Nannozi quit well-paying job to start cleaning company

Having felt the need to try out something new, Victoria Nannozi thought of doing something away from being a social worker at Makerere University Joint AIDs Programme.

“Having been working in a formal employment, I reached a point where I felt it was time to start my own company,” Nannozi says of her beginning.

Before quitting, she had a lot of ideas in her head including doing transport business and before taking a decision on what to do, she asked her brother to help her out with a business plan.

“In the end, when he sent me the plan, it was for a cleaning business. I then started Nissi Classic Cleaners Limited in 2013 as a laundry service in Mukono town,” she says.

According to Nannozi, she went for the laundry business because she realized many students at Mukono based Uganda Christian University were yearning for laundry services and the business was located on the road to the university used by many students.

 “The laundry shop mainly served university students and people who resided and worked in Mukono but found it tedious to do laundry on their own. I employed one person to do the laundry but also be at the shop,” she says.

The laundry business kept going strong until 2015 when Nannozi realized it was time to dive into deeper waters and consequently started a fully-fledged cleaning business.

“Two years later, I felt like there were people struggling with balancing both home and office. They needed someone to help offer cleaning services in their home,” she says.

Social media

Nannozi says that in a bid to get clients, she made use of social media where she advertised aggressively to attract the attention of the members of the public.

This paid off when she got her first client through Facebook.

“I continued marketing on social media platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp among others. I also started walking around people’s homes asking to clean for them but also placed flyers and stickers on cars and other public places,” she says.

In 2018, Nannozi’s company, Nissi Classic Cleaners Limited ventured into the cleaning of offices, and the Center for the Girl Child, an NGO in Ntinda was their first client.

They have never looked back. Currently, the company employs six permanent staff and others on a case-by-case basis depending on the amount of work.

Nissi Classic Cleaners Limited has also been able to offer cleaning, disinfection and pest control services to offices, institutions, hospitals, and factories throughout the country.

Challenges

Just like all work, cleaning people’s offices and homes is not a walk in the park as many think, Nannozi says people’s attitude towards cleaning work needs to change.

“People haven’t yet appreciated cleaning services. They think it is something very simple and that it can be done by everyone. Because of this, they don’t value the work we do, yet it is very tedious and by the time someone calls a cleaner, a lot of dirt has built up in their home or office.  There are also many health risks involved. I compare our work to that to health workers who work in hazardous and risky environments,” Nannozi says.

“In Uganda, the cleaning business is not yet appreciated and therefore not good offers are being given. My appeal to everyone and potential customers is to appreciate cleaners and give them due respect.”

Then there is the challenge of a shortage of reliable workers.

“In a cleaning business sometimes you don’t have work on a daily basis. If you for example spend a week without work, the people you worked with the previous week will get into other businesses and are not readily available when you need them,” she says.

She says cleaning work requires a lot of perseverance, patience, knowing your customers, marketing, networking and continuously being creative to beat the competition.

Proud

Despite the challenges, Nannozi says she is proud of what she has achieved with her cleaning company in the past few years.

“It is something I am passionate about and since I have seen it grow from one level to another is a major motivation. I have educated my daughter using money from the cleaning business.

“In the next five years, my company should be a household name in all homes and offices as the biggest cleaning company in Uganda,” she says.

Nannozi also has some advice for the youth.

 “The youth have so many opportunities ahead of them and life. What matters are the choices they make right now. They should make sure the choices they make are not ones they will regret in future,” she advises.

“The best time to start anything is now when you are young and can accommodate failure. Focus on something and nurture it until it grows to where you will be able to benefit from it.”