18 Oct 2018

The youth have been urged to engage in businesses and take advantage of government empowerment initiatives intended to help them in the midst of the high unemployment currently besieging the country.

For the likes of Messrs Aobakwe Kajata, 24, Gift Molosiwa, 24, and Bonolo Molalapata, 29, the words were a clarion call worth heeding as they determined to start their own car wash business.

In an interview recently, Mr Kajata said after graduating from Oodi College in 2016 where he studied for an advanced certificate in multimedia, he was eager to get a job related to his field of study and was hired by a Chinese-owned shop in Gaborone where he did branding, printing and others.

He said although he was fond of the job, the monthly income was too little and inspired the idea of doing something to supplement his income.

“I decided to take advantage of my free time to use company stationery to design logos and start registering my own car wash company,” he said.

Mr Kajata said since he had a company name and profile sorted out, he had to find start-up capital and seek a partner as he was working.

He said he shared the idea with his childhood friend, now business partner, Mr Molosiwa, who fortunately was thinking along the same lines.

They incorporated their ideas and came up with a plan, leading to Mr Kajata deciding to relocate to Francistown.

The childhood friends agreed to trade under the name:

The Ghetto Youth Car Wash, as they wanted to inspire other youth who loitered the streets killing time to do something positive with their lives.

“Alcohol and drug abuse has become common amongst the unemployed youth, especially in the locations of Francistown, and this destroys their future.

With our car wash we want to at least employ the few we can afford and take them out of the streets and bad behaviour,” he said.

Mr Kajata revealed that during busy days, they employed part-time employees from the streets of their neighbourhood.

They started operating in August and are happy with the way the community has been supporting their business.

Although sometimes they face challenges they come with ways of overcoming them.

He outlined their main challenge as shortage of water tanks. Furthermore, he said their business was fortunate to have someone who has knowledge on multimedia and marketing and the other on carpentry.

He said through their skills they have managed to brand and differentiate themselves from other car washes in the city by creating stickers, flyers, posting on boards, and they also use Facebook to market themselves.

“Marketing is a very strong tool one can use to get their business out there.

We have since used this strategy to attract more customers,” he said.

Mr Kajata added that they had created a shade and pallet designed chairs for their customers to relax while they waited for their cars to be washed.

Although their business is still new, the three youths are determined to grow it and open two more car washes in Francistown before spreading to other parts of the country.

“As we grow we also want to bring in advanced machinery that will make car washing easier,” he added.

Mr Molosiwa reiterated that through determination and focus on what they believed in, they have managed to get their business up and running.

He encouraged other youth to refrain from being derailed by negative people when they were trying to do something positive with their lives. ENDS