Online Reporter
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
WOMEN are making waves in the hospitality industry with more and more filling up the space and excelling. The day-to-day traditional roles assigned to women in the home have been transformed into successful business ventures by enterprising females who have used the resources that they possess inherently to create recognised brands in this industry.
While many may assume women are disadvantaged to be “stuck” in the home doing the same chores of cooking, baking, cleaning, decorating the home and hosting visitors, several have changed that narrative of “boring”, perfected it and created wealth through it.
Ms Nosizo Ncube, an entrepreneur in the hospitality industry, said women possess skills that have enabled them to flourish.
“Generally, women are taking up space in business and particularly in the hospitality industry because naturally they are more hospitable and do well in those areas. They have said what they are good at in the home, they can take it to the market space and commercialise it. They are saying when visitors come to their homes, they can look after them — why don’t I have a BnB or hotel?
I can cook for my family even when there are family gatherings, why can’t I turn this into a catering business,” she said.
Ms Ncube said the ordinary skills are what have enabled women to go commercial and start their own enterprises and this has given birth to several restaurants, cake shops, accommodation facilities, events décor businesses and many more, stemming from traditional roles in the home.
“Baking in the home for family has developed renowned bakers in society, decorating their homes has given birth to meticulous businesswomen that are into event designing and so on. These skills that they were socialised into have been turned into commercial projects which have transformed the hospitality space. It has been that simple for the women as they possess the art naturally,” she said.
Ms Ncube said innovation has further made women sink their feet deeper and excel in the industry.
“Women are more innovative today because of competition. Before, you would see the same business women doing the same businesses, dominating the space alone for decades. Today, the competition space demands that you become innovative to stay relevant.
Women are pushing themselves to gain more skills to stay ahead, this is why you see a lot of innovation around women owned businesses. We now have access to the global market, we see things on the internet now on what other women are doing, and we improve our products so that the market does not kick us out of the game,” she said.
Ms Ncube highlighted the power of social media, which is linking women with the rest of the world. This has helped them have an appreciation of what is trending in their spaces.
Turning to access to financial products, Ms Ncube said financing still remains a challenge in this sector.
“Generally, women have limited access to financial support. Both funding and the literacy around it as well as how they can manoeuvre the space, is difficult. I say this because most women do not have the collateral to get loans from banks. Another issue is that in our circles as women, we do not discuss much about how to fund our businesses and where to get financial help.
We discuss our partners and children and not discuss these deep financial conversations. We need to engage more and discuss more around our financial challenges,” added Ms Ncube.
This funding gap has created businesses that remain as small enterprises yet they have the potential to grow with funding. With over a decade worth of experience in the industry, Ms Ncube said the industry is not yet saturated.
“An example is that of the events designing space, this market is not saturated because we do things differently. Let’s say there are 300 players, I sit in the top five so when one wants something clean, classy and luxurious, they choose among the top five but if you do the ordinary you will sit in the remaining 295 ordinary people and the competition is stiff there.
I encourage women to do exceptionally well in their business,” she said.
Women-run businesses also have to meet the laws of the land and Ms Ncube said the lack of financial literacy also leads to lack of compliance.
She said a number of women do not comply with regulatory requirements simply because they have limited knowledge of where to go or what it is they should comply with leading to many suffering shocks when confronted by law enforcers and eventually shut down their businesses.
She said education and conversations on how to survive legally in the business world will transform the hospitality and tourism sector from small businesses going up.
Lack of confidence in oneself is another challenge that women in business face and Ms Ncube said drawing from her personal experiences, it is important to believe in oneself despite any pressing life circumstances.
“I am recently divorced, you find some women in the same scenario looking at themselves and they feel like they are not woman enough. But whatever space you are in, you must know that you are worth it and capable. Go into those spaces where you fear and build your confidence there, there is no need to have a pity party and do nothing,” she said.
“Something that is not spoken about is how we are so successful out there and inside we are not confident about our lives. One may be divorced but still intelligent, innovative and able to work. Some people let the bad things overshadow their abilities.
Women must confront those things that are not glorious about themselves. If I am divorced and ashamed that I am, it can become a stumbling block for my business and I have learnt to confront these challenges and move on. If I tell you that I am divorced, you cannot then use that against me because I am open about it and I do not let it weigh me down.”
Ms Ncube said the same applies to financial challenges or bad business decisions highlighting that one must be quick to accept the challenges, rectify those that can be rectified and move on.
While going through her divorce journey, Ms Ncube decided to write about the art of going through a difficult season.
“My difficult season was my divorce; it was a difficult season and I wanted to write about a lot that was going on. I then realised I was still in a victim mentality, that mentality is very dangerous. I then tossed that decision away from wanting to write on social media on what the other person did to me, I realised that I also had my bit that I did wrong and had to acknowledge that.
I could not go and slander someone because of what I was going through, I took my power back and put all the differences in the past. As women, we sometimes like throwing pity parties and we do not take responsibility for our wrongs,” she said.
Ms Ncube said women must not fall and let society judge them or judge themselves during difficulties as it also has an impact on their work and business. — @NyembeziMu
