Dynamic Katlehong entrepreneur is an inspiration to all

Lucia Mohlabi, of Katlehong, is, at 35, one of the top sales people in South Africa and is following in the footsteps of her mother, also a businesswoman.

Mohlabi was studying electrical engineering, but dropped out after a chance meeting with a woman who was selling Tupperware, and her life changed completely.

Today she is one the Top Five Tupperware team leaders in South Africa and has achieved phenomenal sales with the product.

She said: “I was going to buy one of the products and the woman selling it said I could do this as well, if I wished.

So I took a brochure and contacted the company.”

Mohlabi is part of a growing Tupperware female sales force of 2.6 million women in regions like China, India, Indonesia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Latin America and South Africa.

It is what many are calling the “Tupperware effect” – how training, financing and mentoring women can transform villages and entire countries from the inside out.

It took only five years for the energetic Mohlabi to achieve the status of being named in the Top Five Tupperware team leaders.

When she received her first company car she was unable to drive it, because she didn’t have a licence.

So she went to a driving school – and failed four times.

“But I was determined to get my car and drive it,” she said.

Today Mohlabi has a staff complement of 32 managers and more than 1 500 demonstrators under her wing and is a shining example of how well women can do with passion and motivation.

“When I joined in 2009 I was told about the recruitment drive, bringing more women on board to help sell,”she said.

“I then went out there and recruited.

“I didn’t even have a car; my husband is a teacher and the first car we had was from the company, it was so nice.

“I didn’t know how to drive that car, but I succeeded; my husband didn’t have a driver’s licence, either.”

Mohlabi, who was married at 21 and whose first born is now 16, said being in the Top Five was a dream come true.

“I’ve done Top 20 and Top 10 and next year my drive is to become Top One — I can do it,” she added.

The company’s various incentives include overseas travel and, having already visited Argentina and Mauritius, this year Mohlabi is heading for Spain.

The hardest part in this business, she finds, is keeping motivation on a high level.

“With my managers it is an easy job, because they become my motivators, they motivate me,” she said.

Her message to young people is simple: “Don’t give up.”

“This generation is inclined to give up easily; they want things immediately, instant success, and they don’t want to work for it.

“I always tell them, you have to know what you want; if you want to be a team leader you must just focus on that, draw up your goals and work towards them.

“If you don’t have a goal, then you don’t have a direction — you don’t even know where you are going.

“I love the product with all my heart and would not like to sell something else.

“It’s not because of the money, give me a Tupperware product and I can talk about it for hours and I don’t even get bored.”