In February 2014, I registered Odyssey Distributors Ltd. It was my first venture into distribution which was a field I had

very little experience with. The choice to take on distribution for a band new

Telecom company in an already saturated market was very risky. I invested

~$80,000USD and signed a contract.

Why I got into this?My entrepreneurial spirit started at 8 years old when I had earned my first $10 with an ice-tea stand outside our house. At 12 I was into cul-de-sac Garage sales. At 15 I started recycling for environmental refunds. At 18 I owned my first property. But this was the first calculated risk I had taken where I was still uncertain.

Over the last few years whilst in Uganda, I had been wanting to get into different areas of work. Being in the hotel business, I am constantly meeting business travellers looking at expanding their current businesses to East Africa markets with local partners.

The opportunity to distribute airtime and products for SMART Telecom was introduced to me by a friendwho was working at the company. Their challenges became my opportunity and I saw it as being a great start for a distribution company that could later expand into other products.

What is SMART Telecom?

Smart provides a range of innovative products to suit your lifestyle, and outstanding value-for-money packages to suit your wallet. But it’s not just in our products and packages that you’ll see a difference. It’s in the way we do things. That’s because Smart’s parent company is Industrial Promotion Services (IPS) Kenya, which in turn is part of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED).

AKFED has been funding social enterprises across East Africa for decades – making long-term investments with the aim of building economically sound businesses that create employment and improve lives. And that’s just what Smart does.

The Big Fish!

The excitement of landing a large client clouded my better judgement. They made the business seam easier than it was and look to good to pass on, I got caught up in that.

Steep Competition

SMART Telecom was just a drop in an already large ocean.

Uganda has a population of over 35 million. When I joined, SMART had only 5,000 active registered clients. MTN had12 million, Airtel had 6 million.

Two months after I took on Distribution, two new companies joined the market: Vodafone and SMILE.

From the Ground up

I started this company with one operations manager and two office clerks. Within a year we grew with 15 Ambassadors and over 100 freelancers.

Other companies pay more attention on blank commissions while we have moulded our commission scheme to make it lucrative to work your way up in the company.

We reward loyalty!

What we did differently

Other telecoms had resources that we could not compete with. Instead of shops inside the malls, it was cost efficient to set up tents all over town in front of those same places.

We empowered our staff by promoting ambassadors who would form their own teams, train, and mentor. When teams grew, they would split and the next strongest member became an ambassador; this boosted moral.

Trainings

We invested in training a core team on every part of the business. They became our ambassadors

Those ambassadors then formed their own teams and conducted their own trainings

Does training work?

Converting a customer is easier said than done. Enough training cannot prepare you for when you are in the field. It has been difficult keeping staff when sales have been low. We have morning briefings with breakfast to encourage staff to get an early start before the heat gets to much, but they still face difficulties.

Lack of Support?

As we started growing, SMART had their own challenges, the company was not growing in the way the directors had predicted.

-Management changed as the company reorganized-The commissions we were originally promised kept fluctuating -The company ran out of funds and was unable to supply marketing materials such as tents, shirts, stickers, posters, and boards.-They received a batch of faulty sim cards which left many of our staff redundant with nothing to sell-Network issues frustrated customers which prompted them throw their simcards.

Progress....SMART has been unable to pay it’s suppliers; we proposed that we would print our own marketing materials and SMART would then reimbursed us in kind. Since then we were able to blanket the city with branding.

We had to make our presence known. Now people have a familiarity with our brand and are tempted to try it.

With better branding, came better employees. People are naturally wanting to work with us.

OutcomeThis story is far from finished. Our company is still to young to judge its success. SMART has told us that we have grown its user base faster than any of its counterparts in neighbouring countries; however, we are yet to enjoy the returns from our investment.

Our Marketing techniques draw crowds; but it is difficult convincing potential customers.

There is promise for this company and with more dedication and investment, things will improve.

If I had to do it all over again...I would have spent more time on the contract I signed with SMART telecom. I should have been compensated for their lack of resources that had a negative affect on my sales.

Employee theft insurance should have been taken from the beginning and there should have been more stringent rules on hiring freelancers.

I am very involved with a few other companies so cannot dedicate as much time as needed. It would have been wise to have brought on a more experienced partner when starting the company.

Overall, there are no regrets; this distribution network I have created will help me promote other products in the future.