Entrepreneur Tests Market With Dishwashing Liquid
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday October 16, 2017 18:00
Unique Cleaning currently produces dishwashing liquid in 750ml, five and 25 litres. It is accessible at general dealers and on request as disinfectants. Pine gel and others are still on the pipeline.
Currently, Thoje supplies general dealers, catering companies, pre-schools, guesthouses and some individuals, highlighting that his production capacity depends on the demand. He said that he is in the process of acquiring certification from BOBS as well as registering with Brand Botswana.
Narrating his journey, Thoje started his business in 2013 at his home village of Kang where he was doing carpentry on a part-time basis whilst working as a security guard at night.
“I started receiving many clients due to the quality of my products which resulted in other competitors reporting me to the council authorities that I was trading without a licence,” he said.
According to Thoje, he then decided to move to Gaborone and enrolled at Madirelo in an endeavour to attain a certificate in carpentry, which he said he did not complete due to shortage of money. It was when he joined security systems as a security guard that he managed to raise money to register his company.
“City life was more difficult than I anticipated, hence the reason why I decided to drop my studies and look for a job because I really wanted to raise money to register my company.
Being a security guard accorded me an opportunity to pursue that as every month I ensured that I followed procedure to register my company until I successfully attained the certificate as well as tax clearance,” he said.
In 2015, Thoje said that he was transferred to guard at Glover Chemicals and was amazed by what was done there. He said that he interacted a lot with their customers and staff that helped him to get an insight about manufacturing.
Working at Glover also helped Thoje, as he got exposed to some information about the products manufactured. He said that some employees offered to help him with the information, as they could see his determination.
According to Thoje, he then started doing supplies part time supplying companies and individuals with dishwashing liquid, which helped him to save some money until the Glover authorities uncovered his business deals and suggested that he should be dismissed.
“This didn’t stop me. I kept contact with the people from Glover Chemicals and we then set down and brainstormed on manufacturing our own dishwashing liquid.
We then did an experiment on a 50 litres bottle to get a sample. After that we then checked the ‘Ph’ levels to see if the product is okay and if the raw materials added balance,” he said.
He said that they then took the product and tested it at home and gave some to the neighbours and family members where he received good feedback, as they kept coming back for more hence the reason he then started producing for consumers.