I started off in July 2009, having sold off the shares in my little advertising agency, as I was so frustrated with no longer being the creative but instead managing finances and staff, which is neither my passion nor gifted ability.
While I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, I did know that I wanted to handmake beautiful things and empower local Zulu women, as many endure difficult living situations. In the Zulu culture, the women look after the family and the home; they cook, they work, they look after the children, they plant the fields and they harvest the crops. The men are treated like royalty and are not responsible for anything other than looking after their cows—their sign of wealth. There is also a high rate of AIDS in these communities and being HIV positive comes with much discrimination; many employers don’t employ HIV people as they are perceived to be weak and sickly all the time.
During my overseas travels for work, I was inspired by the beautiful handmade things I saw. When looking at them, I knew we could do the same kind of thing, hopefully even better, while simultaneously helping humans in need…and this became my life’s mission.
I started working with two ladies twice a week from the Hillcrest Aids Centre, and we began making gorgeous bespoke ceramic crosses out of clay that were strung onto velvet ribbon. I next started hand-rolling beads from clay to make bracelets and necklaces. The beauty in bead making, was that if the ladies were weak and bedridden, they could still roll beads from their beds and earn money to provide for their families. It seemed like the perfect solution. I made the strategic decision to start designing products around the beads to sustain the project, in order to create more work for more ladies that needed the help…and so it began.
By the end of 2009, I had five full-time HIV positive ladies working with me. We were making a range of ceramic bead jewellery, and we were very blessed to supply some of our local retailers here in South Africa, which gave us a huge boost and put us on the map.
People loved our product. They wanted to support our cause, and we needed to add more items to our range. That’s when we launched our first beaded chandelier at Design Indaba in Cape Town in 2010. The response was overwhelming, and we started rolling beads like crazy! It was so exciting and emotional, all at the same time.
I began to have more and more ladies approaching me for work, and most were HIV positive. Some weren’t actually infected but were dealing with the reality of having the burden of caring for family or neighbors’ children who had been orphaned. This is a big reality here; with the parents dying of Aids, there are children left behind with no food or help. I now had to make a call, as I had started off with the mission to empower HIV positive women, but how could I discriminate and not employ those who were desperately trying to survive under their circumstances? I had to change my criteria and open my employment to any women “affected” by HIV.
I now am even more flexible, as I just don’t have the heart to turn away desperate women, so as long as I am empowering local women, from our community, I have peace that I’m doing the right thing and maintaining my life’s mission.
A strategic decision I made at the very beginning when I set out on my new mission was to not work with inferior mass-produced plastic or wooden beads from the east. They do not create employment for our people, and are bad for the environment…and that would not be responsible nor in alignment with our cause. This does come at a high price though. The costs all add up—the raw clay, the transport time from the mine (six hours away), the distribution of the clay, the labor to roll the beads, the electricity costs, the time for the process and the damages of unfired clay beads during transport—so this is why our products are not cheap.
They are expensive, because they are true quality items that have a REAL STORY behind them. Every bead has its own journey, from the mine in Gauteng, into the rural villages of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Midlands, into a thatched mud hut, out in the sun to dry, then loaded onto a minibus taxi, to return to our workshop ready to be fired up to 1,046 degrees celsius in our kilns. And, from there, they are dyed or glazed and strung in thousands to create our jewellery and chandeliers. The mission I started has bloomed into a gratifying life, not only for my family and myself but for the many, many women who are traveling this road.
When I first set up Hellooow Handmade, I had no idea that we would still be around ten years down the line! The journey has been incredible, from working with two ladies only two days a week, making handmade jewellery and one or two small chandeliers every now and then, to now sending off container loads of chandeliers and handmade product, all over the world, every month!
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
It has been a real blessing, not only for me, but for all the ladies who still hand roll beads for us in the rural township areas, for the ladies who string our chandeliers together in our studio, for their families who join in the bead rolling when they have extra financial pressure, to my team of ladies that make up all of our jewellery, home accessories and my various quirky new product development ideas and samples, and of course, my admin ladies who keep me grounded. All of us have been blessed beyond measure!
5-step model for CREATING AN AIRTIGHT BUSINESS PLAN
While each new company’s path is different, all businesses must prepare and execute a solid business plan to be successful. Follow the road I traveled in preparation to launch my business, which encompassed challenges and successes along the way; utilize my path to help guide you in preparing for achieving your own business success!
Inspired by Susan Ward, the balance/small business, “One Page Business Plan Templates”(TheBalancesMB.com/one-page-business-plan-templates-4135972)
1. Vision
Determine your hopes and dreams for your business. What is your grand plan and the stages of growth for your business?
MY EXAMPLE
When I first started Hellooow Handmade, my vision was to empower women, specifically HIV positive women, as innocent victims of a chauvinistic culture and because of the negative stigma attached to being HIV positive. Our plan was to grow our turnover, thus creating more employment for more HIV affected women and to build a globally recognized authentic brand that is sustainable for years to come. I hope to sell the business in 5-10 years…for two reasons: My children’s passions are not mine! And, so I can support my husband realizing his dream of working as a fly-fishing guide and setting up a wildlife sanctuary.
2. Mission
How do you intend to achieve your vision? What products will you sell? Who is your target market and how will your product address the customer’s needs? How will you sell your products?
MY EXAMPLE
I started in the lighting category initially with later plans to introduce new homeware and accessory categories. I will continue to introduce newness, designs, materials and themes and to expand further in the lighting category, which we are known for. I have aligned with international marketing partners to tell the world our authentic human story.
3. Pricing Strategy
Demonstrate how your business will be profitable by summarizing your projected revenue from product sales, less your expenses. Determine product costs while considering manufacturing costs, competitor’s pricing and profit goals.
MY EXAMPLE
We have to challenge the entire process to become more cost-efficient and become more affordable without sacrificing quality to compete against blatant copiers of our original designs.
4. Advertising & Promotion
Devise a marketing plan to include: advertising such as email, social media, website, storefront, marketing materials such as flyers, brochures, business cards, and a method for capturing customer feedback such as social media, surveys and/or referrals.
MY EXAMPLE
We try to make website updates regularly, utilize social media to tell our beautiful story (each piece has literally fed a family) and collaborate with influencers. We have our own small store to test our new product and magazine promo giveaways aligned with our brand and product. We create branding and marketing materials, advertising and promotions and built a database to capture contacts for future communication.
5. Objectives
List your objectives and metrics for success by time frame, as well as, potential questions, challenges and obstacles that may prevent you from achieving your objectives.
MY EXAMPLE
I set very specific goals for increasing jobs, product output and finding new agents and locations to market and exhibit our product. For example, by the end of 2021 I have a goal in place to increase jobs by 100% and increase turnover by 200%. Obstacles to this are cheaper copies in the marketplace, South Africa’s regular power cuts (whereby we often can’t fire our beads which is frustrating) and the potential of outgrowing our existing factory/studio etc.
