06 Jul 2015

Mr Tshepiso Marumo, like her friends in the rural settlements had a dream of one day living a good life. Her ambition growing up was to pass her school examinations and proceed to a university to study Mine Engineering.

Little did she know what fate had in place for her.  Hailing from a remote place in Ngwaketse west, the small village of Metlobo, it is quite easy to mark out why Ms Marumo had the childhood reverie to be a mine engineer; very reasonable for a young kid growing up in a mining country with the mineral sector beaming the economy.

Ms Marumo said her schooldays were that of a normal kid, her turning point came when she was doing her secondary school in which she realised that she possessed the leadership stature hence being appointed the heard girl during her schooling time.

Everything with her life went smoothly till everything turned against her at senior school, she said she realised her challenge with dealing with science and mathematics as she failed to deal with them. 

This defined the end of her much beloved engineering dream.

Ms Marumo is a 27 year old young business lady, and her dream to venture into business was an interesting story because she never thought she would be where she is right now. She said it started when she was reading one of her favourite magazine; interestingly she came across a bee keeping article in the magazine.

By then she said she did not care much about the article, years later after she completed her degree in marketing now employed with Botswana Telecommunications company in 2008 as a customer care officer, while going through the internet she came across yet another bee keeping article online. 

She was instantly inspired to read more about the business.
“ I was working at one of the most powerful company In the country making good money for myself, then this idea of starting my own business in order to make extra money for my family stroke me and I decided to go with the idea” she said.

She said by then she told her family members that she was going to do this business just for them therefore needed their support, she didn’t want to tell them that she was planning quitting her day job with BTC something she described as ‘insane’.

Ms Marumo is one of the business ladies who exhibited their business products and services at this year’s women expo at Ditshupo hall. The aim of the expo was to give women the platform to showcase their business to customers under the same roof. 

“I did not want to tell my family that I intended to quit my job, it would make no sense for a young girl like me to quit a job with such a big company and endeavour on bee keeping business something which was deemed not possible to afford one a good living” she said.

She credited her success to her family’s support. She said her next step was to find land so she can get a suitable place to keep her bees. She said the first instinct was to rear them home then she came to learn that bees need special treatment for them to bring a good harvest.

That is when she went to Ngwaketse land board to get help and apply for suitable land for her bees; she said the land board helped her immensely as they have a policy that allows youth applications to be given priority.

Today Marumo owns a company by the name of The Zone 4 Life, her honey producing business trades under the name Tshepi Beekeeping based in  Metlobo village, her line of business produces a couple of honey products which enlist of honey drinks, lip balms, honey sachets, candles, floor polish and wax products which produces bathing soap under brand name MoreLife.

Ms Marumo said getting her business off the ground to work was a big challenge for her, she said she had to write up a business plan in order to secure funds to start the business. For her she said since she was in the know how about business plans credit to her marketing degree it was easy for her to make one. 

“I was privileged because I did my degree on marketing so creating business plans and all the documents was not much a challenge, that’s when I managed to get funding from government Youth development funding(YDF)” she said.

Ms Marumo was quick to point out that education is a very important factor that is needed when one ventures into business. She said when she was seeking funding for her project the demand from the quest was to be in the know how, so she prevailed because she possessed the required personal character.

She said the money she got from YDF was not enough to sustain her project, so she registered with the KickStart competition on which she won the prize which contributed immensely to her projects growth.

However, Ms Marumo said she is facing a challenge with her business as a young entrepreneur because funding to start a project it is not enough to sustain the running of a business. She said the funds helps with kick starting the business but it requires more with running the business on daily basis to make it work.

Ms Marumo said Batswana have shown support by buying her products, though there are some challenges that her project is facing she noted the biggest challenge being unavailability of market in Botswana. She praised Botswana government for supporting young business people like especially women whom she believed can change the outlook of the country’s economy.

She pleaded with the government to make an open market for young business entrepreneurs, she said her products are good for health as they can cure a number of life threatening diseases like flu, asthma and can boost the immune system. She said her products like liquid honey can be good for school children therefore pleading with government to include the likes on school diet.

She concluded by saying her plans is to grow her business and include agro tourism to a vast of her trade, saying she realised the need to educate the young upcoming children about her business. The zone 4 life has since been exhibiting their products since 2001 and has many accolades in their shelves to show. ENDS