10 Jun 2020

She has seen it all in business before graduating from being a vendor to becoming a reputable entrepreneur.

Ms Gladys Mothei, 56, is a self-made business woman from Bobonong who used to ply her trade in the streets. Unlike other people who operate as vendors for life and never get the opportunity to upgrade into a different entrepreneurial model, she is the epitome of the famous rags to riches tale.

Many a times vendors stay the same, running their businesses from the same spots for many years without realising any growth in their enterprises. Ms Mothei proved that she had vigor to grow her business and elevate it to a higher level.

She broke the tradition of local business operators who use their profit to secure goods for their households or purchasing lavish cars instead of ploughing back to grow their businesses.

Ms Mothei is a business woman of note who owns businesses across a large number of sectors. She exudes an undeniable energy of conviction and resolve.

Her strength of will has turned her into an owner of two micro lending businesses, Mumsy Shopping Complex and Mumsy Office Block, co-owned with her sister, Ms Joyce Nteda. She also owns Tots Jelly Pre-School and Lalla Villa Lodge, which she intends to expand into a hotel.

Her businesses were achieved not through the help of powerful friends or inherited wealth, it all started with selling of clothes from a small bag in the streets of Orapa in 1989; to procurement of goods from local shops in Francistown.

All her proceeds were saved for investing in business and this spirit moulded Ms Mothei and turned her into a multi-business owner.

Being a woman as nature may dictate, she fell pregnant the same year, but this did not deter her. To beat the odds which were stacked against her like many other women before, she requested her sister, Ms Nteda to stand in for her whilst she went on maternity leave back home in Bobonong. Upon her return, she had to contend with the sad fact that the business had collapsed as her sister did not have the tenacity to follow up on debtors.

Giving up on what she enjoyed doing was not something that she ever contemplated, and she fought day and night to restore the business to its glory days. As fate would have it, lady luck smiled on her as she met another business woman who travelled with her to Johannesburg, South Africa, to buy goods in 1992.

She continued selling through partnership with her sister, Ms Nteda, and they started importing and selling clothes, bedding, curtains, house decorations and cooking pots door-to-door at Orapa hostels. She built a loyal customer base amongst newly recruited employees at the mine. Although she operated her business under a tree, she always had big dreams to one day grow and graduate from her tree spot. This, she achieved by treating her business with the seriousness it deserved.

Ms Mothei introduced motshelo alongside her business with contributions from P100 to P10 000, which played a significant role in growing the business as they loaned people money with interest.

According to Ms Mothei, the motshelo concept led to a registration of a micro lending business in 2008 operating under the same tree in Orapa behind a hostel called Opang.

“At that time we could lend money to people anywhere at any time, whether we were at a shopping centre or Spar Supermarket, we could give people money ranging from P4 000 to P10 000,” she said.

Although they were into micro-lending, the clothing sale business tagged along and led to a good yield as two micro-lending offices were opened in Selebi-Phikwe and Letlhakane on rental. The business atmosphere was gloomy in Selebi Phikwe and closed down within a year.Nevertheless, her shrewdness and edge for business enabled her to perservere against all odds, as proceeds made from Letlhakane micro-lending branch spawned an offspring by the name of Mumsy Micro-Lending in 2012.

Ms Mothei said the micro-lending gave birth to a new line of business, Mumsy Shopping Complex, which occupied two units whilst renting out others.

The year 2016 saw the street vendor turning into a lodge owner at Lalla Villa Lodge through self-funding, laying down the foundation up to window level. Lalla Villa Lodge was accomplished through funding acquired from Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) at a tune of P 1.5 million, enabling her to complete roofing, plumbing, paving and the dining area.

The business acumen that she possesses spurred her to have the courage to start another enterprise in the form of a private English medium pre-school called Tots Jolly Pre-School, comprising of six classes in Letlhakane.

Expanding is what she values most as she diversified her portfolio through the establishment of an office block which is a single storey building in Letlhakane. Ends