AWEC Spotlight: Mpolokang Gaolaolwe on Embracing Change to Build A Thriving Business
Mpolokang Gaolaolwe
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of female entrepreneurs globally with approximately 26% of female adults involved in entrepreneurial activity. And just recently, The 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE), for the third consecutive year, ranked Botswana (38.5%), Uganda (38.4%) and Ghana (37.2%) as the countries with the most women business owners globally.
Botswana leads Africa with the highest concentration of women business owners.
But AWEC Alumna Mpolokang Gaolaolwe is not surprised by this revelation. We sat down with her to discuss the entrepreneurial foundations laid during her formative years growing up in Botswana, her subsequent AWEC journey and the impact they’ve both had on her life and business.
“Our mothers have ALWAYS been entrepreneurs! What we are seeing now are the academic and intellectual studies that confirm it, but this is not new to us; certainly not in Botswana.”
Mpolokang, who runs an agricultural farm and food processing business in Tonota, a rural region in Botswana, recounted childhood memories of her mother managing multiple responsibilities.
“In the 1970’s when South Africa needed laborers, they outsourced workers from Botswana, so my father, along with men from the majority of households here, worked outside of the country most of the time. My mum took on the responsibility of managing the cattle post, the ‘masimu’ or farming fields where we grew fresh produce like sorghum, millet, maize, malt, and groundnuts, and the homestead settlement, which is where our family lived. The term ‘entrepreneur’ may not have been coined in my knowledge at the time, but looking back now…that’s exactly how I would classify her.”
Largely unrecognized and undervalued, household duties — also referred to as ‘unpaid work’— are the foundation of thriving communities and economies. Statisticians calculated that if it was counted as part of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the real value of unpaid care and domestic work is estimated to be anywhere between 10% and 63%; shockingly contributing more to the economy than sectors like manufacturing, commerce, or transportation.
“My role model is my now 90 year-old mother,” says Mpolokang. “She doesn’t know how to read or write, but I certainly consider her ‘educated’.”
Testing the Waters
It’s no surprise then, that being exposed to an entrepreneurial environment motivated Mpolokang to start her own ventures early on in her adolescent life; first while still in junior and high school, by helping her older brother sell clothes at the market and eventually branching out on her own as a university student, getting involved in cross-border clothing retail trade with neighboring country, Zimbabwe. But for any business, without the proper training, framework and structure, its chances of survival are slim.
In 2011, she tried her hand at a horticulture business, growing veggies and supplying retailers, but, with no growth or consistent sales, the business would soon collapse, leaving with no option but to find a job - which, upon reflection, was a blessing in disguise.
“My business wasn’t growing. Sales continued to remain stagnant and it was barely breaking even so I shut it down and ended up taking a consulting contract working for the Botswana Government’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Program that was giving 100% grants to encourage more women to start businesses and earn their own income. It was an eye-opener for me because I made some observations and noticed gaps in specific areas of the women-led businesses that I advised on and by the time I left, I had challenged myself to start over.”
In 2018, Mpolokang officially set up Lemanies Holdings, which produces beef and chicken biltong (thinly sliced dried, cured meat), salted Marula nuts snacks (their signature product) and various peanut/groundnut snacks.
Lemanies Products in New Packaging
Taking some of the lessons she had learnt from her previous work experience, she decided to focus on B2B (Business to Business) sales, supplying kiosks at local fueling stations. Getting her first customer was daunting, but that didn’t stop her.
“I remember walking into a kiosk and speaking to the owner about my chicken biltong…he wasn’t fully convinced [LAUGHS]...but he took a few packs to test the market and see. It was not long before he called me back to order some more packs. I continued to grow the business by approaching more of these kinds of retailers and soon, by word of mouth, I was supplying two outlets and five taverns or bars as they are known, which later shut down due to COVID lockdowns.”
Strategy: A Critical Key to Business Growth
When she joined the AWEC program in May 2021, like most entrepreneurs during the pandemic, she had experienced one of her toughest years. Hotels, pubs and bars that she supplied had all shut down so she battled to keep the business afloat using her own personal funds, which was taking a huge toll on her.
A quick Google search for online entrepreneurial courses is how she found out and applied for AWEC’s core program. Looking back on her year-long experience, Mpolokang credits session topics on business strategy and customer insights, lessons on time management, marketing and branding, and feedback from her Program Advisor and peers with challenging her to re-evaluate the business holistically and from different perspectives. From the get-go, her mentor, Lisa Ferraton, asked questions about the business which Mpolokang had never even thought about.
“I immediately realized I hadn't been running my business professionally; there were challenges with managing my time, I wasn’t keeping proper records, there were no strong systems in place, and the relationships between myself and both my suppliers and customers were very transactional. But I very quickly learned and appreciated that in the world of business, it is not about 'WHAT' you are selling, be it a service or tangible product; rather it is about 'WHY' you are selling. Why should what you are doing or producing matter? ”
Devising a strategy of how to tell her story when she approached potential buyers, she now convinces them to buy into her purpose. Interacting with them at a personal level has also helped her to get the feedback she needed to further improve her offering and meet their needs.
Today, with improved packaging and new marketing strategies, Lemanies Holdings supplies a chain store with eight outlets and one big hotel; but Mpolokang has set her sights on even bigger goals - expanding distribution of her product to other regions and accessing markets outside of Botswana.
It’s the Little Things That Count
Earlier on in the year, she started offering a product that she was previously afraid to sell; peanuts roasted in the traditional way, with the skin on them.
“For many years, the market has preferred a competitive brand that sells it without the skin, but I approached a kiosk owner who only committed to taking ten, yes just ten, small 40 gram packets. That may have been a disappointment to me before, but now I know even that small deal is an opportunity…As we speak, I supply him with five times more packs every month and sometimes he runs out quicker and has to order more.”
Lemanies Products In-Store
But it’s not just in her business that Mpolokang has seen growth. A self-confessed technophobe, she went from using a very basic phone to a smartphone so she could stay in touch with her AWEC peers on WhatsApp, and from accessing the internet at her local internet café to setting up Wifi in her home. She says it was her mentor who challenged her to embrace and leverage technology, not only for day-to-day efficiency but also as a way to market her products.
“To be honest I thought technology had already passed me by and had resigned myself to doing things the old way. We often undermine ourselves as African women, and there’s a danger in us becoming comfortable with where we are. But AWEC has changed all of that and has given me so much more confidence to think bigger! I feel I can do absolutely anything if I put my mind to it.”