Name: Aneesa Khan
Company: Make Me Fabulous SA
Business Line: Fashion online store
Contact: +27 (0) 62 092 8339
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/makemefabuloussa
1) Can you briefly tell us a bit about yourself including your full name
My name is Aneesa Khan, I am a 24 year old divorced single mother of two boys. I was born and raised in Johannesburg. I never had the opportunity to go to a college or university everything that I have learnt has been through life experiences, observing people that I aspired to be like and through reading a vast amount of literature.
2) Can you please tell us about what you do? What is Make Me Fabulous all about?
I run a small online fashion store called Make Me Fabulous SA. My store is dedicated to providing on trend and fashion forward clothing and accessories to our customers that want to look and feel runway ready.
3) What inspired you to venture into your line of work and who supported you along the way?
My inspiration is my passion for helping people who want to stylishly put their best foot forward and my kids, I want to provide them with a comfortable life in a world where survival is becoming almost impossible to achieve, I want to teach them hard work and to value all things in life both good and bad because they both teach us things about ourselves and how to grow into a better more ambitious and humble person. I have no supporters in my life, I get told a lot that I'm not good enough and my main aim is proving to myself that I'm so much more than what people see, I want to prove to everyone that I can achieve everything that I was told I could never have.
4) How has your journey been as a young woman behind a growing brand?
It has been a tough journey and I know it will only get tougher before I get to the level that I aspire to be at. It took a lot of long nights, research, hard work, dedication but most of all this journey has thought me to always stay focused and to be patient. It has been a wonderful journey that thought me how to use criticism to grow myself into a better person.
5) What are some of the challenges you have endured and how have you overcome these?
My main challenge is making enough sales to generate an income. It's difficult when you put your heart and soul and every cent you have into starting up an online store and not receiving any reward but if you want something bad enough you find a way to overcome that and have faith that someday it will all work out. I push forward every day finding cost effective ways of efficient marketing and sales tactics to someday get me to achieve my goals.
6) Why should anyone use your services or products?
What separates my store from other online stores is the wide range of stylish clothing that is unique to my brand and can not easily be found at affordable prices such as mine. My primary function is to ensure that customers are happy so I provide products tailored for every individuals personal style, size and shape to allow our customers to embrace their individuality. I always provide respectful friendly and prompt customer service.
7) Its quiet clear that you have broken ground and you are doing well. Where do you see yourself in the near future?
My number one goal right now is to make enough profit to open up a walk-in boutique that will allow me to reach a wider variety of customers. I'm also working on an app to make online shopping at my store more convenient.
8) What advice would you best give to young women who like to venture into your line of work?
Invest in a business consultant or business coach to help you in areas that you are lacking, its always good to keep improving yourself and learning new things or just polishing your knowledge so that you are able to keep up with our ever changing economy and technological advances. Most of all never give up no matter how impossible your chances to succeed seem if you truly want it bad enough don't let anything discourage you or temp you into giving up on yourself, nothing in life worth having comes easy.
9) Do you think women feel intimidated in business?
I don't think women feel intimidated in business, I believe that women have become comfortable enough to allow their confidence to shine out and to become an equal among men in business. No matter what gender everyone has a talent or skill that can improve our business economy and women have now become brave enough to run the race.
10) How do you achieve work-life balance?
It is important to prioritize your time between family life and work life, I make a schedule according to how important things are and how urgent they are.
I maintain set working hours and stick to them.
I set personal time out so that i can relax and allow myself to refocus, self reflect and de-stress.
11)What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship and mentoring others?
The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards set for oneself. By reflecting honestly on what needs to change you're increasing your quality as a leader.
Entrepreneurship has humbled me. And I find it humbles a lot of young founders, who often set off to change the world only to feel the weight of their aspirations when they realize it doesn't happen overnight. Be sure to always leave room for personal development.
A business mentor should be someone with more entrepreneurial business experience than yourself, having a good mentor that can truly share wisdom with you on an ongoing basis in a manner that can have a directly positive impact on the growth of your business over time is highly beneficial.
