12 Dec 2024

Warona Letsine, alias Wazoh who trained as a geologist at the University of Botswana (UB), saw herself converting into an artist doing carpentry, painting and branding. 

In an interview with BOPA recently, the 39-year-old, born and bred in Selebi Phikwe, said she was compelled by the bumpy road she found herself travelling on in her quest to secure a permanent job. 

She started her Bachelor of Sciences studies in 2004 and  two  years later she branched to Geology and continued with her studies until 2009 when she took a break. She got a job at Excel stationery company from 2009-2010. In 2010 the business went down and was retrenched in September. Later in that year, she joined FNB in 2011 where she had a short stay. 

Letsine said she later joined Debswana in September 2011 through a broker called Crowline, recruiting her for the Orapa Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines Tailings evaluation project. 

The project was initially scheduled to take six months but was extended by another six months, followed by a year extension as her bosses were impressed by her work ethic. 

“That compelled me to freeze my studies and remained with Debswana because I knew I was gaining experience in my line of work. I worked for the company for four years,” she said. 

A friend later advised her to check if her credits were not yet dissolved at UB, which she did and was readmitted. 

After completion of her studies she went to Francistown to join her sister, where she began a beauty business, doing make-up, hair wigs and nails. 

The business sustained her until 2018 when she got two job offers from CowBurn and Aqualogic, geo-science companies. 

For her business sake, she chose CowBurn based in Orapa-Letlhakane for proximity. 

“As I have always been a business woman at heart, I looked at any space in Letlhakane and scrutinised it for any business opportunity. It dawned on me that work was not for me, when the company that I worked for lost the project at Debswana due to financial constraints and was retrenched. When Cowburn retrenched us, I already had something to fall back on,” she said. 

Letsine said she had interest in gifting and décor business, since she had always been a craft person, she sat down and looked into it, and decided that she did not want to do the most common line of business in gifting, which is flowers and chocolates. She preferred sentimental and memorable gifts. That was when she decided to do customised gifts, her first gift was a wooden customised tray, which caught received positive response and orders. 

Her first biggest order was in 2022 when Diamond Trading Centre Botswana ordered 250 trays for international women’s day event.  “Since a woman has to go through that stage in life which is of being a mother, I fell pregnant and when I was a nursing mother, my sister and my mother assisted in the business.” 

A pushing woman that she is, Letsine said she never stopped doing business. While a nursing mother, she made craft pieces like chairs, baskets, pillows and paintings, just to grow her gift range. 

Later on she started buying branding equipment since the gifts she designed needed to be branded. 

She went back to the drawing board, and drew a business model. 

Eventually she realised she wanted to get into a fully blown manufacturing business. 

As she was drawing her business model, she realised that branding and packaging business were a significant part of her business model of manufacturing, since her products were customised.

 The gifts and décor helped her to develop ideas of branding and packaging, and started giving it more focus and shelved the other part of her business so that she could focus on developing the idea. “I heard about a business space through a friend who was also into business and asked her to inform me when she decides to vacate the place. Unfortunately the owner had other plans, and I had to wait for the space because I loved it,” she said. 

When she least expected it, the owner called her and asked if she still wanted the space. 

Her dreams were then actualised on that day. Letsine occupied the space in October 2023.

She started doing developments in April 2024, and had her first session same month which was a ‘sip and paint session’. 

From then onwards, the self-made artist started developing the place gradually to her desired outlook of a craft shop. 

She was awarded a licence for branding and printing instead of crafts and branding as she had requested, but that did not limit her because she knew she had legal permission to trade. 

Letsine started crafting and painting, and doing a little bit of advertising. 

Every now and then she makes field visits to market her business, and she approached TKM mining and engineering at Orapa Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines General Manager’s walk, proposing to brand uniform for their staff. 

Despite not clinching the deal she did not deter but remained determined.

She met them after two months and convinced them to give her a shot. She made a sample, which they liked and gave her an order of 100 items. 

Companies such as Kalcon, Cowburn, Mindea Drilling, Boteti District Council, Tokafala and various departments from Debswana then followed with orders. Today she beams with pride because she is driving her passion, and orders are coming in large numbers. 

Though she was busy hosting sessions at the craftshop, doing craftwork orders and branding, Letsine sait it was not easy at the moment as money earned from the business had to be re-invested back into the business and also has to sustain her family. She, however, noted that the business was  gradually gaining more clientele and was promising. Ends