It always seems impossible until it done

Sonia Khakhane – Entrepreneur – “You will never never know how far you can go or how proud you can make yourself by simply not giving up.”

Conquering the challenge of operating their business model solely online takes hard work, but the experience of these two sisters has presented lessons that youthful entrepreneurs can learn from.

Desiree Gases

The first seeds of what is now commonly known as Khakhane shop originated almost eight years ago when the Khakhane sisters, Grace and Sonia, opened their first shop in Town Square.

After six years they closed their doors due to the economic difficulties in Namibia. However, they still wanted to make an impact not only for themselves but for all women – whether in fashion, makeup or skincare.

So, the sisters decided to focus on moving the store online.

Khakhane shop offers clothing, makeup and skincare products for women. The shop has always been about empowerment of women and wanting to have it all for Namibian queens.

“The world as we know it today or even back then praises men and puts them on such a pedestal. It’s important to show that we as women are capable of working just as hard, so it was easy to say let’s do this woman empowerment thing,” said Sonia.

The Khakhane shop currently has four lovely female employees. When it comes to the success of the business thus far the 100% Khakhane shop has had their highs and lows, but generally the public has supported them in so many ways and that’s what keeps them going.

Careers asked what some the challenges were that they faced. Sonia replies: “Having had actual shops, we know that people like to come in and make sure the clothing pieces fits right by physically touching or seeing a product, but now we had to dive into the unknown which is the online market.

“This was quite scary, because sometimes clients don’t really trust online shops and that has been quite a challenge.”

When it comes to their short-term and long-term goals, Sonia says: “I think we have passed the let’s open another shop, we want to really learn the game better when it comes to online shopping as it’s the future.

“We want to grow not only in Namibia, but currently in South Africa soon as well so we pray and we work really hard”.

Careers asked Sonia what advice she would give to a youthful person who would one day aspire to open a business. She replied: “Just go for it. Even if you are not 100% confident in your own business skills and experience, just go ahead and launch it because you can work on it and fix it along the way. The biggest downfall we face as entrepreneurs is being scared, so I say go for it!

“If you fail, it’s fine, get up and try again. You will never never know how far you can go or how proud you can make yourself by simply not giving up.”