Today, I profile a 33-year-old young entrepreneur with a bulldozing spirit which has propelled him to become a business executive with a purpose of determination which has made him to succeed against all odds.
Mike Sinkala was born in the year 1981 and completed his secondary education at Mumbwa High School in the year 2001 where his father, who was a teacher with a business background, worked.
Mr Sinkala senior, who is late now, developed a successful grocery business from the money raised through selling charcoal in Mumbwa town, while he was still teaching.
When Mike finished high school education, his father gave him K300,000 (unrebased) as transport money to visit his mother in Mufulira on the Copperbelt as his father and mother were not living together.
While on the way, Mike had other intentions about the money given to him as transport by his father. Instead he changed the course of his journey and headed to Lusaka’s Chawama Township and invested the transport money in the Kantemba business.
According to Mike’s narration, he set up the Kantemba business at his cousin’s residence and used the rest of the money to order groceries such as cigarettes,detergent paste, sweets and other groceries which he sold to the neighbourhood.
It is also important to mention here that Mike, from the word go when he completed his high school education, never intended to work, but to venture into business and become a successful entrepreneur with a purpose.
The Kantemba business grew in stocks in that his cousin allowed him to re-invest the profits made into stocks as he was not allowed to spend money on upkeep.
Six months down the line, the capital in terms of stocks, grew from less than K300,000 to K2,000,000. as Mike’s intention was to open a big grocery and prove a point to his father.
Mike’s success in grocery was made possible when he started selling buns smeared with butter.
He told this columnist that his grocery business grew in stocks because sugar and tea leaves were on high demand as well, pulled by the demand for buns.
However, his plans to open a big grocery were hampered because of security of his growing stocks which was at stake as thieves targeted him from time to time.
Mike quickly moved in another direction and went to city market in central town and rented a store for K90,000(unrebased) which he paid for three months in advance.
This was after he sold his grocery stocks and realised K4,800,000 (unrebased) cash and changed his business to that of ordering and selling clothes from Nakonde.
Mike’s bulldozing spirit diversified his business into buying and selling maize, whilst doing so, mike indentified his helper by the name of Philip Phiri who took care of his clothing business inside city market.
Whilst buying and selling maize, mike continued going to Nakonde to order clothes for the City Market business now taken care of by Philip. According to his words, Philip who is the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has been described as very honest and trustworthy.
It is true looking at this man; one can be tempted to call him a pastor by his humble facial appearance.
When the late President Mwanawasa’s good agricultural policies started recording bumper harvests, the price of maize went down and ultimately the middlemen like Mike found it difficult to continue dealing in maize.
Mike read the mood and realised that Zambia was just being exposed to CD and DVD technology and that this business was just unfolding.
He jumped on this band wagon and started performing crossborder business by going into Malawi and Tanzania to order CDs and DVDs for resale. According to Mike, he told this columnist that at that time, the Kwacha had more strength and it was advantageous to order a number of items as compared to today when the Kwacha is losing strength.
He set street outlets along Cairo, Nkwazi, Freedom and Katunjila roads where he engaged street boys who were selling CDs and DVDs on his behalf, but on commission basis.
It was during this time that the life changed for better for Mike who went on to buy his first car in 2007 the Toyota corolla e100.
He went on to build his own personal house in Makeni Simson which was valued at K90.000.000 by then.
Mike secured his store at town centre where he set up his wholesale outlet for CDs and DVDs and during this period he closed his clothing business at city market after selling his stocks and invested this money into CDs and DVDs.
He transferred Philip to take care of his wholesale business, while he concentrated on his street business.
The piracy of CDs and DVDs caused the Government to intervene after complaints from those affected and this slowed down this business. Mike admitted that it was during this that he made his money.
At this time when he saw that his business was affected by the government anti-piracy policy, he decided to sell his makeni Simson house to raise more capital to pump into the hardware business as the construction business was just unfolding, while he secured another plot in Mtendere Township within Lusaka where he started constructing another house.
After he sold his Makeni Simson house for K90,000000, he invested K25,000,000 in the hardware business at the town centre and committed K55,000,000.to the construction of his Mtendere house.
Mike didn’t realise that he has been pushed into real estate business because no sooner had he finished his mtendere house than he had sold it to a soldier who bought it at K80,000,000.
Apart from the hardware business at the town centre, mike now buys plots and constructs houses for resale a move that has made him to build his personal house where he now lives valued at K200,000,000. with the profits earned from his estate business.
As I write now Mike has also gone into poultry farming where he raises 800 birds a session at his Makeni home.
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