High School dreams come true for Byo entrepreneur

Miss Victoria Gazi, a 26-year-old entrepreneur, credits her passion for business to her high school days.

She has relentlessly pursued her dream of becoming a successful businesswoman since she was a little girl.

Miss Gazi’s current ventures include Aqua Manzi branding company, Samson Bricks, which manufactures and sells bricks in Kelvin West and a Value Gas franchise in Bellevue, Bulawayo.

Her love for business began during her high school days when she started supplying customised t-shirts to other pupils as a business project for a subject called Business Enterprise.

She attended Petra Primary School and Midlands Christian College for her primary and high school education.

Her business grew and she eventually supplied the school with t-shirts for camps and social events.

She used the profits to buy her first tablet and vowed to become a Chartered Accountant, which would assist her in running her own business in the future.

After high school, Miss Gazi pursued an accounting degree at the University of Cape Town and during her holidays, she worked at accounting firms to gain experience.

Ms Victoria Gazi

However, she soon realised that auditing was not for her, and she would not survive being cooped up in an office all day.

When Miss Gazi was in university, her father was about to retire and looking for businesses to channel his retirement package. She saw this as an opportunity to convince her father to use his package to start Samson Bricks but her father was not interested in that line of business and was already working on other plans.

Miss Gazi got a job at a leading gas wholesaler in Bulawayo, where she got the idea of selling gas. She later worked for Battery Giant under the guidance of a female boss who taught her a great deal on running a successful business.

Unfortunately, after a few months, the gas business did not work out, and Miss Gazi had to close two of her branches.

However, after a few months, Value Gas started franchising, and Miss Gazi decided to try again. This was one of the best decisions she has ever made, as the company started making money.

“The challenges I was facing before hand became better. When I saw that it was working, I opened Aqua Manzi. This is a branded water company where we brand purified water especially for corporate companies and weddings. These two companies are the ones that helped establish my long-held dream of owning a construction company,” said Miss Gazi who completed a postgraduate diploma in Business Administration and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Business Leadership with the University of South Africa (Unisa).

“For the first few months, we struggled because capital was not enough, but we had to make sure we got everything done. I’m really grateful to my parents for assisting me during these trying times. My mom was my greatest shoulder to lean on and my friends Shelly and Tendai became my unpaid personal assistants. They, together with my mom, supported me and they would help me run around and get everything done,” said Miss Gazi.

She said Samson Bricks makes standard bricks, pavers and block bricks as well as retail ancillary building materials such as brick force, cement, lintels, air vents etc at a one stop shop for the convenience of customers.

Initially, Samson Bricks faced challenges with managing orders as the company was still small but significant strides have been made in improving productivity.

Being in the brickmaking and gas businesses, which are male dominated industries, has not been easy for Miss Gazi.

She has faced challenges with some men not taking her seriously while others make indecent remarks because she is a woman.

Miss Gazi employs more than 13 people across her three businesses and has been nominated for major awards by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce which include Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Business Woman of the Year Award.

Samson Bricks has also been nominated for Emerging Business of the Year and Micro Small to Medium Enterprise of the Year Award, again by ZNCC.

Miss Gazi was a delegate at the prestigious Forbes under 30 Africa Summit held in Gaborone in April 2023.

“Everyone should always remember that everything that is a reality today once started as a dream so never stop chasing your dreams,” she said.-chronicle