"Be persistent and focused on your dreams. Don’t be shaken by challenges, face them head on and do what you love . Offer the best service you’d like to receive and remember nothing worth having comes easy, believe in your business the rest will fall into place." Prudence Ramotso Founder and CEO at Prudent fashion group (Pty)Ltd
Q1:Tell us about your yourself:
I am a shoe lover at heart ,financial advisor by profession and an entrepreneur. I am 30 years old and a mother of 2 beautiful girls . I am the founder and CEO of Prudent Fashion group. I was born and raised in the Vaal Sebokeng.
Q2:What does your company do?:
What does your company do?: We offer high quality shoes and sunglasses branded PRUDENT, we are rapidly growing. Now we cater for both male and female sunglasses, shoes for now are only for ladies. We are an online store and we deliver worldwide.
Q3: What inspired you to start your business?:
I have always been short and my love for heels is unbreakable and heels boost my confidence so I started my business to boost other women’s confidence by wearing a proudly South African brand and also to help fight the unemployment rate in South Africa
Q4: How do you define your business model; what differentiates your products or Services from others?:
All my shoes have inner padding for comfort and they are named after African names and the names are engraved on the outsole of each shoe, this is to give shoes characters . We use clear acrylic shoe box which allows you to see your shoes inside the box without opening the box
Q5: Starting a business is not easy. What struggles did you experience in the infant years of your company and how did you overcome it?:
I had a big problem with shoe sizes when I didn’t have the bulk stock, if the shoes didn’t fit the customer I had to sell the shoe quickly and order a different size. That was the longest process to do when we had to do an exchange. I overcame that by changing my business strategy and had bulk stock readily available delivery was efficient and exchange was an easy quick process ,I have more happy customers
Q6: What do you know today that you wish you would have known when you first got started?:
I wish I knew that I can use foot measurements in cm/mm for shoe sizes .
Q7: Businesses come with stress; what gives you the joy to keep you going?:
The joy that I get when I see my customers wearing my brand with pride keeps me going 😊😊
Q7: Businesses come with stress; what gives you the joy to keep you going?:
The joy that I get when I see my customers wearing my brand with pride keeps me going 😊
Q8: Why do you think businesses fail in your industry?:
Business fails with lack of marketing and not targeting the right market.
Q9: What are your 3 priorities right now:
To have more items to offer (both male and female)
Reach out to the global market
Open physical stores
Q10: What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?:
Future plans are to have physical stores all over the world and to be the most trusted clothing brand.
Q11: Advice to other entrepreneurs or to your younger self?:
Be persistent and focused on your dreams. Don’t be shaken by challenges, face them head on and do what you love . Offer the best service you’d like to receive and remember nothing worth having comes easy, believe in your business the rest will fall into place.
Prudence Ramotso began her entrepreneurial journey from this very personal starting point, "I have always been short and heels boost my confidence". From there, she has poured her creativity into designing shoes that not only boost the confidence of her customers but crowns them, as her website beautifully says: YOUR SHOES: YOUR CROWN.
Prudence is not only creating products that hold high standards of quality but by naming each pair of shoes with an African name; Nolwazi, Ayanda and Bonang for example, clearly displays pride in her South African heritage and her confidence in the value of a South African brand in the global market. She has already begun expanding in this direction with the Middle East and Africa, and her future plans for physical stores and an expanding customer base has its roots in grounded experience.
With the innovative concept of a clear acrylic shoe box containing her fashionable shoes, she has quite possibly hit on an amazing branding and store design concept that is unique and globally memorable.
In 1980 in his book The Third Wave futurist Alvin Toffler coined the word “prosumer” referring to an individual who both consumes and produces. He obviously did not create the culture where people produce what they consume and sell it to the rest of the market, we grew up in communities that did just that.
Value remained within the community and we had producers that understood how it’s like to also be a consumer. This led to both fair distribution of the world and ethical supply chain where value remains within the people.
Today women especially within the Africa continent have been known to consume more than they create, this leads to inequalities within trade and within supply chains where women are not owners of IP or are not decision makers. If we are to see real transformation, we need more female producers and creators, women must own production means to what they consume most.
Prudence turning her passion and love of shoes into a thriving sought after brand, is a testament that change is here. I look forward to seeing Prudent physical store all over the continent and we are very excited to have told the story of the next big brand in Africa.
As at 2022 June, the made in Africa brand accounts only for 1.9% of all global products made. We have the domestic market (demand side), the tech means and abundant potential, but as a continent, we have not been capitalising on the available potential. Prudence is boldly entering the fiercely contested shoe, apparel and sunglasses market at an apt time. We look forward to Prudence’s expansion into retail store offerings, and beyond. To complement their current eCommerce capabilities, with greater accessibility of their African themed and named shoes, an emerging household name.
Connect with Prudence Ramotso
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