Model in the business of beauty
Mpho Tlale | Wednesday January 29, 2014 15:07
As the owner and face of Black Secret Cosmetics Botswana, Mphoeng has come full circle. She now drives a car branded with her face and cosmetics range and appear on advertising boards around town as well.
Mphoeng is the distributor of the Ghanaian based cosmetic range Black Secret that is sold through out Africa and consists of a wide variety of make up from foundation, eyeliner, mascara, eyeliners and others.
The 27-year-old entrepreneur said that she discovered Black Secret through the social networking site Facebook in 2010 and became interested. She said that she had noted that there was a gap in the beauty market as there was no one already selling the range in Botswana. The business started small.
She said that the main challenge she had was securing funds to enable her to purchase the rights to sell the products.
'I had to go against well known brands such as Revlon and Mac and selling a new product was not a walk in the park,' said Mphoeng.
She said that with persistence and branding she managed to convince women otherwise to try her products.
The budding businesswoman said her main marketing method came in the form of giving her potentials customers a try out of the make up so that they could judge it from there.
'Black Secret is made for African skin, so it makes it easy for women to fall in love with it once they try it out.
It caters for the light skinned African woman to the darkest one ', she said.
She added that because the weather is not as harsh in Botswana as it is in Ghana, the make up is able to hold for a long time on the face.
As per her business requirements Mphoeng is a trained make up artist.
She revealed that when her business took off, she made went to Ghana where she got trained on how to apply make up.
From there she did a short course with Shanaaz Herbal to improve on what she learnt in Ghana. Four sales representatives assist Mphoeng and they mostly supply wedding or celebration parties. Mphoeng is a model with a blossoming career. She has been a constant feature in the local modelling scene, having appeared among other shows, Colour In The Dessert Fashion Week and Diamond Trading Company's.
An environmental science degree holder from the University of Botswana, Mphoeng attributes her success to her fiancé who she says has been holding her hand through out.
The young woman who hails from Bobonong advices that staying humble and grounded is the ingredient for success.
In the near future, Mphoeng plans introducing a fully furnished mobile make up bar that would give women convenient service.