Jo’burg-based entrepreneur Marcia Notshe wants African women to be proud of their natural kinky and coily hair, which is why she launched Zoya Naturals. However, the business challenges such as the pandemic forced her to rethink her business model and look to digital tools for help.

Marcia Notshe has always wanted her daughter Ovayo to embrace her natural hair. When she and her husband Siviwe were in South Korea as missionaries in 2012, she realised there were no natural black hair care products on store shelves for her six-month-old daughter. “So, I began to experiment in my kitchen,” she says. “I started mixing shea butter with other lighter oils.” It was a journey of discovery that involved lots of internet research and watching YouTube videos.

In the end, she worked out a routine for Ovayo’s hair that worked. “Natural hair loves moisture, which is something we’ve historically been told to avoid. But it needs to retain whatever moisture it gets. Natural hair loves good, clean oils,” she asserts. 

It wasn’t just about Ovayo’s hair, it was also about her self-image. “I wanted my daughter’s hair to thrive and I wanted her to have a healthy relationship with her hair,” says Marcia. “I didn’t want her to feel like she had to change it. It’s not unruly, it doesn’t need to be tamed, it just needs to be understood and cared for.”

When she and her family returned to South Africa in 2015, Marcia decided to start her own business, Zoya Naturals. Zoya is an Arabic word meaning “abundant life” and is similar to her daughter’s middle name, Zoe. 

The uptake was slow at first, but gradually sales started to improve. “By 2018, I had built up quite a robust business,” she says. A year later, the business broke even, due in large part because Marcia was now selling her products to salons, as well as to individual customers.

“What I love about digital platforms is they allow you to do things you wouldn’t normally be able to do and reach audiences you wouldn’t usually be able to reach.”

Then Covid-19 hit in 2020 and everything changed. Although many of her loyal customers remained, salons stopped operating and the loss of their orders hit her company hard. When the lockdown eased in 2021, a lot of salons no longer needed her products. “Many salons prefer white-label products with their own branding,” she says, “while for individual customers, there are now plenty of natural hair care options in stores. Both of these factors have made our operating environment very tough.”

Nevertheless, Marcia is optimistic about the future and has a plan to turn the business around. “Currently, we offer products, but we’re adding services too,” she says. In addition to her website, Marcia is working on an app that will allow her customers to order a hairstyle online. She is also moving forward with her own salon which will host master classes using her products, as well as act as a hub for training hair stylists.

One thing that has helped Marcia a lot on her business journey has been digital tools. Her website was set up using Shopify, Payfast and the Courier Guy. “Shopify has been really, really great,” she says. “It’s a super helpful platform and is very intuitive. I was able to create the exact type of website I wanted from the templates available.”

Even though she’s not an IT expert, she’s been able to figure out a lot on her own. “What I love about digital platforms is they allow you to do things you wouldn’t normally be able to do and reach audiences you wouldn’t usually be able to reach,” she says. “You can keep a reliable account of your income and expenses using an online tool, which is great for someone who doesn’t have that experience.”

“Digital platforms help me run my business, but the problem is that they’re not integrated. It would be great to have one digital platform.”

But other digital platforms are more of a challenge, she concedes. “Some platforms are easier to navigate than others. Facebook and Instagram make it easy to create content, but in order to leverage social media, you need to know what’s happening in the background. Having that kind of knowledge will make your content go a long way.”

In terms of SEO, Marcia says she has used a digital agency in the past to help her website gain traction, but the exposure wasn’t significant enough to merit continuing their services. She admits she could use some help with accounting platforms and even getting the FNB app to create a balance sheet for her business. 

“Digital platforms help me run my business, but the problem is that they’re not integrated. It would be great to have one digital platform that would be able to hold my entire business: CRM, my website, accounting software, HR and logistics.”

Looking to the future, Marcia would welcome a business partner to help her business grow. She currently has one employee (down from three), but says it’s hard to stay motivated when you’re on your own. 

“I love creating, dreaming for the business and trying new things,” she says. “The actual running of the company is not my strength. Having a co-founder would take some of the pressure off me and help me to sustain the business.”

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Written by Katherine Graham for DigiBiz Programme
© 2023 Entrepreneurial Planning Institute

 

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