21 Jan 2016

With the festive period that is usually characterised by excitement, excessive shopping, travelling and other related activities coming to an end, to some this marks the beginning of January nightmares.

Some of the small scale entrepreneurs such as the street vendors are faced with a battle in terms of profit making as they feel challenged to raise enough cash due to low sales after the festive boom.

Others operate on credit only to their trusted customers with the hope that debts will be settled on month end.

However, some of these entrepreneurs come up with means that could help their businesses survive the blues.

Besides saving some of the massive profits they made over the festive period, others engaged in selling the school merchandise as it was the most wanted when schools re-opened in January.

One such is 30-year-old Ms Tsholofelo Mojaeti, who operates at the Francistown Central Business District (CBD).

Ms Mojaeti explained in an interview that January had always been one of the toughest months for her in terms of profit making.

The business woman, who sold items that included jewellery, hats, clothing and many others said though she tried everything she could to lure in customers the profits always remained low and this situation could last up to the first three months of the year.

“For the past six years, I have always encountered challenges of low profit for the first three months when the year begins. This situation always threatened my business as I run short of money to pay up rental bills and to run other business errands.” she said.

Ms Mojaeti said with time, she decided to venture into selling the school merchandise.

“As the month of January creeps in, I temporarily halt other sales and concentrate much on the school merchandise. The idea has worked as I no longer feel the impact of low sales from January until March, I always receive more orders,” she said.

She noted that she did not cater for a single school, rather she always strived to have different colours so as to meet the demands of her customers.

Ms Mojaeti advised other entrepreneurs to vary their products, emphasising the need to go along with customer needs per season. Ends