11 Apr 2013

Multimedia is one of the most popular technologies around the world hence one Francistown youth decided to explore it further to earn a living.  

The 28-year-old, Mr Fumani Tekere started his company, Garero Multimedia in 2005 after completing his Degree in Creative Multimedia in Malaysia.

“As the term ‘multimedia’ describes, it is a way of informative presentation about an object, which combines a lot of means which are sound, text and graphics,” said Tekere.

He said his experience in the field of internet and specialization in the creation of interactive multimedia, video production, publishing, events promotions, graphic and web design made it easier for him to run his company.

Mr Tekere said the foundation of his company resulted in working with various companies on an international standard around the globe with the aid of social media sites such as Facebook, twitter and You-Tube.

“These sites have led to the wish for creation of new products, beyond everything already given and far from the usual presentations and proposals,” he added.

He explained that with the background that he had in multimedia and the motivation he got abroad he was inspired to venture into this type of business.

He said the Youth Development Fund (YDF) helped him to boost his business, which had already been in operation for nine years.

“Planning and time management as well as communication skills with our clients is what drives us to deliver on our products and services as well as the passion to drive our agency into a reputable brand.

Mr Tekere said his clients came in various forms but with experience and research on clients approach skills, he said he could confidently say it was not an easy road but he strived to always meet their demands.

“Having been in the management business for some time now, being Thapelo Maleka’s  manager, popularly known as Mc Maswe has helped in different dimensions in the area of management,” said Mr Tekere.

He said this led his company to invest most of its time planning the next move and correcting its mistakes.

“Mc  Maswe is a mature artist, very versatile, hands-on type of a person  and fast, so it makes my job a lot easier and  only leaves one with that space of being humble and focusing on doing what they do,” added Mr Tekere.

He advised artists to treat their craft as a business that required proper management in order for them to see their talent go to greater heights.

 He said that he was grateful of his achievements, though his clients had complained about prices in the graphic design department. However, he said with the quality of work they were offering, their argument was that they were still cheap.

Mr Tekere said he came from a family of entrepreneurs and grew up with his father who was running a taxi business in Francistown while his mother did retail sales, hence most of the time he was groomed to venture into any type of enterprise and make it profitable.

“It was no surprise that after my studies I immediately set up a shop and started doing graphic design that got me some steady income,” added Tekere. He said so far his family has been supportive and have confidence that his company would blossom with time.

On other issues, he highlighted that the fact that Botswana’s population was small was a disadvantage because circulation of cash flow was low. He said this was one of the reasons he had diversified his business to cater for a number of services that he is very good at.

He said that Francistown was slow in terms of developments; hence big corporations still had trust in products done in South Africa. This, he highlighted meant that it would take some time to convince them that Batswana businesses did have the same skills and products they spent so much for outside the country. ENDS