07 Apr 2022

 At only 29-years-old, he has over 300 people in his employ Botswana and South Africa, has an annual turnover of millions and has graced the cover of Forbes Africa magazine.
Mr Thobo Khathola is not your typical Motswana youth, most of whom are currently studying, employed or looking for a job.
Speaking in an interview this week, the founder and director of Lion Tutoring said it was a great achievement to appear on the cover of the world circulating prestigious magazine.
The magazine profiles the continent’s revolutionary thinkers with new revitalising ideas and innovative leaders.

Interestingly, Mr Khathola said he grew up in a family where entrepreneurship was not fully appreciated, revealing that both his parents were lecturers and had no passion for business.
However, he said his grandfather was different, as he never occupied any formal employment position and earned his living through ploughing and selling sugar cane in the Bobonong area.
Likewise, Mr Khathola tapped into his grandpa's wisdom and became an entrepreneur after the corporate world rejected him.

He brainstormed ideas to put food on the table and he came up with tutoring as there is a growing need for the service the world over.
He persevered through all the challenges of tutoring and saw his life change for the better while giving services to communities.
Mr Khathola said he started to build his empire in 2015 from his car boot and carefully crafted every business process.
He said what was once a dream became a business that made an annual revenue turnover of approximately P10 million.

The young entrepreneur has even taken his business to South Africa where he operates in Pretoria and Johannesburg. He also has plans to invade the east African market and open a branch in Kenya.
Questioned on how he managed to build his empire without start-up capital or any youth empowerment scheme, he said he did the work himself.
“I had to do the service myself to start the business,” he said, adding that he started with only three pupils.
He also said all the proceeds were reinvested into the business.

The young entrepreneur said working capital was a challenge, but that there were ways to deal with the issue such as using the little earned wisely.
Mr Khathola said what propelled his business to greater heights was the fact that he engineered all the company processes himself. He said he gradually advanced to the level where he employed people to perform the tasks he once struggled with single-handedly.
He has employed both skilled and unskilled youths in an array of fields from human resource development, accounting, marketing and contact centre specialists.

“I have been able to free myself and to focus on other business expansion processes that involve quality, consistency and the convenience that parents deserve,” he said.
Inch by inch, Mr Khathola has continued to build his empire and has come up with interventions that have brought a new perspective to the tutoring industry.
He has established two branches in Gaborone where pupils go to attend classes in Maru-a-pula and Phakalane.
Part of his strategy involves visiting pupils at their homes through bookings to grant learners one-on-one tuition.

Mr Khathola said the strategy has propelled his business, adding that the education sector was facing a drastic decline globally and that parents were putting more faith in home-schooling hence the high numbers enrolled.

He noted that they had moved from enrolling 30 pupils to over 1 000 each year and that growth prospects were promising.
He added that Lion Tutoring took advantage of the fourth industrial revolution to engage clients through their mobile application and e-commerce platform.
He noted that the application was accessible through the Google play store and that it had helped in managing customer relationships and allowing learners to book a tutor everywhere around the globe where they have a representative.

Mr Khathola said they prided themselves in solving the plummeting quality of education offered and attracting a worldwide market segment.
He said they have strategically positioned themselves to attract every learner regardless of their location and health status.

He noted that some parents had children with conditions such as epilepsy, autism, and cerebral palsy who also had the right to education and that they had made a provision for them.
He also said part of their corporate responsibility included creating an eco-system of youth-owned businesses that they supported through procuring services from them.
Mr Khathola also noted that they won three awards for three consecutive years from 2017. They were named as the best youth owned business in Botswana at the Botswana Youth Awards.
He is also listed in the Botswana Stock Exchange publication as one of the top youth entrepreneurs to reckon with.

The Botswana Youth magazine also recognised him as one of the top 30 most influential youth in the country.
Furthermore, Mr Khathola said he also founded the Lion Tutoring company based project which assists non-governmental organisations such as the SOS Children's Home, Childline Botswana and Mogonye Primary School. ENDS