18 Feb 2016

Unlike most youth, the thought of looking for a job never crossed Ms Olorato Kgomotso’s mind during all the three years she spent in South Africa pursuing her diploma in business administration. 

To her spending time looking for a job would deter her from perfecting a family heritage of entrepreneurship that her mother imparted to all of her four children.

The 30-year-old Kgomotso, who was born and raised in Nata, learnt a lot from her mother. She used to watch her catering during events and this instilled in her a passion for being an event planner. “I was raised by a creative, imaginative, and incredibly talented woman. Her talent in taking care of all the catering details during events inspired me to become an events planner,” she said. 

When she started Mind Easy Events in 2010, she did not have many customers as people were not yet used to hiring event planners. However, this did not deter her from pursuing her childhood passion but made her more determined to make it a success.

Ms Kgomotso’s duties are being involved in all plans from the inception to the day of the event; finding a venue, sending out invitations, catering and decor. She said for one to be an event planner they need to be excellent in time management. “You should have the ability to coordinate not only yourself, but the scheduling of the entire team helping with the event. It’s all about planning, re-planning and scheduling,” she said. 

Other qualities include resourcefulness, communication and strong will. 

She said one has to be able to carry out their vision and sometimes crack the whip to get it done. She explained that planning an event could take up to six months or a year depending on the magnitude or purpose of the event. 

She explained that the planning side of events was a desk job. “It will feel, at times, like your computer or your laptop is attached to your hip. You will have hundreds of emails to keep on top, lists to cross-check, research to do, schedules to create and budgets to continually update,” she said. 

However, she said there were times when one has to be at site inspections to check out venues, meetings with vendors, clients, caterers and decor to choose. She said no two events were the same, unlike many desk jobs where the work was repetitive from day to day.  

The mother of one said the secret behind her success was attributed to being able to resolve problems and issues quickly. 

“You must be able to stand calm at zero hour when something doesn’t go your way. Your team should look up to you for everything, the last thing they need is a shaky leader that makes rash decisions because they crack under pressure,” she said. Ends