How TUKOLE works in real life
If you rent or own a home, lease a car, buy gas every week, go out to eat, do grocery shopping bi-weekly, or clothes shop seasonally, you are the market. Big companies pay millions of dollars to harvest the data and habits that we display every day; a micro group like “Ugandans in Dallas” is a marketer's dream. We all live within a drivable distance from each other and are growing on a daily basis. Within us we have business owners, students, corporate professionals, entrepreneurs, stay at home parents; members of every social, economic and religious class. What really binds us together is the that we all arrived from Uganda onto the US soil with the promise of realizing the American dream; something we were told to expect if we worked hard and stayed out of trouble. We were conditioned to expect bigger returns in the US than back home because of access to better education, world class public services and general advancement. Most of us now see that that narrative is shifting; it is not easy to rise out of poverty to wealth in one generation. It is very difficult to be financially secure and own your own property or make substantial investments as an individual. The fruit of financial stability is rooted in cooperation over competition. A Ugandan restaurant frequented by Ugandans to help the bottom line can expand with that capital base to compete in the general population while providing jobs to us. This restaurant would work hard to provide the service we can appreciate. We can influence the market to serve us because we work hard for the money. We all work together for the betterment of each other. It will be the same plan for a car wash, space facility or even nursing home. The formula is the same.
As you can see the ideas are endless, the market is available, and the capital would not be an issue; all it takes is the willingness of most of us to really put our buying power where our intention is. It is not an entirely complicated plan, but it takes a lot of work, diligence and cooperation. We need to understand the businesses we already have in our community; to move forward, we need to review what has been already achieved. The first step to organization is compiling a directory of businesses in our community. This is a task that Ntare Consulting is taking on with Tukole 2019. We need to harness the power of our community and use this to propel the businesses already in place. These firms are the pioneers of this movement and with our feedback, they can improve their services in order to be more competitive in the general market. With our support, we can enhance a company by increasing their sales, increasing their presence online, showing them where they are missing the mark and what products, or services are in demand. We will be favored with jobs, good will and good quality products powered by our own dollars. It is the equivalent of a dedicated focus group that pays for their services, provides honest feedback and benefits from their success.
I hope we all see the vision and monumental task ahead of us. It will be a real pleasure to group together and take on some of the issues we face as a community. Just like we handle all the other issues such as sickness, births, birthdays and even death; we can get together and see how to improve our day to day life; maybe not even just for ourselves but for the future generation.
