‘I started a business with Rwf1,000’

Whenever she was given pocket money as a student, she always set aside some for future use, call it preparing for a rainy day. Florence Teta could have cultivated this saving ethic partly due to the circumstances surrounding her life as an orphan, a survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. However, that ‘hard’ life could also have in a way inspired her to try her hand at business just after completing high school. When you find her cheerfully serving and interacting with the clients at the Facebook Restaurant in Gisozi sector, Gasabo District, you cannot guess she is the same girl of yester-years, who never dreamt of a better tomorrow. Growing up mostly in orphanages, she never thought she would make it in life. “I never knew my parents since they died when I was just two years old,” says the 22-year-old businesswoman and university student. “That’s why I spent most of my childhood in the orphanages until I joined Saint Marie Anne for secondary school education,” Teta recalls. Born in former Nyamirambo District, Teta stayed with different families throughout her secondary school days, always moving from place to place. “When I was in senior three, the old woman I was staying with died. So I was forced to return to the orphanage in Remera-Rukoma, until I completed S6,” she says. Teta says she studied biology, chemistry and maths combination at high school because her childhood dream was to become a pharmacist. But the dream was shattered as she could not afford tuition fees for the course. She was left with no choice, but to pursue a bachelor of economics degree at Université Libre de Kigali (ULK), which she joined in 2011. Joins hawking Teta says most of the families she stayed were generous and treated her as their own child. “When they visited me at school, they would always give money to buy scholarstic materials and other basic necessities,” she says. “So, by the time I completed Senior Six, I had savings amounting to Rwf600,000 on my account. However, I started hawking clothes using Rwf1,000 because I was cautious. At first I bought two dresses (Rwf500 each) at ‘Kwa Lubangura’ in the city centre, which I sold to office workers at Rwf1,500 each.” Teta says she later decided to also venture into handbags hawking. She says she withdrew part of her savings and bought handbags from Kimironko Market at Rwf5,000 each and hawked them around the city at Rwf15,000 each. She used to buy the items from Uganda. Teta says she opted for hawking because she could not afford renting a shop. She points out that she used to approach most of her clients secretly at their workplaces. Facebook Restaurant is born Teta says she left hawking in 2011 when she joined university. But she was not about to abandon her new love yet, as she immediately opened a salon. “I left the salon business after a year. I used the money earned from the business and what I saved from my job as a waitress in a coffee shops to hire a stall at the Gikondo Expo Grounds in Kicukiro in 2011 where I sold food. That marked her entry into the foods and beverages sector. “After gaining some experience in Gisozi, where I set up Facebook Restaurant using Rwf1.5m,” she says. She says she started a restaurant because “I developed a passion for hotels during the three years I worked as a waitress”. She adds that later, she was able to raise money and buy the building housing the restaurant. She says the move (restaurant venture) is paying off as she gets 300 clients per day and she earns close to Rwf400,000 monthly, after paying all the other expenses, including tax. She employs four workers, whom she pays up to Rwf150,000 a month, depending on one’s role. Achievement and future plans Teta says her restaurant (business house) is worth Rwf2m, but she estimates all assets at Rwf10m. “I am saving money to build a residential house in the near future and then buy a car,” she says as her eyes brighten. Challenges Teta says juggling business and school is having a toll on her. “My priority is a school…Though I want to do well at school, I cannot abandon the business. So, I have had to strain myself to ensure neither suffers neglect,” she says. She says she is perturbed by people who do not believe women can manage a business successful, noting that they always undermine her. “They keep minimising my efforts, arguing that a woman like me cannot have all that I have achieved singlehandedly. “This makes me cry, especially when I remember hard moments I went through to get the initial working capital,” Teta says. Advice “Many youth think that starting a business requires a lot of capital, but all it needs is a business idea and plan and the will to venture into the unknown,” she advises. Teta urges young people, especially girls and women, to avoid spending a lot of money buying luxurious things, but to invest and be risk takers and enterprising. “We have the ability to change our fortune, it is all about making a choice to improve your life and that of the community,” she advises. Editors note The Business Times annual entrepreneurship series, “Women in Business” is back, and will run for the next two or so months. The series profile women who have defied the odds to thrive in business across all the sectors of the economy, and in research. The project aims to inspire young girls and other women to pursue and live their dreams. Today, Seraphine Habimana brings you Florence Teta, who owns a restaurant in Gisozi, a venture she started partly from money she saved from her pocket money as a secondary school student. Teta has also been a hawker and has workers in a coffee bar.