… As car boot butchery becomes walk-in shop
BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE- “Dreams don’t work unless you take action. The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them.”
This popular adage by Roy T. Bennett has proven to be true with Businessman Sikhanyiso Celumusa Dlamini of Mkhulamini, who nested his butchery business from boot sales to a walk-in shop.
The young man, who holds a Diploma in Computer Science but now enrolling for Business Administration in Mancosa, went viral on social media when he revealed that his days of selling meat and meat products in his car boot were nearing the end as he was about to open a walk-in shop.
This Eswatini Positive News (EPN) reporter had the opportunity to chat with Dlamini on how he let his dreams come to life.
“I started business when I was young selling sweets at school while after school I make wired cars and sell them. Recently, I started selling meat after finishing my O’Level. I was selling pork, mostly, whereby I would freeze and slice the carcass at any nearby butchery at a price. Then after some years, I bought car which I used to deliver. Most customers were happy with the delivery service and this I got more and more customers,” explained Dlamini on how he got into the business.
He then happily revealed that he was happy that he was going to officially open his walk-in shop at The Palm Beach Centre in Manzini in early October.
He said his motto in life was that there were no failures, but just results to learn from, when asked what kept him motivated.
”Tenacity is behind this philosophy; no matter what happens to me, I keep going. No matter how many less-than-desirable results I get, I keep moving toward my goal and taking action to get closer to it.
“I know that every so-called failure is just a result you can learn from, and I view setbacks with a growth mind-set to seek out the lesson. I look at what went wrong or what i can do to get a better result next time. And I try again,” he said.
Dlamini said he was seeking assistance from other well established businessmen around country so he could network with them and be helpful to him.
He said currently, his biggest challenge was that most butchery equipment were in South Africa and were very expensive to buy.
“So it becomes more expensive because of transport expenses,” he said.
“Valley Foods is still growing and it gives hopes that it will shine more in the coming years. It’s a fast growing agro-processing business in the country. So far, we have a processing centre that is based in Sigombeni under Manzini Region. And we also we have the shop that will be open in October at the Palm Beach Centre in Manzini, the New complex behind National Spares.”
He said his aspiration was to see the business grow into an international franchise.
