There have been calls for the empowerment of women in the past years by the government and various players.
Direct marketing initiatives for perfumes by Blessing Mashangwa has offered an opportunity for women to venture into business through the sale of perfumes.
NewsDay Business Reporter Victoria Mtomba (ND) spoke to Blessing Mashangwa (BM) the woman behind Oceane Perfumes to discuss business and other related issues. Following are excercepts of the interview.
ND: When and where was Oceane collection of perfumes established? BM: In 2005 as a subsidiary of Ocean Holdings company in Harare.
ND: How did you start your company? BM: The business was basically financed by my husband. To date he remains the major shareholder and the chairman of Oceane Holdings. The Oceane collection of perfumes is a subsidiary.
ND: What inspired you to start the business? BM: I lived in South Africa for more than five years studying towards my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. When I returned in 2004, I was amazed that there were no generic perfumes on the market and the original ones were very expensive. That is when we decided to venture into the business with my husband.
ND: What has been the major driver of your business? BM: Prayer and dedicating our products and business to God. Although I have degrees in business, in an economy like this they didn’t help much. All we have achieved as a company has been through the grace of God.
ND: May you explain how your business model works? BM: We give our distributors perfumes every month. They sell for a month and submit their sales and returns by the end of the month. Members are now paying $10 as joining fee.
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ND: Why did you choose freelance distributors over other marketing methods? BM: Although some of our distributors do it for fun, we have a bigger number of women who didn’t have employment and have been sustained through selling of our products. If we had put our products in shops we would not have created as much employment as we have created with this way of distributing.
ND: Apart from Harare, do you have other branches in Zimbabwe? BM: We have branches in Bulawayo, Kwekwe, Gweru, Chinhoyi, Masvingo, Beitbridge, Bindura, Mutare, Victoria Falls and Marondera. We also have offices in Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.
ND: How many people are directly involved in the sales of Oceane Perfumes? BM: The figure is around 1 000 nationwide.
ND: There are also new perfumes coming onto the market using the same business model as yours. Has that not affected your business? BM: Competition is inevitable, but It has not affected us at all, Oceane is a household name and when it comes to sensitive things like perfumes, people prefer to use a brand they know. We have actually grown. Most of them came at the same time and it created a confusion on the market which made people decide to stick to what they knew. Above all the quality of our perfumes is by far superior to that of competitors hence the demand for Oceane perfumes keeps growing.
ND : Where do you get the perfumes from? BM: We get them from South Africa and they are generic perfumes
ND: How do you balance being a mother, businesswoman and wife? BM: I am married to a wonderful husband Upenyu Mashangwa. He is just the most sweetest, caring, loving and supportive human being I have ever met. He is one of my mentors and a successful businessman in his own right.
ND: What is your source of inspiration? BM: Certainly my husband and children.
ND: What is your advice to other women who want to venture into business? BM: Recreate your world. If you don’t like it, change it. Tell yourself you can do anything you set your mind to. The power is in you, so trust it. Eliminate the words, “I can’t” from your vocabulary.
