Entrepreneur of the Week;Solomon Nsereko

This week’s entrepreneur of the week is Solomon Nsereko, from Research Moguls.

Solomon Nsereko at the One-On-One Mentorship matching event in 2010

Solomon is an alumnus from the Mara Foundation One-on-One Mentorship Program and a current member of the Mara Launchpad.

Together with Daphne Byonabye, a friend of his, he started the business in August 2007. They started out as a purely research consultancy, operating mainly as a briefcase entity, but later developed to include Monitoring and Evaluation of Small to Medium sized entities with a regional Associate consultant database.

Solomon joined the Mara Entrepreneur Mentorship program in its first cycle in 2010 with Mr. Erastus Kibungu, the Executive Director of TechnoServe, as his mentor.

“The event was very successful and I am glad that I got Solomon to mentor. I want to see him succeed and hope that he will benefit from my experience as a management and private sector development consultant,” Said Mr. Erastus Kibungu

He joined the program in order to identify the specific source of the problems affecting the firm, with the help of a mentor. He also hoped to identify avenues to increase incomes and on the advice from his mentor on expanding their scope of work, they have already received potential business.

He also sought a mentor in order to set up internal operational structures and are currently in the process of searching for people to fill at least two places.

 Having a mentor introduced him to a few simple but important things to consider when going into consultancy.

His mentor also showed him the proper setup and attitude he would need in order to thrive and last in the industry. “The client begins evaluating you, your ability to deliver and what price is acceptable, right from the entrance of your business, so keep a professional yet cordial environment amongst your staff and the way you work.” remarked Solomon.

Solomon was also encouraged by Mr. Erastus because his story of setting up in Uganda also had undertones of a humble, hotel room-coffee shop meetings and they are now a force to reckon with.

“Erastus also introduced me to client call back, meetings with clients outside the office and this has led to repeat business at times with higher profit margins” said Solomon.

In addition, through the mentorship program, they were able to meet other mentees who have helped them in regards to contacts (for example Blegscope).

From mentioning that they were mentees with the Mara Foundation on their facebook page, they received TOR from the Uganda National Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors (UNABCEC).

With its offices at the Mara Launchpad, Research Moguls, which was only based in Kampala stretched out its area of operation to include Rwanda by opening offices in Kigali at the end of 2012.