For Hamis Ssewagudde Mukasa, the language of commerce was learned long before he founded his first venture. Raised within his family’s electrical supplies enterprise, a second-generation firm serving Uganda’s construction sector, he began absorbing the rhythms of trade at just six years old. What started as childhood observation matured into a comprehensive apprenticeship in supplier relations, customer management, workforce dynamics, capital allocation, and the weight of stewardship that accompanies business ownership.
“This is a business that has transcended from my parents to us now,” Mukasa reflects.
Today, his portfolio stretches far beyond the family legacy. His entrepreneurial trajectory now encompasses agribusiness, foreign exchange, and real estate, while a persistent curiosity for tourism and hospitality continues to shape his broader ambitions. Yet for Mukasa, diversification is not an exercise in accumulation; it is a methodology for accruing wisdom.
“Everything poses its own challenge. And beyond the challenge is the experience that you gather.”
This philosophy underpins his decision to establish HMJ Business Advisory, a consultancy dedicated to start-ups, SMEs, and manufacturers. Mukasa notes that his hands-on experience managing Ugandan enterprises, combined with exposure to business ecosystems in the Middle East, Europe, and Southeast Asia, compelled him to scrutinise local operational models and ask what Ugandan entrepreneurs must change to become more efficient and globally competitive.
“I’ve been asking myself: what does it take for a Ugandan business owner, or an entrepreneur in Uganda to do things the way these international players are doing them?”
His diagnosis begins with systems. Mukasa contends that while businesses obsess over revenue, they frequently neglect the structural architecture required to sustain profitability.
“The immediate problem we face as business owners is profitability. But not because we aren’t making money. Profitability becomes a critical issue precisely because of a lack of systems.”
That insight lies at the core of HMJ Business Advisory. The firm partners with start-ups, SMEs, and manufacturers, but Mukasa describes its methodology as deliberately surgical, zeroing in on each client’s specific constraints rather than offering a diffuse suite of generic services.
“We are laser-focused on the problems of these entities,” he states.
For Mukasa, effective advisory work begins by diagnosing the friction that stalls a business, then collaborating with the owner to engineer systems around that bottleneck. He is especially passionate about ensuring enterprises survive their founders.
“We are trying to ensure that business owners are accountable to themselves and to their businesses. In that process, they are creating systems that will enable their businesses to live beyond the founder.”
This ambition is intimately tied to Mukasa’s conception of generational wealth. He argues that building a business capable of enduring decades demands far more than capital. It requires discipline, patience, delayed gratification, and an unflinching vision.
“It takes discipline, delayed gratification, patience, and vision to build a business that will stand the test of time.”
These values were forged early. Mukasa credits his father with instilling many of the principles he now applies to both business and life. Their relationship has since evolved from a paternal lecture into a peer-to-peer dialogue.
“The biggest lesson for me has been being modest, humble, and honest,” he says.
He still learns from his father, but now the dynamic is reciprocal. “I still learn from him, but the beauty is that I now have a chance to teach him as well. We exchange ideas, we bounce ideas off each other.”
His entrepreneurial philosophy is further sharpened by pursuits outside the boardroom. Mountain climbing, tennis, and golf have each imparted lessons that permeate his professional life. An avid climber until a 2021 injury on Mount Rwenzori, Mukasa gained a profound appreciation for mental fortitude.
“What I’ve learned from mountain climbing is resilience,” he says, describing the sport as an equal test of physical and psychological grit, a reminder of how profoundly the mind governs the body’s endurance.
Tennis, which he has played consistently for years, represents discipline. “Every Thursday, you’ll find me at the tennis court,” he says, noting that he maintains this weekly commitment even when travel or other obligations intervene.
Golf offers a contrasting virtue. “What golf teaches me is patience,” he observes. The unhurried rhythm of walking the course provides him space to reflect, slow down, and engage with others outside the pressures of commerce.
Mukasa’s concern for business extends beyond his own ventures. He acknowledges that one of the primary motivations for founding HMJ was a desire to elevate Ugandan enterprises, particularly in customer experience and productivity.
“It’s a thing of wanting to see my countrymen do better,” he says.
He insists that superior customer service should not be the preserve of large corporations. “I would love to see better customer experience in all our businesses, regardless of size. That is something that can even be achieved at an ordinary corner shop.”
Compliance, in Mukasa’s view, is another non-negotiable pillar of growth. For SMEs pursuing larger contracts or international markets, he argues that proper registration, tax compliance, licensing, and regulatory adherence must be addressed before scaling.
“The number one change, and the most important, is compliance. You can only go so far when you don’t comply.”
He also challenges the pervasive belief that lack of finance is the primary obstacle for SMEs.
“The lack of finance is not the real problem. The real problem is trust.”
For Mukasa, access to capital hinges on whether a business can present evidence that its owners are responsible and accountable. “Most of the time, we don’t have access to these finances because there is no proof of trust.” Proper records, financial discipline, and accountability are therefore not merely administrative formalities; they are the bedrock of credibility.
Technology represents another frontier he urges businesses to embrace. Accounting software, CCTV, biometric systems, and other digital tools, he says, have revolutionised how owners monitor operations and access intelligence. “The role of technology in business is, first and foremost, to ease business processes.” Yet technology must work in concert with governance. “Governance is basically a system of how things are operated,” he explains. For any owner, understanding how authority, responsibility, and information flow through an organisation is essential to maintaining control as the company expands.
Mukasa’s vision for HMJ extends beyond Uganda’s borders. He hopes to expand into East Africa and eventually across the continent, exporting a model anchored in accountability, systemic rigour, and focused advisory.
Perhaps his most profound interest in the future of business, however, lies with the next generation. Mukasa believes parents should introduce children to money and commerce early, rather than shielding them from financial discourse.
“Start them early.”
For a man whose own business education began in childhood, this counsel is as personal as it is professional. Mukasa’s journey has travelled from observing his family’s enterprise at age six, to managing diversified interests, to establishing an advisory firm dedicated to strengthening the foundations of other businesses.
Through all these experiences, one principle recurs: a business should be built to outlive its founder. And for Mukasa, achieving that requires the same qualities he learned from his father: humility, modesty, honesty, discipline, and the patience to construct something truly enduring.
