My money my time

One cannot stop wondering why some companies cannot leave up to the expectations of their customers. They come up with promotions that do not live up to their billing. Stiff competition in the Ugandan telecom sector has put service providers in a catch 22 situation. Each is trying to come up with innovations that can keep current customers and entice new ones.

This has seen many persuasive and misleading advertisements all over the place. Most noble of these is the Mobile money service. Almost all telecom service providers jumped onto the band wagon of mobile money services. However, what managers do not mind about is the quality of services provided to their customers. Imagine failing to withdraw money to get you out of a difficult situation just because the network is down. Most annoying of all is that it can be off when you want to make a withdraw but OK when making a deposit.

It is not the companies' priority to see that their mobile money service reach all places in the country. So it it no wonder going to a region and you fail to notice presence of mobile money dealers of some companies. The telecoms leave it to local business people who have interest to invest in their mobile money franchise. What infuriates even further is that you can not check your mobile money balance or access the service if you have zero balance on your main airtime account. There is a growing trend of encouraging payment of utility bills like electricity and water

through mobile money service. But with the network down-times i do not think it will be very efficient. For example,imagine your DSTV subscription expiring while watching your favorite program on Discovery, you decide to resubscribe through mobile money but network is down! My telecom service provider says you can even purchase airtime using your mobile money account. What this company does not reveal is that you cannot use that service if you have zero airtime balance. That means that if you ran out of airtime in the middle of an important phone call, your mobile money balance cannot salvage the situation since you can not access the mobile money service with zero air time balance.

Affiliate Marketing growing

The current generation of Ugandans is growing at par with current trends in the global business environment. Affiliate marketing is currently one of the fastest employment opportunities taking root in the country. This is mainly being done on a part-time basis and some have taken it on on a full-time basis.One can easily continue with his regular job while carrying on his affiliate marketing on the side and earn some extra cash.

Affiliate marketing is being appreciated in Uganda because it presents many benefits which traditional employment opportunities do not. These may include being one's own boss,flexibility, cheap start-up and the ability to take on more than one affiliate marketing program at the same time. Some of the most common affiliate programs operating in Uganda include.GNLD, Forever Living, Q-Net, SFI, Triple Clicks and many others. Also some pyramid schemes had started operating but were banned by the government after reports that they were schemes which were dwindling money from unsuspecting people.

The growth in affiliate marketing in Uganda can be linked to factors like easy start-up, since capital is the biggest hindrance to entrepreneurship in the country. This is because some affiliate marketing programs require no capital like SFI. One's participation and commitment are the only requirements to succeed in affiliate marketing. One has to create a big network of friends from whom he can get potential prospects to join his team.

On the other hand, this type of business is not for those who want to realise quick returns on their investment. One's commitment and participation in the program determines how returns are realised. It is only after one has mastered the art that he rests and beginning earning from his team's participation in the program. One of the major hindrance which deter many Ugandans from joining affiliate marketing programs is that they can never be sure of how much returns they will realise from their investment.

Affiliate marketing can easily be done by word of mouth among friends, peers and family. Other programs are carried out on the internet especially with the growth in social media usage.