We were fortunate to have two speakers at the second Startup Huddle in Lilongwe, organized by the Network for Entrepreneurial Women, including Dr. Margaret Sikwese and. Margaret Kubwalo-Chaika. Dr. Sikwese and Kubwalo-Chaika offered motivation and insight on their entrepreneurial journeys.
Our first speaker, Dr. Sikwese shared the choice she made in leaving full-time employment and venturing into a service industry. She is a certified Franklin Covey Trainer and heads Novo Habitus Consulting, Ltd.
Dr. Sikwese opened her motivational talk on the evening with a piece of advice from the author Steven Covey, with a quote from his book called, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – “In order to succeed, your business needs a mission and endless planning.”
She offers consulting in extensive local and international expertise in aspects of leadership and management.
When Dr. Sikwese first started her consultancy business, she had to start small and she encouraged participants at Startup Huddle to start small, but think big. She encouraged women to overlook superficiality and focus on what is necessary. After working more than 13 years under educational institutions such as the Malawi Polytechnic and Malawi Institute of Management; she felt it was time to take the plunge and start her own business.
Dr. Sikwese concluded her talk with the need to focus on what your passion is in entrepreneurship, despite the risk and fear one faces in daring to venture out.
Secondly, we had the founder of Face Forward Spa and hair salons, Kubwalo-Chaika, give a talk of inspiration. Driven by her predicament of seeking to address a personal crisis, Mrs. Kubwalo-Chaika opened a spa and hair salon in Lilongwe and Blantyre respectively, which offer to improve the beauty and health of its clients through personal beauty care treatment.
Initially, like many of her fellow black women worldwide, Mrs. Kubwalo-Chaika used a skincare designed particularly for black women's skin. This product worked well for her as she was growing up and helped her get rid of her skin impurities. But eventually, the product stopped working for her and her skin suffered a major breakout. Both disappointed and desperate, she overcame her predicament by seeking a solution with a dermatologist.
Her interest in personal beauty care grew after getting professional advice on her condition and she saw an opportunity to offer the service to other women who were facing similar challenges. She began by doing thorough research online and when she travelled she would visit day spas; to experience the services being offered for her business plan. She finally found a service provider in Johannesburg, South Africa, and set up their products under her business model in Malawi.
Warmly, Mrs. Kubwalo-Chaika stated, "To grow, sometimes you have to persevere first."
This she said in response to many of the challenges her business faced. One of her challenges was not being able to access rental space at Four Seasons, Lilongwe, as there were no vacancies – an environment she knew her business would thrive in, as it is ideal for a relaxing atmosphere.
Currently, she is the head of Personal and Business Banking at Standard Bank where she has worked for 18 years. She concluded her talk with the services and products on offer to SME’s from Standard Bank.