An event dedicated to celebrating and embracing your progress, courage, unique strengths and the contribution that you have made to the world.
URBANIQUE is set to host aspiring and budding entrepreneurs for an afternoon of inspiration, networking and golden nuggets that will contribute to the sustainability and success of their ventures.
“Because we understand the process of building a business, especially from scratch, and how challenging yet exceptionally rewarding it can be, we have taken it upon ourselves to host our very first Women In Business Year End Celebratory Event. A time to reflect on the progress that we have made and a call to celebrate our wins, no matter how small they are deemed to be,” the official Insta invite reads.
BE PART OF THE FUN! BOOKING & ENQUIRY DETAILS ARE IN THE GRAPHIC BELOW:
FOR WOMEN, BY WOMEN
Urbanique Business Empowerment Hub is a purpose-driven brand established to equip women in business with various invaluable resources that may assist in building sustainable and rewarding businesses.
Our first impression of Urbanique was as brilliant as the brand itself – a carefully curated Instagram with beautiful branding and even better captions. When we finally had the opportunity to talk to the fabulous founder Lerato Tshephe about her Urbanique founding journey, it became instantly obvious that this is a woman on an inspiring mission to make an impact… precisely our type(4girl, 😉)
INSPIRED TO WORK WITH WOMEN
“Growing up I was referred to as a boss, bossy by extension. And I remember it used to offend me a little because I didn’t see it for what it was – that I have always been a leader,” Lerato tells us.
The future business empowerment champion was a happy child who had an early and consistent encounter with entrepreneurship, so it comes as a somewhat natural progression for her to move into the space. “My dad is an entrepreneur, so I got an idea of how it would be like from him and I felt that there was so much freedom in following that path.”
Working with women is something Lerato was always going to do, at least since her teen years. “I went to an all girls boarding school and that inspired me to work with women, I was around women for a good five years.”
WHATS IN A NAME?
“For me, besides identification, it has to be manifestation or affirmation of what we hope for or envision. Power and influence too,” Lerato says.
“Choosing a name was a struggle, but I knew I wanted something fresh, unique, modern and exciting. I wrote all these down, I believe there is so much power in writing things down. So the more I looked at that brief, the name literally put itself together. Urban , which is the first part, and unique, the second. I’d like to believe that everything I have executed under this brand has been unique and freshly implemented. This is my baby and every time I hear somebody else speak of it as something solid, it makes me proud because I’m like wow, something that came from nothing is possibly making an impact.”
She adds, “we tend to complicate things unnecessarily, like the process of choosing a name. I think sometimes it’s really just there before you, you simply need to give it a chance and see how it can work out for you. You don’t have to overthink it. Sometimes it’ll be the first idea that comes to you – as long as it’s available and speaks to your vision and what you’re trying to do, then Bob’s your uncle!”
STARTING OVER & REBRANDING
A lot of life happened to Lerato in 2015,she dropped out of varsity and moved back home.
“I asked myself what I wanted to do next. I then registered a business but for the longest time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. At some point this idea fell into my lap and well, here we are,” she shares.
Then 2019 came along and transformed the trajectory of Urbanique. Lerato says, “I rebranded from women empowerment to business empowerment. I realised I wanted to learn more about business and that the brand as it was wasn’t exactly what I wanted, so I changed it.”
THE CHALLENGE OF BUILDING ALONE
If you pick up any self-help book by an entrepreneur, you’ll likely hear all about how lonely the life of a solo founder can get. That terrible feeling is exponentially amplified when you find yourself building alone without a solid support structure.
“One of the most challenging things for me came right at the beginning of my founding journey – having a vision and trying to share it with my loved ones. Maybe because they couldn’t see it or I didn’t articulate it properly, they couldn’t understand it and they had an ‘oh ok’ attitude towards me and it. That was very painful for me. Experiences like that make you realise you’re alone and force you to withdraw from sharing your beautiful idea because you feel like nobody is going to give you the time of day. In spite of that unpleasant experience, I am here now because I believed in what once seemed like an idea that didn’t mean anything to anybody else. Urbanique is a brand that’s growing in itself.”
Another challenge for Lerato was having to reveal herself as the face behind the brand as it grew. “That part is also not easy at all,” she laughs.
