TALES OF A GRITTY LADY ENTREPRENEUR
. . . from selling sweets, airtime to bossing it
IT is often said success is sweet, but the secret is sweat.
Entrepreneur Cynthia Bizure’s road to success is clear testament to that.
From a sweets and airtime vendor, she has scaled the social ladder to become one of the most celebrated fashion moguls in the country.
The Jan Jam founder dresses most high-profile socialites, celebrities and business executives such as Jah Prayzah, Madam Boss, Phathisani Sibanda, Kudzai Violet Gwara (KVG), Ammara Brown and Comfort Mbofana, among many others.
In the process of transitioning from the informal sector to the formal sector, she has seen it all. But despite being a trendsetter and fabulously successful, Bizure remains humble and grounded.
“It is God! I never thought one day I would be at this stage, although I had some entrepreneurship element in me since my childhood days. I used to sell sweets at school and even continued after,” she told The Sunday Mail Society.
After school, she had a stint as a white-collar employee at a law firm and bank, and she counts most of her former workmates as her clients. “When I secured formal employment, I carried on with my sweets trade and even added a variety of snacks as business boomed (chuckles). The merchandise was now improved compared to my school days. I knew deep down that I was a businessperson and needed to start somewhere,” she said.
Breakthrough
She later tried her hand in several business ventures. At times, she got her fingers burnt, but she soldiered on regardless.
“Sometimes you don’t get intended results, but you must keep moving, no matter what.”
Her major breakthrough came when she negotiated with one of the country’s biggest mobile service providers to become an airtime wholesaler.
This helped Bizure raise a substantial amount of money, which she then used to kick-start her cross-border trade.
Initially, she imported electronic gadgets for resale. The gruelling, long journeys to and from South Africa by bus not only helped her build a small fortune, but they also moulded her into a resilient businessperson.
“I was then still employed by a bank, so I would do my formal office work from Monday to Friday. As soon as I knocked off, I would then board a bus to Mzansi. I rarely had free weekends, as I was working almost every day of my life,” she recounts.
As business was booming, she secured space at a then newly opened downtown shopping mall in Harare and became a reputable electronic gadgets supplier.
She subsequently opened four more shops. It was during that time that she made two crucial decisions that completely changed her life.
“I now had five shops that I was renting. However, importing and selling electrical appliances had its fair share of challenges. I then decided to divert and focus on clothing,” she recalls.
“Around that time, I also realised that my side hustle had heavily outgrown my formal employment in terms of revenue, thus I then decided to resign.”
A decision was made to locate the boutiques at the heart of the city to cater for all classes — the rich and medium- and low-income earners.
Attracting the top end of the market in downtown Harare was going to be a tough ask.
Bizure successfully negotiated for space to rent along Nelson Mandela Avenue in Harare.
This marked the beginning of Bizure and her Jan Jam brand 12 years ago.
“I guess I made the right call as this proved to be my turnaround moment.”
She named her company Jan Jam, which stands for Jannice and Jamie-Lynn — her firstand second-born children.
The mother of three is presently the proud owner of four shops in Harare’s CBD and one in Chitungwiza.
She plans to have at least
20 shops in different towns and cities.
Secret
Bizure knows how to put in the hours.
Apart from travelling far and wide in search of special orders for her clients, she also has to keep the business running.
At home, her roles involve making sure her family is well taken care of.
She prepares breakfast for them daily before dropping her children off at school.
In some instances, she sacrifices her workdays during the week just to be with her children.
But her social life is suffering.
“Life as a wife, mother and businesswoman is quite hectic. My attention is often required at different places at the same time and balancing everything is difficult.
“Sometimes family comes first because being a mother is a full-time job, but at times business has to come first. I am glad that my husband is someone I can rely on to help ease the pressure.”
At work, she is the boss and calls the shots, but when she gets home she is wife to Tanaka Sithole. “We know our positions and responsibilities as a couple. Being head of the family, my husband makes sure that we are well provided for and sometimes even helps the business financially.
“He helped us a lot when the Covid-19-induced lockdowns hit our operations hard. Business went into a pause and there was no income, yet we had several employees to take care of,” she said.
The couple worships together and values transparency.
Her strong Christian background, she believes, has cost her several business opportunities over the years.
“As a Christian and
wife,
I have principles, so when some of these deals come or even if I am not comfortable with certain meeting spaces, I prefer letting it slide, and it has sometimes cost me,” said Bizure.
“There are some spaces that I cannot be in by virtue of being a woman, wife and a mother. In this industry, you need to have limits.”
She, however, added that women should be more aggressive in business.
The ongoing Women’s
Month celebrations, she said, are crucial in creating gender parity.
Her views resonate with this year’s theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, which is running under the hashtag
#BreakTheBias. “Women have to work more than twice as hard to get it all in order. Being a wife, mother and in business is not easy. There is need for a functional support system.”