By Nteboheleng Leseo
It is often said that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. This may well be the truth but a lot of people particularly women have trouble seeing their own beauty.
Ithabeleng Mahase shared some light about her industry. Ithabeleng Mahase, commonly known as Juju Mahase, is a young woman from Mafeteng who is currently residing in Maseru, owns and runs a beauty spa “dubbed Juju beauty spa”. She started the business at a very young age, persuaded by her physical appearance and lack of confidence/self-esteem. “Growing up, I was the ugliest girl among my peers.” She exclaimed. Juju offers a range of beauty services to enhance individual needs, from hair styling, facial skin care, body massages, manicures, pedicures and more.
We live in a society where one’s physical appearance and beauty seem to rule over many inner features and virtues like generosity, love and forgiveness. She further said beauty makes people feel good about themselves because there is a psychological connection between the concept of beauty and self-confidence.
As much as Juju loves what she does, she encounters numerous challenges but never gives in; rather she considers them to be stepping stones to where she wants to be in the future. One of her biggest challenge is that her business is seasonal. During the winter months women don’t feel compelled to look too good, as there aren’t as many events as in summer, some suffer from the agony of sensitive dry skin, so in the months of winter she rarely gets make-up clients.
To people who are willing to start their own beauty spa, Juju encourages them to do so as it is a lucrative business if well managed. “After all, there is no business without some level of risk, what matters is how prepared one is to face the challenges they come across and succeed in the end”, professed JuJu. She encourages upcoming entrepreneurs to stick to their vision and not be intimidated by the saturated market, because if they are not willing to risk the unusual, they will have to settle for the ordinary.
“Venturing into business is a risk on its own, so do your feasibility study, find out from the people who are already in the business the cons and pros of the business then just go for it .” she explained.
Mahase also indicated that she aspires to expand her business to other districts and hopefully beyond borders. “I want to create employment for Basotho and help grow the economy.” She concluded.