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Earning from fruit salads and juice vending
Esther Kakooza (pictured below) a former bursar abandoned her job for what other people will call a lesser one of vending fruit salads and has never regretted. She runs a fruit salads and juices shop along Kamuli Temple road opposite FINCA and NRM offices. Esther narrates that in November 2006, she left Bezalel Preparatory school to stand on her own. She started a hairdressing business with Shs300,000 but realising that it was only seasonal, she thought of a daily income business so that she could stop depending on her parents after they had spent a lot of money funding her education.
The social works and social administration graduate saw that many people liked eating fruits but had little time to prepare them and took advantage of this to start off.“I went in for two pools at ago and secured Shs800,000 to buy a fridge, utensils, soda, splash, safi and and also focused on selling assorted fruits like jack fruit, pineapples, paw paws and sugar cane to start this business,” she reveals.
She says that there is a high demand now for the packed juices and salads. Ms Kakooza packs fruits, keeps them in a fridge and supplies them to her clients in offices. She is also keen on saving and boasts that God has blessed their hard work in that in a bad month, she saves Shs600,000 and during a good month, she saves Shs800,000.
Esther says that she treasures her fridge and blender which she says are priceless sources of income since because of them, she has been able to save, buy a plot and build her own home in Kamuli Town.
Her husband Robert Kakooza a loans officer at Finance Trust says that one doesn’t need millions to start a business but, “great ideas put in practice, commitment and public relations and God will bless you because work was blessed and commissioned by God.”
Her target as the business grows is to buy three more fridges for juice, salads and cold drinks. She also plans to acquire a vehicle for transporting the fruits to Buyende district and get more customers. Meanwhile she has opened up an orchard for paw-paws, passion fruits and water melon. Kakooza advises that when you have the chance and opportunity to do something, start right away, have a saving culture, multiply your
