05 Aug 2015

The Tibetan leader Dalai Lama once said when a person meets tragedy in life they react in two ways-either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits or by using the challenge to find inner strength.

Faced with the challenge of unemployment, the 26 year old Boniface ‘Bonza’ Scotch of Molapowabojang decided to fold back his sleeves and use his God given talent to create employment for himself instead of whining about the unfairness of life. 

Armed with nothing but passion and ambition to become his own boss, Bonza started his printing business near Kanye old bus rank last year February .

The self-made entrepreneur revealed that he had no formal computer training but decided to use talent to provide services like document printing and scanning, T-shirt printing, invitation cards, funeral programmes, sign boards and number plates which he had learned on his own to earn a living.

In an interview at his workshop recently, he said he was driven by passion to start the business on his own using his personal savings.

He said he used to run a tuck shop in the past, during which time; he stashed some money away for times as these. He said his business got a boost printing T-shirts for different political parties before the general elections last year.

“I raked P20 000 during the race for elections and bought another computer, toners, printers and other necessary equipment,”  he said.

The young entrepreneur is confident that the idea has indeed created employment for him. He says he now earns P3000-3500 a month. “Out of this money, I’m able to pay office rent, buy food for my parents, clothes for myself and save the rest,” he said. 

Although advertising is a critical component of business, he says he never advertises his products, quality does. “I encourage people who are in business to provide their customers with quality products and services as customers were usually lured by nothing else but quality,” he argued. 

However, like any other venture, he conceded that his business also encounters challenges. He said his business is experiencing a slump but was optimistic that he would pull through and encouraged other young people in business not to despair when times are hard. He said they should not expect big profits when they start but concentrate more on growth.

He has also encouraged youth entrepreneurs to work hard adding their destiny is in their own hands. He said his mother, whom he described as his mentor, told him without determination many people have failed to become the best they could have been in life. Ends