How to create a successful online business in Uganda

In Uganda, is known for unemployment despite contributing a bigger number of literate graduates every year. As a result, many youths have turned into entrepreneurs doing several types of businesses each day and the biggest percentage are seen doing small enterprises.

Starting businesses is simple and most people have started up several businesses including retails business, Agri-businesses and fintech companies have been established. Unfortunately, these businesses (35%) are not seen operative in the next six months of operations due to challenges that encounter small businesses in Uganda including heavy taxation imposed on them by the government.

Have you started online business yet?

Online businesses are emerging on the highest percentage because they do not require a lot of inputs like offices, or warehouses. In fact these business can be operated even by a single person from home or a group of committed people. Online businesses needs the business owners and clients are able to communicates, transact  and practice entirely online. In Uganda, the culture of online businesses gradually developed in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Online Businesses in Uganda include Jumia.ug, Soft Hostings and major ecommerce stores and these operate 24/7. There simple steps needed to start online businesses in Uganda, you need to set up social media, website for your businesses and advertising online

How can we then make a successful online business in Uganda?

• Proper planning; The first step in creating any idea, project or business is planning properly, you need to first find out the steps needed to start and operate business, regulations and how to pitch into clients. When you properly plan for business, you can be assured of the objectives and this helps an entrepreneur to understand the culture of his or her business before launching the project. You should first create  a business plan, action plan and marketing plan before anything. Planning include decision making on which software to use in the business.
• Get online; After deciding, and creating a business plan, next step is to take the idea online, this includes setting a business website and mobile application for your business, social media. The website or mobile application, should be appealing because this is the store for your business and potential clients will be seeing your website first before they decide to purchase your items or services. You can use free themes to build your own website and the whole website can cost you cheaply UGX500,000 while using Soft Hostings as the leading technology company in Uganda providing cheap software development that meets your business needs. You can book this online service here
• Marketing; Setting up online business means setting in to billions of clients online. However, millions of businesses are competing for online space and this means you should be able to do both social media marketing and buying adspace from Google Ads, the most popular advertising online tool in the world with millions of publishers every day and this means providing you are good at SEO practices, you can reach potential clients easily willing to take in your services and products. Social media is also a great tool for online businesses than need to increase brand awareness.
• Provide technical support; Clients find it difficult to purchase online because they may not be in position to purchase items from products  and services from other brands especially new brands. This can be solved when there is a technical team responsible to provide technical support and service/product inquiries. Appnomu have a 24/7 technical support team providing technical support and product support. You can as well set up a blog to help clients, find more help while they read about your products.
• Employ the culture of reviews; When it comes online, clients will first look for reviews from existing clients. Many companies now accept businesses to register so that clients and employees can review them to improve transparency in the industry of ecommerce. G2 and Trustpilot are the most used platforms for business reviews and most clients will first read the reviews before purchasing. Google my business also gives the clients an opportunity to review business. You can use these reviews to improve your products and services, make sure you respond to all reviews from the review sources so that you can rank well and keep customers engaged.
• Communication; Yeah, it’s online and means clients are not able to have physical interaction with business owners or employees. However, keep the communication flowing, you can send them a weekly email, notices, SMS and post about your promotions and news in your businesses on your social media platforms. At Appnomu, we have a blog with 723 daily users and all these find useful articles to use our services and how they can help the business. Keep ahead of your competitors by communicating with your customers.
• Seek Financial support; It is good to increase the revenue of your business by putting in your maximum effort and resources, you can get your business a loan from Appnomu Business Services and help boost your business ideas and reach more goals.

Following the above, can help both existing businesses and new businesses to operate and be successful. We also  provide instant loans to individuals and business owners in Uganda in less than 24 hours,

To get our loans, simply you need to register with us and follow the guideline, T o register, Signup here