Award Winning Woman Entrepreneur Values Advertising

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday May 10, 2010 00:00

 

Simakane says since making the top ten finalists, the company has had many enquiries from abroad by people wanting them to do collections for them.

The award to Extramile, which is dedicated to customs clearing, means that Simakane will receive the necessary training from a tour that came with the award. Simakane will take courses in Uganda, Geneva and Washington which she says are critical to her business performance and expansion.

'I will be attending a two-week course on dealing with the transport sector in the clearance business, which has been found to be prone debts,' she says. This course will be under the auspices of the International Trade Centre.

A course on expansion will equip her with skills for the challenges that a business with an international expansion mission like hers could face and how to turn the challenges into opportunities.

Simakane says she discovered that citizens of all economies, developed or developing, have a crucial role in growing the economy. 'From the profiles of my fellow competitors, I realized that these women had an active input in their economies,' she says. 'Economic growth ought to be a collective effort and is not for the government alone.'  She also learned that advertising can take any business to greater heights. She encouraged Batswana to do away with the mentality that advertising is expensive because it pays dividends. 'You can't expect business to bring in profits while you don't invest in marketing it,' she says.  Extramile has branches in South Africa, Namibia, the United Kingdom. Its local operations cover Gaborone, Mahalapye, Palapye, Selebi-Phikwe, Francistown, Maun and Kasane.

The company will open a branch in Zimbabwe on June 1. It has agents in China and Switzerland. Extramile has 103 employees and plans to open more branches in the US, Europe, the Middle East, India and China.