Women’s Month Feature – Lindiwe Shibambo (Founder of Maid4u)
We are excited to have launched our women’s month campaign where we are embracing our female clients during the month of August. We are celebrating female owned businesses by featuring women owned businesses. We had the opportunity to chat to Lindiwe Shibambo (Founder of Maid4u) to find out more about her journey as an Entrepreneur.
1. Why did you start your own business or want to venture into entrepreneurship?
I worked as a domestic worker from a young age due to lack of education and any other formal skills. I managed to save some funds to register after 2 years of working as a Domestic at a Tertiary Institution and later worked within the Banking sector where I heard horror stories from my colleagues about domestic workers which I found strange since I was a good dedicated home employee.
When I had my first child I experienced first hand the struggle to employ a good reliable and skilled home employee. I then started researching about this sector with some students from Wits and we discovered that there is a huge need for an organisation that can offer SCREENING / BACK ROUND CHECKING, TRAINING, PLACEMEMENT AND HR Services within this sector. I then started this business to fill the gap.
2. What keeps you motivated to keep on moving forward and not to give up?
What motivates me to keep moving is the positive impact the organisation has on people. Both employers who have been frustrated by employing unruly and dishonest domestics and domestics that are highly skilled and discipline who just need a break.
MAID4U existence of the organization is centred around high impact job creation, skills development and provision of professional and reliable service for households in South Africa.
3. What was your greatest challenge as an Entrepreneur and how did you overcome it?
Greatest challenge for me and for most black woman entrepreneurs in South Africa is access to Market and Acquisition of Capital or access to Funding. This is a challenge that most of us are still trying to overcome and the situation has worsened due to the COVID-19 Pandemic , In a short while how I tried to overcome this was in securing contracts from Private Sector and Corporates in South Africa for small manageable projects.
4. What do you do during your spare time to relax?
My day starts early with Yoga most mornings to relax, I go to the gym every 3 days and watch business documentaries or books to relax.
5. Do you have any advice or message for young women wanting to venture into the world of Entrepreneurship?
My Advice would be that they need to venture into a business that speaks to their personality and passion, Never be afraid to start small and get a mentor.