ENTREPRENEUR APPRECIATES LEA A 43-year-old Mr. Maje Rapekenene of Tonota has nothing but praises for the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA). The man, who in an interview said he was from humble beginnings, was not hesitant to tell his story. Mr Rapekenene said school was never his portion from the very beginning. “I was registered for standard one just like any other child but I dropped out. My parents then sent me back to school after some time and this time around, I went up to Standard Two and dropped out again,” said Mr Rapekenene. He said he was never interested in school and at a tender age of 15, he left his family home to seek employment in Gaborone. It was not easy, but fate saw its way around him and he landed a job as a bus conductor for buses along the Kanye-Gaborone route. Mr Rapekenene said he worked there for about two years and then he landed another job in the TJ Motlogelwa buses, which travelled along the Francistown-Gaborone route. “The money I was earning was just okay and as a young man, who had no vision at the time, I would just be excited to see a couple of hundred pulas on my hand at the end of the month,” he said. The father of two said it was during his time with TJ Motlogelwa that he landed another job and this time around it was for the Zimbabwe route. “It was around the 1990s when I joined the PCJ buses. I was one of the few who started with them,” he said. He enjoyed the route so much that he eventually went and became a resident of Zimbabwe for a few years where he met the mother of his first child. After about five years of residing in Zimbabwe, it was then that he got envisioned with the leather business. With that in mind, he decided to head back to Botswana and took residence at his family home in Tonota. Mr Rapekenene said he started small with fixing shoes from his home and when more and more customers showed interest, he relocated his business to a nearby shopping complex at Manyanda ward where he rented some space. Business was going well for the man as he fixed mostly women shoes, replacing soles and sometimes stitching them. Mr Rapekenene saw a gap in the market for leather works and it was around 1999 when he got to realise that there were not many people in the leather business. “Upon that I made up my mind to go into the leather business,” he said. He said he started making shoes, handbags, purses and traditional wear for traditional dance groups. At that point, the business was doing well but it was cut short when the man got sick for approximately six months. “As much as I had employees, they could not do anything in my absence because in most cases the customers would come and demand to see the owner of the business. Some even got to a point of saying that they want to be serviced by the owner not any other person,” he said. He was then obliged to close down for those six months and when he recovered, he got back into business. This time around, he operated from his mother’s house upon agreement that he would give her some money every month. Mr Rapekenene said he had to acquire a trading license from the council, which would allow him to operate from the house. After acquiring the license, it was then that he added upholstery to his business and used his own money to buy machinery, which cost him around P12 000. In 2012, he approached Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), as a way to acquire some financial aid. Unfortunately for him, the response was not quite what he had expected as he was turned down for many reasons, including the fact that he had not yet registered his business. “The other reason for them turning me down was that I did not have anything to offer as security,” he said. It was then that he took another step and approached LEA, which he said has been helpful up to this day. “Those people took me in and nurtured me like a baby,” he said. Mr Rapekenene said he did not have a clue as to how to go about registering a business, but LEA helped him in that regard. He said they have invited him to numerous workshops at which he has been enlightened about business and how to grow it. Mr Rapekenene said it was the LEA officers in Francistown who gave him ideas of how to market his business, including showcasing his products at the annual BOCCIM show. “I will forever be grateful to LEA for the enlightenment they brought upon me with regards to business. To be honest, they are the ones who keep me going with their assessments and encouragement,” he said. He said LEA assisted him in making a business plan, which he will need to submit at CEDA. “It is a long process but I am thankful for LEA because they are holding my hand to make sure I get financial assistance,” said Mr Rapekenene. Mr Rapekenene’s products, which include traditional clothing and interior decorations, are made from goat, cow, sheep and hare skin. He said he mostly buys leather from shops, but it is quite expensive. “Sometimes I do the tannery myself, especially for goat, cow and sheep skins,” he said. Among the challenges he faces are that of employees, noting that some Batswana are lazy as they do not want to work, yet they want money at the end of the month. “When I try to make them understand that we should meet the customer’s demand even if it means working at night, they fail to understand, yet they want money. Sometimes I am even forced to hire foreigners,” he said. He said people will always try to bring one down as a business person and in business, the best to do is to trust no one, noting that even one’s family is not to be trusted. “At this point, my trust is only with the government institutions like LEA because they do not have any reason to be jealous. They are just doing the work they get paid for,” said Mr Rapekenene. The man wants to open his own factory in a few years, but this will only happen if all goes well for him with CEDA. (BOPA)
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 07:40:36 +0000
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