Beside her current business 30 year old Cecilia Chongo who also works as a Logistics officer at MMI STEEL Company explains her business, “I started my hair dressing business in January 2019 Trading as Cecychongo’s Beauty Parlour. Hair dressing is something that is an inborn and it’s in my blood every time I tried it on someone I loved it and I got inspired by this talent. So self-love and self-inspiration made me use this talent in college as a source of income and since then I have always dreamed to own a very big beauty parlour someday. Not only have I dreamt but I have acted on my goals because I realized that if I keep dreaming of the Beauty Parlour and do nothing about it, I will die with my dream. So I decided to source some funds and buy some equipment I needed for the Salon and eventually managed to secure a shop.
Mainly what inspired me so much that I went an extra mile to have a business besides my job is to help and support the need especially the girl child. I really have a heart for a Girl child and I looked forward to supporting them in one way or the other because my salary could not be enough to reach as many responsibilities as I want to take to better lives of girls in the society. I know we have the Government and other organizations who are helping Girls all over the country but it’s not everyone benefiting and I knew I could help one or two Girls by giving them what I can afford. So Setting up the Salon has really helped me extend my support to some girls at a Named Orphanage and am happy about it.
What I have learnt and what has kept me going is to always have a positive attitude and willing to learn and try new things because at times a customer comes with her own hair style that you have never done before, you are asked if you can do it and your response is so positive and you assure the customer that it will come out as neat as she wants it, You try it and the customer is so satisfied with it. So what I have learnt in business is positive attitude is an elevator that tells you nothing is impossible nonmatter how challenging that thing you aim for is, so if you have a dream let positive attitude be a drive that takes your destiny on the other level, So have come to learn new hair styling because of always developing a great customer relation by trying their need (new things). I have also Learned to do other hair styles from the Ladies I have employed. My positive attitude has really helped improve my skills and have gained so much experience from doing different hair styles. So Because of being good in my talent and customers loving what I do it helps support my other business (Wedding Dress Hiring and Selling) because the same customers still come back for my wedding services and they turn to advertise me to other new people. Through this I have benefited so much regarding my finances am not only depending on my salary for it to come at the month end but this is another source of income that I have.
I have so much determination for my business and I have never let anything pull me down and it’s not every time that things move as planed. You will find that if am not at the Salon and some customers refuse to do their Hair because they only want it to be done by me and not the two Ladies I have employed to help me.. So I get to speak to them on phone and convince them that the ladies will do a good job and that if they will not like the hair they should not pay for it. Sometimes you find that some customers will call me to make the bookings and they don’t show up at the time they promised to come through, so you end up asking the other customers you booked for another day if they can manage to come through and do the Hair.
At some point I was experiencing customers who were not satisfied with the hair once done by the Ladies so I would ask them to come back and redo it for free once they unplait but that is just a phrase that every person in business passes through and what’s important not to give up but the determination and hold on to your focus and read to take risks.
My future plans is to have all the other businesses am doing under one roof that’s putting up the bridal section, selling of handbags, shoes Cosmetics and all that is found in a Beauty Parlour. But in a month time am putting up a barber shop as well because the shop am renting is big enough to accommodate both salon and a barber shop.
So I would like to encourage each and every woman and a girl out their not to just dream but to put the dream into reality…Do not wait for so long to start because time never waits, the secret is start small and keep your eyes on the ball and by doing that you will achieve more.. Let’s keep ourselves busy by perfecting our talents by making extra funds and making a living out of it. The other thing is that lets not just depend on the salary to those of us who are working it’s important to have a side business, so keep the determination and hold on to your focus but most importantly take risks.
