14 Nov 2016

A young entrepreneur, Mr Oreeditse Gasebatho, is eager to conqueror the business world.

Despite failing his tertiary education, Mr Gasebatho did not despair and never regarded himself as a failure.

He rather viewed the catastrophe as a blessing in disguise, therefore he took the opportunity to turn himself into a renowned young business man.

This saw the beginning of his enterprise, Godwin Firm, a marketing and consultancy company. Narrating events that led to the start of his business, the 24-year-old said after completing his high school education, he did not contemplate pursuing his business ideas.

But his parents had already sketched a life plan for him, get a college degree then find a job. This called on Mr Gasebatho to migrate to Gaborone to start on his parents dream at Ba Isago College.

“My family had a vision for me as an accountant, but my dream was to penetrate the business globe,” said the young entrepreneur.

He said every time he stepped into college his hate for accounts intensified even more. For him there was no reason to study something he would never understand or practice in his entire life time. The hatred translated into failure. That sealed his fate in as far his education was concerned.

“At some point, I felt like I had no reason to live. My family had high expectations for me and all I did was disappoint them. That was torture to me,” said Mr Gasebatho.

An Angel sent by God saw Mr Gasebatho’s desperation and gave him the best gift ever; an autobiography of the famous business man Robert T Kiyosaki; an inspirational book that gave Mr Gasebatho some hope.

“The book helped me to discover the entrepreneurship aptitude in me,” he explained. He said after browsing through the book, he wasted little time.

He immediately stated looking for ways to gain some reputation as an entrepreneur. “After reading the book I knew I had to register my own company and that required money which I did not have at that time.

My efforts to convince my family to help me out became futile because they lost trust in me, I was on my own,” said Mr Gasebatho.

Despite this setback, Mr Gasebatho did not sit and wait for the world to swallow him up. He worked hard to earn the cash to register his company.

Every retail store dotted around the city knew me, not because I was doing mischievous acts but because I jumped from one store to another doing odd jobs for them, he explained. I worked as a teller or as a stock keeper.

Although it took him longer than he anticipated, he got the money and registered his own company.

He pointed out that although this was a dream come true, he knew he had a lot ahead of him to prove that indeed this was what he was born to be.

He remembers having challenges like an office and resources needed to run the business surfaced from all over. But this did not stop the determined entrepreneur.

“If Richard Branson had made it just by operating from his mother’s garage why couldn’t I? If Bill Gates did not allow things like an office to hold him back why shouldn’t I? That is what kept me going,” he said.

Although the company initially started as marketing and consultancy, through the fateful encounter with an unemployed graphics designer graduate, Mr Gasebatho made efforts to collaborate with Mr Othusitse to make Godwin firm a graphics, marketing and business consultancy company.

The duo did not let lack of resources stop their aspirations to conqueror the business arena. Mr Othusitse said the company offered mobile services and one of their bedrooms served as a makeshift office.

“Most of our clients are always astonished when we show them our work room. It is very hard for them to believe the massive work we deliver is actually produced from the bedroom,” said Mr Othusitse.

Besides offering mobile services, the duo has taken advantage of the Internet’s provision of social media platforms to market some their works at the same time offering their services.

Mr Othusitse pointed out that they were currently working on projects for clients as far as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Libya and Canada who they have met through Facebook. “Some of our clients are based outside Botswana and we offer them our services through the internet and in return they credit our services through internet banking,” said Mr Othusitse.

Asked how they managed to beat competition, Mr Gasebatho said they work under the motto “utilising the unforgotten” that is using fresh minds that the industry discard because they do not have experience.

“We have realised youth are energetic and these are the same people who are unemployed because the big corporate world has discarded them because they do not have experience,” said Mr Gasebatho

“We engage some of these youth as freelancers and this also works as a way of curbing unemployment the country is faced with.” ends