With so much love and passion for photography, Daaki Joshua www.daakijoshua.com started his career as a young photographer whilst pursuing his business course at university! He started as a studio photographer and he could easily access cameras to practice.
“At that time, I was just a business student with no professional Job. So, when back at home, I started to use my free time to play with my photos and make simple graphic designs then later posted them on social media. Then friends started saying, I could make a great graphic designer! This was a great learning process for me to discover the hidden skills in me and learning what else I can do! I never minimised this feedback and complements from friends and people I met, I started looking for serious works around town, growing my portfolio, and started asking clients to pay for my services”
Despite the fact that he had no qualifications in design and photography, he was determined to learn and research continuously! Joshua has now tested over 6 careers in the past 4 years and the most exciting thing is that he has managed to learn a lot from the trials that have always come along his journey.
He has been able to grow because he tried, discovered and learnt! He is currently running a growing youth led network called The Hangout UG that empowers young people through small entrepreneurship workshops and community networking events and is founder of a digital marketing and web hosting business >>back link to www.thegrowthoffice.com/about.
Daaki is also working as business growth consultant for Balloon Ventures and has just finished running a Citi Bank entrepreneurship programme called Citi Volunteer Africa, working with 24 Citi Bankers from around the world to innovate, grow and support local businesses in Jinja and Mbale!
“Now across all my projects and jobs, I use my skills in graphic design, photography, influencer marketing, web design and business design to create outstanding results, drive business and personal growth. The skills I learnt have helped me to become an all-in-one go-to marketing specialist, my graphic design and photography has eased my branding projects and social media marketing.” he says.
Daaki also adds that Just like any other growing business, it has not been a straight way up to where he is now. “I have experienced a lot of challenges along the way! Despite the fact that Branding, Photography and Graphic Design is now key to the growth of any business or project, it is still among the most undermined careers! Most of the companies greatly overlook this service and therefore they are not always willing to pay us our worth. This greatly affected my progress given the fact that there many people who are offering cheap works!”
Delayed payment is one of the other challenges that Joshua has continuously faced. Since most businesses won’t pay upfront, there are higher chances that many will take their time to pay after receiving the services. Being a young person, Josh gets quit a big number of support requests from friends who are trying to start new projects.
“Sometimes I feel they take me for granted, I feel they come to me because they only want my skillset and not because they really want to work with me genuinely” – Josh says he has been disappointed by many people, but nevertheless this has not stopped him from meeting and working with new people every day! I’m passionate about supporting young people, and I want us to thrive together. I have walked the same road that many young people are walking through, so I understand what they go through; low finances, disappointments, lack of enough resources and a very small network to support them.”
Despite all these challenges, Josh is proud of what he has achieved through his works.
“I have now a big network that I’m proud of, and there are many opportunities coming through always. My client base has grown and I continuously receive orders through my website, social media and referrals. I have also managed to grow my services, at the end of 2016 I ventured into web design on requests from some of my clients and the product has tremendously worked!”
He adds that the young people and fresh graduates out there, need to look beyond what you acquired at campus and look at gaining new skills to accompany your professional documents.
“When you try new things, you learn more, you grow, you meet new people and that’s how you become valuable and that’s how you get more opportunities!” I have grown in digital marketing because I have been able to add Photography, Graphic Design and Web Design to my Bachelor of Business Management-Marketing.” he says.
Before joining the Balloon Ventures and Citi Bank Volunteer Africa programme, Daaki was working as Digital Marketer and a Recruitment officer at LivingStone International University in Mbale.
Here are some of his photos.
