Christine Namubiru Mutebi has always been fascinated with African crafts and fabrics to the point that she used to purchase African crafts from a friend’s mother who owned a shop at National Theater and would sell them to fellow students at Uganda Martyrs’ University Nkozi.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management, the 25-year-old who also harbored ambitions of running her own business with longtime friend Gilbert Opolot tried to come up with different business ideas but none resonated intrinsically with them.
However, one afternoon while Gilbert was driving, he noticed his palms were sweating and the combination of the sweat and the steering wheel made it uncomfortable for him to drive. He shared his sentiment with Christine and the two realized there were lots of other people experiencing the same problem; this needed a solution.
They decided to make steering wheel covers from African print since they had not seen any in the market. Fired up by the idea, they stormed Gilbert’s sister-in-law who is a tailor and asked her to make them a sample. She did and it turned out beautiful but uncomfortable since it was just a double sided cloth and the driver could feel the hardness of the steering wheel while driving.
Gilbert showed the cover to his guardian who was so impressed with it that he didn’t want to give it back. This was the point where it hit them that they could actually make a sound business out of this.
“We were like we can start there, we can make many of these and get guys on the road to sell them. But we needed to improve some stuff. We need to have some more layer and lining to make it comfortable and classy”.
They pooled together their capital, which was Shs100,000 each and embarked on a search for a new tailor who would be able to produce in bulk. It was not long before they found one who not only understood and believed in their vison but agreed to work for them and be paid after they made sales. They got to work and produced 50 pieces ready for sale. However, on the night before the much anticipated introduction to the market, Christine’s sister advised them not to go ahead with the planned sale but instead first add more value to the steering wheel covers, warning they risked having them duplicated due to their simplicity.
They took her advice, went back to the drawing board, brainstormed ideas about value addition and at the end, they settled on doing a set of 4 headrests and a steering wheel cover which their tailor successfully produced.
This was followed by a trip to Nasser road where they got paper bags, shopped around for a graphics designer who created for them a logo, printed and attached it to the paper bags. They dressed their parents’ cars with their products, took pictures and created social media accounts where they posted them.
“The first day we posted on Twitter, Josephine Karungi saw a set, actually our very first post and she was like I’ve seen this and I want it, I was so excited”.
They made the delivery, Josephine tweeted about it and immediately they got a second and third client. They nodded and toasted to being in business finally.
The duo then approached different clients including celebrities but they didn’t get positive feedback and were faced with a lot of deadstock which dampened their spirits but if any thing, didn’t break their resolve to succeed at all costs.
“We never gave up because we had faith in our vision”.
However, after a while one of their first clients got in touch with them and suggested they design his car seats and interior too because they looked ugly compared to his steering wheel cover and headrests. It was not long before other clients followed suit with the same concern. They had a problem here once again and it needed to be solved. After several trials and errors, they got a tailor who did a perfect job incorporating the new clients suggestions. The clients loved the work. Business boomed once again and since then, they have never looked back.
1620 Footsteps is an upholstery company that makes custom made furniture, office and car interior, but their flagship product is car interior design, seat covers, headrest and steering wheel covers. Much as they make amazing products, they mostly want to be known for the experience they provide their clients.
“When the customer makes an order, they get to experience the opportunity of transforming their personal space into something that they would want it be so they are always directly involved in the selection of the materials, its colors and design”.
Christine admits they had a rocky start but immediately after they hit the one year milestone, orders started flocking in together with international media attention. The BBC is one of the international TV stations that have featured them in an interview.
Three years down the road, 1620 has registered a number of achievements, with Christine pointing out the most notable ones being their ability to grow without giving up, building a credible brand, opening up their own workshop in Wandegeya, paying their 6 permanent employees a comfortable salary, widening her network by meeting people she didn’t know she would ever have worked with. Additionally she has experienced personal growth and prides herself in her ability to offer guidance to her friends who are starting up businesses.
However, they are far from comfortable.
“We are not where we want to be, we are still building ourselves, figuring out stuff. We are still making sacrifices in terms of money and saying you know what I can afford to buy a new car but no my business maybe needs a new sewing machine, my team needs more money, I need to pay them more because when I pay them more they are going to be more inspired.”
Money was a great challenge while starting out and their inability to carry out thorough research on customer needs and the different fabrics options in the market cost them a few disgruntled customers and losses but they managed to step in in time and salvage the situation by redoing the work and ensuring the customers leave with a huge grin on their faces. The lessons were carried.
“You have to learn what your clients want because if you don’t know what they want then you can’t give it to them so we had to learn to listen”.
Some clients also didn’t embrace their products right away because they were not enthusiastic about the African fabrics so they decided to incorporate new fabrics like leather to accommodate them and additionally they faced a huge location challenge initially as their tailor was not happy with the place they had shifted to because he felt lonely so they had to compromise and move to a place near their former place.
“If he is not happy, the work will not be good”.
Christine’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs:
- Don’t compare your journey.
“Don’t despise the small beginnings because not everyone will start big so don’t compare yourself to other people’s success. Everyone has their own story, some people might have other people pushing them and others might not but then if you believe in what you are trying to achieve, work hard towards it and believe in God then you will most definitely achieve.” - Surround yourself with people who are supportive.
“Even though they might not be able to afford your products as long as they believe in you and they can give you objective feedback about your products, encourage you and spread the word. Before we were able to sell any products, we built a small community of people who would always share our work whenever we posted them online even if they were not buying, the more they kept on sharing, the more other people saw them.” - Appreciate the small successes.
“Sometimes you might set your goals so high like ‘I will be happy when I have that big house or car’ but then you miss out on the small successes like maybe a client coming back to you. Those small successes can build up and can make you happy in business.” - Competition will always be there, embrace it.
“It’s about how you do it, how you stand out from the crowd and how you treat the people. Clients are going to come back to you because of the way you treat them, the quality of your work and the experience they get with you that they are not going to get anywhere else.” - Have an open mind towards partnerships.
“You can spot someone who is already doing what you are doing but lack the capacity that you have, partner with them if you have the same vision, improve each other and grow as a team. That way you can all exist in the same business, they are making money, you are making money and you are all happy”.
