Second year MUBS student Designing his way to the top

While many of you sit back and wait for graduation, get your respective honors and enter the job market to compete with a thousand other graduates, some few chaps are not waiting for any more time to start-up something that will see them through or probably employ you the graduate. Abraham Ochwo, 2nd year student pursuing a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Economics seems to be on the road to doing just that or is already set to employ those way older than him.

Abraham commonly referred to as “Aba”, as a joke started what he didn’t expect could turn out this big according to the tall lad.
“I started my business in my s6 vacation after getting frustrated with Job hunting”, starts a humble Abraham. “Being a big fan of art, I looked for something durable and highly demanded within my age bracket as a target market and decided to go into apparel print and design, I started by making a few t-shirts for my family and capital for this came from the little savings I had accumulated,” he adds.

After registering quite a success from his little venture, he realized that he can choose to go on and make it big someday or simply let it go. Well he answered to that inner call that made him persevere the more. “It hit me that I could be more creative and broaden sales by widening my market, and with earnings from the few t-shirts I had done for family, I started “Truth creations” which is a branding business and mother company to “Rebel textiles; a label that majors in apparel print and design,” explains Abraham.

The word “Rebel” is affiliated to biblical background and is somewhat a campaign to get young people to “Rebel” against fleshly desires and fight to grow the spirit”, he adds.
To date, Abraham after years of struggle still knows that for any business to keep going, he’s got to continue doing sacrifices henceforth he continues to save and reinvest majority profits back to his business. Abraham attributes his motivation in the struggle to the desire to show the world that with God, anything is achievable and also the love to prove to the young that Job creation yields more than Job hunting.

CHALLENGES

For a young and inexperienced Abraham, the challenges had to come in and when they did, they often used to strike hard but thanks to his perseverance, he soldiered on and has managed to contend a few. He hints on limited capital, overwhelming orders that leave him no choice but to forego them since in most cases because of school schedule that has got to come first as his day to day light challenges. He also adds that the price fluctuations in the economy that drastically affect his profit margin is also a challenge to the tall soft-spoken fellow.
Furthermore, a disgruntled Abraham points out that clients who delay payment making him incur losses and the untimely loss of his laptop are his major setbacks in the hustle.
“My laptop was stolen from my room, it is from it that most of my artwork designs and company blue prints were kept, unfortunately I had not backed up my information”, he adds in sad tone.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Asked about some of his achievements, Abraham with a smile was quick to point out to Campusbee that he was registering increased sales per month and that the label is also growing tremendously. With this, he can ably cater for his own upkeep bills and also plough more into the business as he seeks to re-invest and expand with time to come. “Most of the money I make is re-invested into the business for expansion and a small amount, I use to facilitate my up keep needs,” denotes a jovial Ochwo.

After an effortless inquiry of how much he earns from his hustle, Campusbee learnt that Abraham’s earnings vary in accordance to how big the order is and what a client wants.

His t-shirts range from shs25,000 to shs30,000 accordingly, sweat pants go for shs40,000 and wrist bands are shs4,000.

Asked how he balances the hustle and campus, Aba hinted that he always sees to it that he attends his lectures which end at midday and the rest of the days and time after lectures he pays attention to his work. “I can have time to work, towards tests and exams, I delegate work to other producers who can deliver in such a way that we both benefit from an order”, adds Abraham.

Ochwo Abraham alias Aba is a God-fearing, tall, outgoing and an open minded person who welcomes every idea in respect to success. Visit is page Rebel Textiles on Facebook for details. God Bless your hustle, Campusbee Uganda wishes you well in your endeavors.