Fri, 26 Jan 2018 17:02:44 +0000
… A lesson to other youths
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
THE second series of a soap opera duped “Fever” will next month premier on GoTV’s Zambezi Magic courtesy of Zambia’s young entrepreneurship icon Farai Malunga who has single-handedly sponsored the movie.
Ms. Malunga, 26, who graduated last year from the University of Lusaka with a bachelor’s degree in Insurance and Pension Management, refused to bow down to self-stigmatization due to unemployment by putting to use her God-given talent and passion of constructing wigs and hair extension treatment, earning herself one of the best in the creative arts industry since announcing her presence just slightly over a year ago.
She recounts that her entrance into the industry was almost accidental as her experience with her own hair opened up what is fast-becoming a big enterprise which has kept her going, to an extent that if she was to find a mainstream job today, she will have to weigh the options and determine whether it would be worth leaving her enterprise.
“I was born in 1991 and I went to Pinewood Preparatory school in Lusaka for my primary education. I then did half of my secondary school education in Livingstone at St. Mary’s secondary school before moving to Namwianga Christian secondary school in Kalomo where I completed Grade 12 in 2009. I then enrolled for a bachelor’s degree at the University of Lusaka.
“Mom paid all my tuition fees but I had to find my own means for other things and just that desire to be a little bit independent. You know what everyone goes through in tertiary education and so, it wasn’t the smoothest road for me. I was in school and without employment but again, I had to survive despite the never-ending needs of being in university. It all started like a joke.
“What happened was that I was invited to a wedding but I did not have money for my hair and you know how women panic when our hair is in bad shape. I needed a wig but I did not have money and so, I tried to make a wig for myself and it worked,” Ms. Malunga recounts.
From that humble beginning, her business blossomed into a household name and with the name “Mukadzi Nisisi” resonating well among women folk, she says everything fell in place within a short time.
“It was from that bad experience I had with my hair that I started my business while at school and finally, it just blew up into something big and business has been in full swing for slightly over a year now. I decided to give it a name that women would easily identify themselves with. I made it so simple and coined it through a statement rather than a title so people can easily get a gist of what I do because the name on its own acts as an appealing advert that every person would want to be associated with,” she says.
She says financial discipline, determination, hard work and paying attention to detail is what has made her business grow to imaginable levels within a short period of time.
“It just takes a different dimension and a different level of discipline because it is money that comes almost every day and if you are an impulse buyer, you will not stay afloat. It demands a lot of discipline, saving, networking, growth and it takes a lot of strength to enable you manage with dealing with a lot of customers who have different personalities, demands and taste.
“Dealing with customers every day demands a lot of care and attention and takes a lot of customer relations and courtesy. Every single day I learn something new about my business, myself and about what is acceptable or not acceptable in my line of enterprise. It’s really been a process,” she says.
She believes everyone can be an entrepreneur as long as they realize what their passion is and what they are good at and that everything else simply falls in place once one started working on his or her talents.
“Entrepreneurship takes about the zeal and the interest in the line of duty and interest and you should be passionate about what you want to do. People miss it in life not because they can’t do it but because they are doing something besides their calling. Am successful in this hair business but if you ask me to run a hardware, I will fail despite it being a lucrative enterprise because I have no interest in it.
“Passion is a prerequisite in entrepreneurship. You must be passionate about something you are delving into and your line of business stems from such and comes as a natural thing to you which you must enjoy doing and that is why I went into the hair business,” she says.
She says because of the sensitivity of her business, she always puts in her best to guarantee customer satisfaction.
“One of the challenges I face is scrutiny from many people. Hair business is kind of more sensitive because people have different tastes. You really have to put in your very best and make sure you meet each individual’s need otherwise, you will lose it if you don’t pay particular attention to detail.
“However, because of the fact that you do something you are passionate about, you cannot even think of giving up even when challenges come but just adapt and that has been my strength. When you are driven by passion, anything else becomes secondary. There is no business that is all smooth selling but how you position yourself in the midst of these challenges is what matters and because you are driven by the passion for what you do, no challenge becomes insurmountable,” she says.
She says market price fluctuations brought about by factors such as the exchange rate affect her business adversely because a slight adjustment in the exchange rate affects her retail prices in the short-run.
She notes that her business is competitive because everyone wants to do the same but that her trendsetting instincts are what had made her make inroads and stand out in the midst of stiff competition.
“Market price fluctuation has been one of the biggest challenges because I get some of my products from abroad and whenever there is a slight adjustment for example in the exchange rate, prices automatically shoot up and for you to make an abrupt adjustment in the short-run, it almost becomes impossible because at the end of the day, you have to keep your customers and you have no option but to compromise a little.
“The competition in the hair business is rife. Nowadays, nearly at every corner of residential areas, there is a wig-maker but one thing I have leant throughout my life is that focusing too much of your energy on competition can just weigh you down.
“The most important thing is to thrive to do extraordinary things which will keep you into the business. I believe in health competition where you play each other out on quality service provision and I don’t spend sleepless nights worrying about who else is doing what but how best I can do what I am doing so that I stay within the lane,” she notes.
She challenges youths not to wait for white-collar jobs from Government but to use their talents and delve into entrepreneurship and become employers instead of waiting to be employed as that was the only way high levels of unemployment and poverty would reduce in Zambia. “Tertiary education opens doors for you. This notion of going to college or university with the sole purpose of getting a job is what is killing the Zambian youths. What happens if you don’t get the job like the case is with me? Sit down and cry? I don’t think so. Jobs in Zambia are becoming difficult to find and so, you need something more than a job that will keep you going when a job proves to be elusive.
“All Zambian youths must have an entrepreneurial mind so that when you get a job, it just becomes a bonus to you and not something that dictates your whole life. Poverty will not reduce if we cling to this belief that Government must provide employment opportunities once we are done with our tertiary education. We need to think outside the box. Entrepreneurship is the new future for the Zambian youth. Entrepreneurship is more lucrative than mainstream employment,” she says.
She says due to her education and the business she is running, she has managed to walk tall among the best as she has managed to strike deals with major advertising companies and that due to her prudence in managing her incomes, it was easy to sponsor the TV soap opera single-handedly.
“Since my business is in line with the creative industry, I have found myself working with commercial advertising companies for hair styling and I have managed to sponsor “Fever”, a TV series which must premier by February 6, 2018.
