Madza shines:
Fifty million around the world and they say that I couldn’t get it
I done got so sick and filthy with Benjis I can’t spend them
Nah nah diva is a female version of a hustler
The above lyrics aptly describe Mrs Ephania Madza, a Norton businesswoman, who managed to defy odds and establish a growing business concern, despite her disadvantaged background.
FROM a mere vegetable vendor who used to ply her trade in Harare’s Kuwadzana high density suburb 10 years ago to supplement her husband’s salary as a teacher, Mrs Madza is now a businesswoman who commands respect in Norton.
She owns several properties, runs a butchery, boutique and a restaurant in the town.
“We might not all have money to start a business, but honesty can be a trading currency that will take you far,” revealed Mrs Madza in an interview in Norton recently.
She is also a community leader who is engaged in several entrepreneurial projects to empower women and youths in Norton.
Being a project coordinator for the Norton Development Association, NODA, Mrs Madza oversees several developmental projects in the community, which have changed lives and brought smiles to hundreds of families in the town.
However, her busy schedule and unparalleled commitment towards the uplift of women in the town, has not affected her business, which she says has been performing well.
“My involvement in community projects to assist ambitious women was born out of the need to create and sustain their entrepreneurial projects, an opportunity that I never had when I ventured into business.
“When I started business, no one held my hand. There was no training. It was just out of passion and the need to lead a better life.
“But of course there were many pitfalls,” she recalled.
With nothing but spurred by passion to change her circumstance of being a housewife who had no other source of income apart from her husband’s pay check, Mrs Madza resolved to use the small household refrigerator to start a business.
“I got married soon after my O-Levels. I had no other skills, but I knew I could still work hard and lead a decent life.
She bought a packet of plastic flavoured drinks (freezits) for resale with savings from her husband’s salary and identified a strategic corner, from where she could sell.
Her decision did not go down well with her husband, who could not fathom the idea of a vending wife, huddled in a street corner, holding a plastic bucket selling flavoured drinks.
“Even though I understood his concern, and embarrassment of being ridiculed by colleagues because I was a vendor, I was not discouraged.
“Instead I graduated from selling freezits and set up a vegetable stall. My profits increased and I could now assist in buying furniture for the family, whilst money from my husband’s salary was now being saved for buying a house, “she said.
Mrs Madza’s decision to vend, gave birth to an entrepreneurial spirit that saw her move from one project to another.
Although her ventures were proving beneficial, she did not stop improving her resume.
Her vision saw her enrol in college and took up secretarial studies and later trained as a teacher at Morgan Zintec College.
However, Mrs Madza’s mind was meshed in entrepreneurial projects.
When she was deployed to Goromonzi after she finished her teacher’s training, Mrs Madza resumed her projects since she regarded her profession as a temporary measure that would take her another level.
“By then I was now a cross border trader, buying clothes for resale here in Norton. We were also renting a place manufacturing freezits and corn (maputi),” she said.
It was during the height of the economic crisis in 2009 that Mrs Madza made a smooth breakthrough in business.
“When the Government introduced the multi-currency system, I started selling the clothes in United States dollars and I made a killing,” she recalled.
With the windfall from the clothing business, Mrs Madza opened a boutique grocery shop and even bought a fully equipped butchery.
“I resigned from my job as a teacher to fully concentrate on the business, which was growing every day,” said Mrs Madza.
Although she had settled in business and had mastered some of the tenets of entrepreneurship, Mrs Madza knew the deal would not be complete without owning premises from which she could operate from.
While she was about to spoil herself for hard work an opportunity to change her fortunes arose.
Being astute, calculating and hard working businesswoman, Mrs Madza abandoned the idea of buying a luxurious Mercedes Benz and instead settled for a piece of land.
She is has since built a double storey building, from where she is running some of her business concerns.
Mrs Madza’s says the biggest currency in business is honesty, a virtue that has taken her far in entrepreneurial ventures.
“I started and accomplished most of my projects without getting any bank loans.
“I would get some of the equipment, material and even goods on zero deposit, because my business parties know that I am honest.
“I pay in time, for anything that I would have borrowed. Had I not been honesty. I would be where I am today,” she proudly declared.
A mother of two, Mrs Madza encouraged women to start small and grow their businesses from within their communities.