from a trusted reputable source as some sellers adulterate feeds in the name of increasing weight.

Pigs should be provided with clean drinking water all the time preferably using pig nipples

Pigs should not be given left over food as it may cause diseases.

Read also: How to start a Restaurant in Uganda.

Common pig diseases.

There are many pig diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, protozoa, nutritional deficiencies, poisonous substances, internal and external parasites. The commonest and most dangerous is African swine fever. Below are some of the ways to control pig diseases:

• Have good biosecurity
• Ensure proper dropping disposal
• Construct the pigsty properly with good aeration
• Provide suitable feed and water
• Isolate new or sick animals
• Dispose of dead pigs properly
• Use of disinfectants incase of a breakout.
• Hire a veterinarian doctor for advice and treatment.
• Do not slaughter sick/ dead animals
• Avoid giving pigs leftover food.

For more information about pig diseases and control, contact your veterinary officer. You can do some more reading here.

Breeding in pigs.

Special attention should be given to sows to determine their heat period. usually, they are restless, have no appetite, mount fellows and have a swollen reddish vulva during heat period.

The sow should be taken to the boar house on time for servicing. Attention should be taken on the body ratio of the two pigs. Incase one is 2 times bigger than the other, then they can not service each other. This can result into hind leg damage on the sow or fights.

Sows can be served several rounds in order to produce a good number of piglets.

Caring for piglets.

As you start a pig farming business, you have expansion at the back of your mind. Then you can’t avoid piglets. Piglets are the young of the pigs. After birth, you need to keep the piglets with their mother and all they feed on is breast milk. At an age of 3-7 days, piglets are injected with iron to provide strong bones.

Dirt especially on the mothers udder can cause trouble for the piglets as they can fall sick and get diarrhea. In case this happens, you need to contact your veterinary officer for help.

Piglets should be feed on special feed to promote rapid growth and health when they start eating. This should be done in a way that the mothers pig sty has holes where the piglets can pass to a nearby section of the pigsty where the special meal for them is placed. This is to prevent the mother pig from eating the feed.

Piglets’ teeth and tails should be trimmed to avoid wastage of nutrients and hurting each other during breast feeding respectively.

Breast feeding saws should be given plenty of water and feed to have enough milk for the piglets

Bio security.

This is a very important aspect as far as pigs are a topic. It is the prevention of disease causing agents from leaving or entering the pig sty. More emphasis is put on entering the pig sty in this case. But in case there is an outbreak in one section, the prevention of it leaving to other pig sty comes into play.

Biosecurity is very important if you are to start a piggery farm as it can keep you in business or out of business when all your pigs are dead.

Important elements of biosecurity.

Have a 2 m fence around your farm with no access to pigs on a free range system. You shouldn’t have your pigs too on a free range system.

No unauthorized access to the farm, in case of authorization, then the person should be disinfected through a sand bath.

Enclose the pig sty with anti-bird nets to prevent birds bringing in diseases

Pigs shouldn’t be fed on leftover food as it may contain pathogens. Pigs shouldn’t eat pork as it may be from a pig that died of diseases which may be passed on.

There should be no kind of transferring pigs from one farm to another in form of providing males for servicing as this can aid transfer of diseases.

As a pig farmer, avoid visiting different farms as you may bring disease back to your farm. In case it happens, then disinfect thoroughly.

Don’t accept pig buyers to access your premises be it your compound as they have been to different farms buying pigs.

Advertise your business and its products.

With production of goods that is pigs, piglets and manure at its best on your farm, you should advertise your business to get goods readily fetched from your farm by customers. Some of the ways you can advertise your business include;

Through social media platforms like twitter, Facebook and more.

Creating a website for your business to have an online presence.

Read also: 3 ways to get your business online in Uganda.

Tips to get ahead of others in the pig farming business.

Look for a good breed that will fatten and give you a worthy reward.

Biosecurity is priority as swine fever is so common in African hogs

Consider large scale production and look out for some people to supply with pork rather than selling a live animal to butcher shops.

Conclusion.

With all that with you on how to start a pig farming business, we shall get this also across. Don’t be afraid of failure! There will inevitably be obstacles along the way but they are all surmountable with hard work and perseverance. We hope these insights about starting a piggery farm were helpful! Let us know how things go in the comments below or give us a call anytime.