There are no limits to business ventures one can embark on, and everyone involved can make a profit says multi-businesswoman Bathabile Moreki in an interview with Sunday World.
But her journey to success has had various twists and turns.
She recalls with joy that when her mentorship programme slowed down during the pandemic in 2020, as an alternative she started selling eucalyptus oil, which was believed to help reduce the risks of Covid-19.
She says starting with a capital outlay of R100, in six months, to her surprise, “I was able to make a turnover of R1.3-million during the first six months of the pandemic”.
Asked how this was possible, Moreki says during the Covid-19 years, demand for a cure was high. In addition, she says her success hitting the R1.3-million mark was because she bought in bulk and got her clients to resell the products across the country, making the oil widely available to as many clients as possible.
But she wanted to expand her business empire. She got interested in learning about the franchise business. As a former government employee, working in the office of Lulama Xingwana, then minister of women and children, she had heard in government circles that government funding was a possibility. She spared no effort and in no time acquired funding.
Before long, thanks to the funding, she acquired a franchise to operate Debonairs, Steers and Fishaways at several malls.
For her, the sky was the limit. She would later establish what she describes as Township Economic Transformation in the Franchise Economy to spread the word about the value of franchising – and that even a village girl such as her could succeed when she put her mind to it.
Going down memory lane, Moreki recalls that her grandparents used to send her to sell snacks at school.
The stock, she remembers, would be sold out.
At the time she did not think she had the passion for business and, only considered the errands “as merely fulfilling a task asked of her by her grandparents”.
Yet that exercise prepared her for success.
Moreki comes from Qwaqwa in the Free State. She says it never occurred to her that someone from a rural backdrop could become a successful businessperson. Accordingly, she brushed aside the idea of ever becoming a business owner – but rather focused on her studies.
She remembers she started reselling beauty products at Technikon Witwatersrand, now the University of Johannesburg.
“It wasn’t until I started my career that I realised I wanted to be a businesswoman. It all clicked that I was free and happy when I was selling things rather than in office working all day. This was a turning point.”
As her business interest expanded, she realised she could start a perfume business called The Perfume Company and later a gin brand named The Gin Company. She is yet to launch a vodka brand.
“I think my businesses are successful because I depend on the “you cannot build a self-employment empire, which I always preach at my mentorship classes. You can get people to resell, you are franchising your own products. This way, you win and so does everyone else.”
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