From banking to entrepreneurship

Esther Hadassah Sendeza is one of the few courageous women who quit a well-paying job at Standard Bank to become an entrepreneur.

Born in Lilongwe 26 years ago, Sendeza did her secondary school at Mary Mount from where she was selected to the Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi where she graduated with a degree in Information Technology.

But how did she find herself being an entrepreneur?

“I became an entrepreneur some three years ago after I quit my job at Standard Bank IT Electronic banking department. I have always wanted to do something of my own all my life; something different and creative. Basically, I wanted to be my own boss. There was just so much I wanted to do. Actually, there are still a whole lot of other things I am yet to achieve,” says Sendeza.

She says she started off with baby steps and for at least two years she had been running an online store where she was selling a wide range of different items on the internet.

At the beginning of this year she decided to create he own hair brand and clothing line.

“I started off with the Hair brand which is called Mi Llamo Hadassah, it is in Spanish and it means my name is Hadassah or I am Hadassah. The clothing line is also in the same name,” she adds.

Sendeza says that having a clothing line was one of her secondary school dreams, but she honestly did not see it happening at all.

“I remember being in secondary school and spending most of my time drawing out clothing designs in some classes and showing them off to my friends Mwayi Kamwendo, Beatrice Roka and Florence Milner. This carried on through my university years. My desire for design and creativity grew stronger but eventually cooled off when I got my first Job at Airtel,” she says.

She says her passion for design motivates her to forge ahead.

“When I look at Malawi I see a lot of opportunities. I have a certain drive to create new things and at the beginning of this year [2014], I started to put my mind to work by putting my ideas in action,” she says.

The grand opening for her shop Mi Llamo Hadassah on the first floor of the New HTD Building at Ginnery Corner in Blantyre was on November 1 and it was on this day that she also launched her clothing and hair brand.

She concludes: “It was a good experience and the people’s turn up was pretty good. And the shop is now open from Mondays to Saturdays. So far I have not created that many jobs because I have just started but my plan is to turn Mi Llamo Hadassah into a worldwide franchise. The clothing line is new but my hair brand of 100 percent human hair weaves has been there since the beginning of this year and so far I have also been supplying to South Africa and Zimbabwe.”