The Sunday Mail
Enacy Mapakame
Business Reporter
Pursue your passion and dream big.
This is Beauty Masikwedza’s motto. No one thought her seemingly “wrong move” of dropping from a college programme would bloom to the point of having big listed companies as her clients.
Today, as Covid-19 has painted a gloomy picture in the world, interior deco designer — Mrs Masikwedza is not deterred or is she not losing hope. She still believes there is always light at the end of the tunnel and this has kept her going in her decade – long experience in the business.
The 44-year-old mother of three says she started off the business in 2010 out of her passion for interior décor, and identified her true calling before spending time on wrong projects. The initial plan was to do dress making where she would at the end design clothing. But after enrolling at a local college, like a misguided youth she dropped the programme midway to pursue interior décor design.
“I always wanted to do interior design, I could feel it in me that I had a passion for this. So I decided to drop the dress making programme and that was the beginning of my journey in interior designing,” she said while packing curtains and matching cushion covers for a client.
“From that moment, I started with bed linen and covers, scatter cushions and curtains for individuals and I was working from home. I supplied mainly to cross border traders and the business grew to cater for events companies supplying décor material for events such as weddings and corporate functions,” she said.
As her order book grew, Mrs Masikwedza formerly registered a company — Panali Creations — and rented a shop in the central business district of Harare. This opened more opportunities for her as referrals also increased until her market grew to cater for big shots in the hospitality industry.
This was her big break- between 2013 and 2015- as she catered for big companies such as the Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) and African Sun. She provided bedding material, table linen, chair covers and curtaining for conference rooms at renowned hotels like the Rainbow Towers, Elephant Hills, Monomotapa, Rainbow Hotel, Coach House Inn as well as State House Villas in the capital.
Like other upcoming entrepreneurs, Mrs Masikwedza faced a myriad of challenges in her business, key among them being access to bigger markets and funding constraints.
Today, her business has also struggled due to the adverse effects of Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in reduced production volumes as companies resorted to remote working in compliance with the lockdown regulations.
She said: “The pandemic has been bad for us, although we are navigating through the challenges. Our clients who are into events are currently down due to the lockdowns and the burden cascades to us as well.
“To make matters worse, we still have to pay our rentals in full even if business is low because of reduced trading hours and low demand.”
Despite these challenges, she maintains there are still vast opportunities available in the country that women can take advantage of to transform their lives and contribute to mainstream economy.
For those already in the business, she opines this is the time to think outside the box and understand the market dynamics in order to remain relevant and sustainable in the new normal. She encouraged other women entrepreneurs to embrace digitalisation as the world over is evolving and growing into digital economies.
In the next five years, Mrs Masikwedza sees herself empowering young women into vibrant entrepreneurs through her vocational training centre.
“Entrepreneurship gives you financial freedom. I want other women out there to take up the challenge, there is a lot we can do as women, start small, and one day you will get your breakthrough.
“My dream is to share the skills I have with young women. That is why I want to open a vocational training centre where I will teach women how to sew so that they can start their own businesses as well,” she said.
