After completing university, Mushabe, 34, ventured into web hosting as a reseller and started Hostalite Ltd with one client who paid Shs 120,000. He says he started web hosting because of the desire to have repetitive income because clients must renew their domains annually. After one year, he rebranded and embarked on vigorous advertising and marketing through social media and media swaps with the newspapers and magazines and invested in owning data centres and servers. Since 2010, his business has grown from hosting one website to 800 with each paying in the range of Shs 80,000 to Shs 2.5 million per year. He employs 12 people and currently has assets worth almost Shs 1 billion. His company was selected among 30 in Uganda to benefit from the three year Netherlands Trust Fund. “Since we work in the cloud, it is practical and if you do it well, you will make money,” says Mushabe, adding that 70 percent of their clients come through referrals by happy clients.
Tip to success: Empower clients and employees
“I need people to grow the company so I have trained and empowered my team. I do not have to be there all the time for work to be done. Also, he empowers his clients to be able to update their websites with fresh information or quality content or else lose out to stiff competition. He also helps employees to plan for their future. “I tell them that excitement you had when getting the contract should be the same when delivering a client’s work, with quality in mind,” he says.