A revealing session with Devine Asako and Angela Asako of EJC Consulting.

Shandie: Hey Angella, Devine. Ready to do this?

Angella : Speaking for the both of us…we had to prepare for this one. 

Shandie: Yeyyy, let’s get started. Tell us a little about yourselves.

Devine: I’m Devine Asalo, a social development expert career wise but extremely passionate about women and girl child empowerment which combines both my career and EJC that majorly highlights customer service.
Looking at it, customer service is basically an employment avenue for ladies countrywide. So I feel like it ties across a lot and I try to link my career, gender , development with our business which is EJC Consulting that merges both.

When it comes to EJC we also offer consulting services so personally I’m looking forward to focusing solely on growing EJC and maybe cease work.

Shandie: I think that’s everybody’s dream, getting out of employment and just focusing on your business. What about you, Angella?

Angella: I’m Angella Asako, I’m a business partner when it comes to EJC. Devine has covered what we do so I’ll share something personal from my side.
I’m a business development, customer service enthusiast with vast training and experience in sales and marketing in the retail sector. I’m also a MOM.

Shandie: Awww, hey mama, so when did you start EJC?

Angella: Last year, 2022. That’s when we registered the business and everything major. It took us quite a while to stop talking about it and just do it. We used to do a lot of team leading at our jobs and really couldn’t get time to just do it. That aside there’s something about the way we were brought up that imprinted service and hospitality in our lives.

Shandie: So on behalf of people who like talking about starting and just never getting to it, I’d love to congratulate you. Starting a business is never easy, I know you’re literally in that battle alone and despite the number of people who give you advice, at the end of the day it’s you who’s got to push yourself. 

What was that moment where you woke up and was like YEP, it’s got to be done?

Angella: Actually I think what pushed both of us is that we somehow ended up out of jobs at the same time. It’s got to be timing. 

Devine: It’s also around the time that we went through something we couldn’t have easily shaken ourselves out of and weren’t in the right headspace for employment. Plus there wasn’t much to do at work seeing it was during COVID / lockdown. The idling and mental uncertainties make you want to immerse yourself in something that would incentivize you to get stuff done. That’s when we miraculously left our jobs at the same time.

Seeing we had been talking about EJC for a while, this was a window and we jumped right through it.

Angella: To add to what Devine just said, because of the time you don’t want to go back to work before you’ve started.

A 9-5 will take the biggest part of the day. So it’s better to get your business off the ground when you’re not committed to something else. 

Shandie: My take is that timing was on your side.

Devine: Like Angella hinted at earlier, there was a boom in the service industry after covid. New bars, boutiques, hotels and restaurants and many people looking for employment who might have possibly been laid off and new to service industry jobs.

So the opportunity was right there.

Shandie: It’s not always easy to run a business with family members, how are you handling it?

Angella: First of all, for this particular business we share the passion and vision. Being sisters aside, we share the same vision and passion for this company.

The second thing is that we are quite close-knit so we don’t struggle with dependability, transparency and accountability which are the things that fuel a partnership and are qualities where if you falter a partnership will sink whether you’re family or not.

Devine: She has put it perfectly!

Shandie: I agree. What do you think has been your biggest failure as individuals who are running a business, pursuing this and that. I think mine has a lot to do with consistency. 

Devine: I strongly don’t agree with the word failure, it should be weakness. To be honest, when I was younger I always told myself that I need to get to a certain age and be my own boss. Looking at it right now, that isn’t a failure because now I do have a business and I just need to work on reaching the set milestones.

Shandie: Let’s talk about common myths in the customer service and social development sector. 

Angella: When it comes to customer service I have quite a few to debunk:

• First Myth – The customer is always right.

A customer can’t always be right.

An example is someone asking for a samosa and on getting it they go on to say they’d have appreciated a donut. Truth is a customer isn’t always right because they do not always know what they want. What’s important is that we listen to them and feel their pain points.

Devine: I think the customer is king actually works better because they are the reason a business exists and progresses. 

We all know how some people are and that’s why we emphasize during our training sessions  that the service provider should know what they are offering at heart. 

• Second Myth – You can’t always say yes.

Always have the intuition to draw the line. Serving customers doesn’t need you to just go with whatever the client is asking for. 

Shandie: We would love another myth in relation to social development.

Devine: Our social development work mostly shades light on gender integration into company policies so we mostly work with NGOs. So one of our common myths is that when you talk about gender people conclude you’re talking about women. 

The challenge we are trying to solve is to make sure that both women and men have equal access to available opportunities. For Example we still have companies that hire men just because women get pregnant and they see the maternity leave as a threat. Here’s some clarification:

• Gender equity means giving an extra push to the disadvantaged.
• Gender equality means being fair to both sexes.

Perfect example would be the football ads where the father and son are watching soccer.

Gender equity here would have been the dad giving the son a block or chair to stand on so that they’d both watch the match. 

Shandie: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in your careers?

Angella: To never lose thyself. 

• There were days I used to work in Entebbe and it was only on my days off that I would make time for my friends till I decided that I won’t drown myself like that. 

The fact of life is that when people don’t see you they’ll slowly forget about you!

Don’t drown yourself in work, building a business that you forget there’s life to live out there.

Devine: Allow me piggyback on that. We lost our dad recently and he loved life so much for it to have been cut short. So yes, it’s important to build your career, make loads of money but there are little joys out there to celebrate. You always have to ask yourself:

• Who are you impacting?
• Who are you doing business with?
• Who are you sharing your happiness with?

That’s why we dived into this line of business, it’s more about how you can impact someone positively.

Shandie: What’s something you’d tell a 21 year old you?

Devine: Honestly I don’t think I’d change much if I had a chance to change anything in my life. 

Angella: For me it would be to speak up more. I went through my employment career with good ideas but very reserved.

The fear to outshine or offend anybody held me back those days.

Shandie: What’s your favorite productivity hack?

Mine has to be google calendar. My time with Pearls for Her has really taught me so much when it comes to scheduling and planning.

Devine: My friends call me British. I do this a lot with friends I don’t see often, I send them invites for dinner.

Angella: Mine bids into yours, Shandie. To prioritize your tasks you need to “Calendize” your list.

Delegate as much as possible. If you work with a team it’s important to let the team help you. which brings me to the 80/20 rule that emphasizes focusing on the 20% of the tasks that will yield 88% of the results. 

Example:

You have a high networth client and 50 more whose money is less so you give more time to the client with more mileage. 

Devine: Just to add something on delegation, I’ve found that I’ve enjoyed working at jobs where collaboration and delegation are the policy. Someone learning something from you is quite motivating.

Oh, I also really like music in my ears when i work. 

Shandie: I like that one.

So, this next one is something I struggle with especially when it comes to unpaid personal stuff and balancing that with my job. I’ll go with Angella first because MOM IS KEY..HOW DO YOU HAVE AN EFFECTIVE MOM, WIFE,  LIFE & WORK BALANCE?

Angella: It goes back to having consistent relationships, for my case when it comes to my son I have a reliable nanny and I’ve had her for 4 years. To any mom out there if you treat your person well she won’t leave you.

I can go away for a week and trust her implicitly to take care of my son.

That and a strong support system to fall back on say family, in laws. 

Lastly, set and stick to your boundaries, if you’ve planned to do something with the family on weekends don’t forego that to go to work unless it’s a matter of life or death.

Devine: My dynamics are a bit different because I have no child and you know with these relationships of ours sometimes it comes off as if you have a child. But picking from the years and experience where you’d party without a limit or committing to work and missing out on other things somehow I managed to come to a point where adulting kicked in.

So now me & my circle started incorporating our professional life and friendships, so we make sure one doesn’t limit you from the other!  

Now we attend these financial and business coaching sessions with a lady named Monica Kasirye and they happen on Saturdays so we are committed to attending. We go out to dinner on Fridays, get drunk or what not but make sure you have some productive conversations ongoing.

Always find platforms that can help you grow yourself in some way. Just because you party with them doesn’t mean you can’t talk about business. No, no!

I believe that everybody’s in our life for a reason especially if you see it as a for life friendship. 

Use the platform or pick ideas from your tribe, everybody has something different they can teach you, build connections / network.

Shandie: You’ve mentioned attending women supporting women with your circle,  please share with our readers about women who have made a difference and you look up.

Devine: Like you asked earlier on about how we are able to work together as family members, we had the best example growing up and that’s our mom. It’s without a doubt. 

As we grew up we would go to people’s houses and on tasting their food we would be like how come this food tastes different and this is because we grew up on our mother’s cooking and it was always the best.

When you relate this to the social development side, she’s a gender expert and has done this all her life. She’s that mother who’d always talk about her job consistently and indulge us in her field trips or take us to her workplace so at a very young age we would be attending her training sessions and I think along the way we picked up some boldness to pursue the same path and train people. 

Angella: I have a unique one, my super woman is Racheal of The Coterie Book Cafe. When you look at her and the things she’s accomplished while maintaining her friendships, relationships and family being an ordinary person you wouldn’t believe it.
Honestly I’d need another interview to talk about her. 

Devine: I totally agree. I have a friend who’s also into tax like Rachael and one day he comes and tells me Rachael’s starting some classes for international law and being a bit puzzled I ask which Rachael. I asked myself how Rachael is going to have the time to teach people with an 8-5 and 3 other businesses to run!! 

She’s very admirable and when you meet her she’s present so I hope there are many women out there doing what she’s doing and as effortlessly as possible. You find women who wear stress on their face but when you find Racheal, she makes you want to be her.

Angella: Also, it’s important to keep it realistic. Find inspiration that’s close to home. 

Devine: But seeing that this is a Pearls for Her interview, I tend to envy women who bring people together. We are all ordinary people but for one to be out there and think about doing something in regards to networking and helping women thrive is quite IT. So big up to Rowena and people like her. 

They don’t owe anybody anything and it’s not like they’re starting a business because they aren’t looking for money.

Angella: To start a business that advances other people directly. That’s the sole purpose of Pearls for Her, to advance female owned businesses. That right there is something that’s really inspirational!

Shandie: If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island with your human needs such as water and food taken care of, which two items would you want with you?

Angella: Peace of mind really. That would keep me going. 

Devine: Huh!…A gadget with music, I like some sound in my ears. 

Shandie: I’d only need entertainment.

With that, we’d like to thank you for giving us the time. It was a pleasure.