07 Oct 2015

Seven years ago, Ms Beauty Mokobela took a leap of faith and resigned from her job to pursue a business in concrete products from her own savings.   

Ms Mokobela said in an interview that the love to decorate homes from their foundations to the roof was what motivated her to venture into the business.   

The 35-year-old business woman, who hails from Motopi but is based in Maun, said her business has grown in leaps and bounds.   

“I love building products and to decorate yards right from the foundation of a house to its walls; therefore my products help to retain the customer with me to the end,” she notes.   

Trading as Bio Flash, she said her business was registered in 2007, but started operating in 2008 from her backyard, manufacturing concrete pillars, precast walls, bricks and garden chairs.   

Ms Mokobela said she left her job in 2008 to focus on her business, which initially had five employees.   

She realised that her market scope was unsaturated, but was limited by lack of resources. In 2013, she received a boost from the Youth Development Fund (YDF), which helped her to buy more equipment, especially for brick moulding.   

She said her gratitude goes to the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC), which helps in monitoring her business and exposing her products to the market.   

She highlights that MYSC helped her business to acquire its own piece of land, and that the plot was situated at the Disaneng Industrial site, adding that the issue of of land had been a setback for her.   

She said the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) has trained her and her staff on business management skills as well as helping her acquire the factory cell where she was currently operating from.   

Ms Mokobela, who now has employed 20 staff members, hopes to increase the employees to about 80 if plans to start a concrete plant succeed.   

The concrete plant will enable the use of advanced machinery, thus increasing quality and production, a development she said would set her at par with her competitors.   

Ms Mokobela adds that her market was not yet saturated since she has various concrete products while her competitors were in moulding bricks only. She added that she was the sole provider of concrete furniture products in Maun.   

She encouraged young people to be committed to their businesses and to make good use of the opportunities created by the government. Ends