Aisha Ganda is a 24-year-old unique graduate of Kampala International University with a Diploma in Business Administration and a founder of Snacks 4 U.

She started her business (Snacks 4 U) while at the university in 2017, making healthy crunchy products like pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, groundnuts, soybean, peanut butter, daddies, hard corn, cookies among others that she sells and delivers across Kampala and neighbouring towns. 

After going through tough times at University that required to apply for a dead year because her father could not raise tuition, it was the moment that triggered her to start up a business idea that could raise her finances and also help the community.

“That was a final wake up call. My Dad was the breadwinner but he had to undergo spinal surgery,” Ganda says.

She adds that “Instead of applying for a dead year. I applied for a loan from a friend and paid my tuition which I cleared later after making some money. Luckily I was given a helping hand by my cousin which also enabled me to start up.”

Ganda says that she only needed 20, 000 shs to start up her business which she got from her transport savings while at University.

She started with Chapattis and Samosas selling them to University students but later changed to snacks because chapattis could easily go bad and yet she was required to be in class by 8 am.

“Because my father had health-related issues, and snacks like pumpkin seeds and Chia seeds could help improve his health that inspired me to use them to earn while helping my father,” she says.

Although the business started slow, Ganda says that by the time it made its first anniversary, she was earning around 500,000 shillings in monthly profit.

She states that after University, she got a formal job which she later dropped because of her love for self-employment.

“I invested part of my savings into my business which helped me boost the business,” she says.

Despite the challenges caused by COVID-19, Ganda thought it out and decided to take her business online. By creating online platforms on Facebook and Twitter, she was able to make her business known and also continue getting clients, albeit online orders too. 

“If I am not in the field, I spend like 6 hours on the internet marketing my products on my social media pages and developing content,” Aisha narrates.

Ganda believes that although times get tough and you are let down, what counts is the number of times you muster the courage to get back up and keep fighting. 

It is because of this belief that she has kept on persevering and doing her work even in these tumultuous times for everyone.

She advises that the best time to start up any venture is as soon as you think of the business idea.

Picture credit: kiu.ac.ug