‘THE JOURNEY’
Tshepo Ratau, 39, The Director and Head beauty Therapist at Trusty Beauty & Spa; Spa hails from Molepolole, Botswana. Tshepo’s journey of Entrepreneurship started early in her life as she has always put her head to any opportunity she could grab.
In 2017 after a huge blow from her previous business in Molepolole, she identified an opportunity to open a Salon in Gaborone, despite her lack of experience in that space at the time, Tshepo set her mind on it and began her operation.
Inspired to maximize on profit and cut cost while giving the best services and experience, The entrepreneur in her decided that the Salon will be set-up in a free open space using a container made of metal sheets, this was to avoid rental costs and other expenses she deemed unnecessary.
Despite the high competition and the highly unregulated market conditions, Tshepo was able to grow the business,
which gave her the experience and maturity to grow in the direction of becoming an entrepreneur in the
beauty space.
Alongside her full-time role in the Salon, Mrs. Ratau decided she needed to do something more creative
and impactful, so she decided to sign up with GIPS Gaborone as a part-time student in Hair Dressing and
Beauty therapy.
Choosing GIPS was an easy choice! She wanted a school with a great reputation, good facilities, and comprehensive education. She also knew that she wanted a beauty school within Gaborone. GIPS ticked all her boxes and offered part-time options and payment flexibility.
The payment plan made it more affordable to attend other private establishments and Master Classes in Beauty for
her training (In Namibia and South Africa), as she felt there were more benefits. After completing her course, which was inclusive of an intensive hands-on attachment training, Tshepo was confident that she wanted to become a professional beauty therapist.
She had no doubt that she could make it a full-time career, so she started to pick up new clients (through social media and word of mouth), that she would work on alongside the Salon and her attachment training. This was the initial phase and gave her the opportunity to gauge how quickly she could build her own client loyalty base.
The final push was the worst experience she never saw coming, it made her think about her personal circumstances and happiness, that was her losing her salon to a fire, everything burning all to ashes. No risk, no reward played in her mind, and so she made the leap and began planning her dream to become a business owner in a profession she has come to love and became passionate about.
Choosing to open a physical Spa rather than working as a freelancer was a no-brainer for her. She has always been a go big or go home kind of person. It helped that she had experience in business development, which gave her the foundations to start. But more importantly, she wanted to work with a team of like-minded individuals who are also passionate about their beauty trade.
Nothing was more satisfying than being surrounded by other people that will inspire her. Hard decisions had to be taken for the business to start, Mrs. Ratau decided to sell her car, and relocate with her family to a lower rental cost house to accommodate expenses of starting a new business, part of the money she got from the car sale, she decided she won’t allow the Salon business to die off, a spirit of resilience and persistence, Tshepo re-established the business and got it running.
The scouting for a Beauty Spa location began, a few months down the line, her first Beauty Spa establishment was open at White City Gaborone, Trusty Beauty and Spa. Opening a Spa was not an easy accomplishment for many reasons. Tshepo always felt she had good business insight from a very young age.
However, she had some beliefs and fears that held her back that she had to overcome. She also knew that working for herself and running 2 businesses would go beyond a 9-5. A lot of her day will be spent surrounding the businesses, which will allow her to control the direction of her business although it’s time-consuming.
