Feature: Towani Clarke – “I took the leap!”

“Jump and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.” These words by American essayist, Ray Bradbury, perfectly describe the journey of Towani Clarke, a finalist in the 2015 instalment of the Nyamuka Zambia Business Plan Competition.

Within moments of interaction, a few things become abundantly clear about Ms. Clarke: She’s a woman of impeccable taste who carries herself with grace and unshakeable poise; a woman of purpose, vision and unquenchable ambition.

She is the owner of Kutowa designs, an afro-chic clothes and accessories label. According to the company’s official Facebook page, which boasts over 8,000 fans, “Kutowa is a fusion of Western design and fabric with African fabric and accessories to create something new, contemporary and suitable to wear for work, partying or just plain chilling.”

“Kutowa, in the Zambian tribe of Tumbuka, means to be so bright and beautiful you dazzle. This is the way Kutowa would like you to feel and how Kutowa hopes people will see you when you wear Kutowa,” she says with a sassy grin.

But this is not necessarily the life she envisioned in her adolescence.

Towani was born and raised in Lusaka, Zambia. She is the first born in a family of four children, three of whom are female. From a tender age she displayed tremendous intellectual prowess, something her father picked up on and actively encouraged. She attended Jacaranda Basic School in her formative years up until 7^th grade. Then Saint Mary’s Woodlands where she completed her secondary education, respectively.

In her last few years of grade school, she begun to seriously contemplate her professional life. Therefore, she sought assistance from her career/guidance counsellor, who did not seem to clear the air for her.

“I was confused by my career teacher. I was, for some reason, inclined towards architecture. That’s what I wanted to do, at least I thought it’s what I wanted to do at the time. She told me it would be easier to be accepted into UNZA if one applied to School of Agriculture, because the country needed more agriculturists,” she recalled.

She enrolled at the University of Zambia (UNZA) and was accepted into the School of Natural Sciences. Based upon the advice of her guidance counsellor, she majored in a five year agriculture programme at the University. She intended on transitioning into the School of Engineering at a later stage, however – perhaps another manifestation of her initial confusion concerning her professional life.

She eventually decided against the shift into the School of Engineering however.

“I found the advanced mathematics challenging,” she says with a chuckle.

“So I decided to continue with agriculture even though I had the requisite grades for the School of Engineering,” she adds.

She successfully completed her programme and graduated with a Distinction in agriculture. She was immediately offered a job as a staff development fellow at the University, meaning she would commence her post-graduate studies straightaway and return as a lecturer.

“It was a great opportunity. But I was not for the idea of going into academia. I knew if I went down that road I would eventually be a researcher, and that’s it. The thought didn’t appeal to me.”

She respectfully declined the offer to pursue post-graduate studies and instead worked on a family farm for three years. She later transitioned to Agriflora Ltd., Zambia’s biggest commercial rose grower with over 50 million stems of export quality roses for the world market, where she worked in horticulture.

It was during her stay at Agriflora that her entrepreneurial sensibilities were heightened. “It was around that time that I became aware of my interest in entrepreneurship. So I thought I need to further my studies to learn more about the managerial aspect of business. So I applied to do a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Cape Town.”

Having completed her MBA, she used the knowledge she acquired to do consultancy work in the agricultural sector. She worked with donor agencies, and local and international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
But in her words, “I still wasn’t feeling it.”

Like many millennials, she felt the need to do something “different,” something that would not only pay her bills but give her satisfaction. She left the agricultural sector.

“I switched industries. I started working for a law firm, Corpus Globe, in a consultancy role. They had a number of bottlenecks in their system, which hindered them from providing efficient service to their clients. So I was doing business mapping, talking to the staff, streamlining their processes and so forth. I enjoyed working there and I really respected my boss Elias Chipimo Jr because he was the embodiment of what I wanted to be, not a lawyer, but an entrepreneur. He basically started corpus himself and built it into one the nation’s top law firm.”

Towani worked as the firm’s operations manager and created its first billing system. She was with the prestigious law firm for four years until the inevitable happened. Not being a lawyer, she hit the proverbial glass ceiling. There was nowhere for her to go, she could not become partner or rise any higher within the organisation’s hierarchy.

Her tone suddenly changes as she recollects the emotional turmoil she experienced. “I figured as much as l love my job and the people I work with, there was nowhere for me to go. I was pretty much stagnating,” she narrates sombrely.

“I am a person of faith. I’m actually a Buddhist. So I went home that day and did some serious meditation and contemplation and the thought came to me ‘why are you so upset? This is not even what you wanted to do in the first place.’ I spent several hours reflecting and I had to admit that what I truly wanted was to start my own business.”

As a practicing Buddhist, Towani takes her New Year Resolutions seriously. She had always been drawn toward fashion so she resolved to start her own company that centred on this inclination come January of 2006.

“I took the leap!” she says excitedly.

Her eyes literally light up as she narrates how she “Put in my notice in 2008. I was determined. I resolved to start Kutowa, and in 2009 and I did. I haven’t looked back since!”

Kutowa is seven years old – still an infant in the eyes of some, including her owner.

“We have got a long way to go. We started with zero employees. Today, we have a number of tailors and sales agents working in our studio and a total of ten employees. I know where I want Kutowa to go. I would like Kutowa to become a flagship Zambian brand. When you see Apple, you instinctively think of the USA, when you think of Nokia, your mind goes straight to Finland.”

“So I want Kutowa to become a Zambian flagship brand. When people think of Zambia, I want them to think of Kutowa. When they think of Kutowa, they should think of Zambia.”

Towani’s business proposal during the Nyamuka Zambia Business Plan Competition involved, firstly, expanding Kutowa within the borders of Zambia and then within the Southern African region and beyond. Her solid pitch on The Game Plan TV show convinced a panel of renowned businessmen and women that she deserved to be among the top winners. She took the third place slot and a guarantee of K175,000 to help take her business to newer dimensions.

“I learned a great deal from the Nyamuka experience. The wisdom I gleaned was invaluable. Being part of the top five and winning the K175,000 was a surreal moment for me.”

Through the Nyamuka experience, Towani had exclusive access to business development workshops hosted by some of the nation’s finest business minds. This was in addition to one-to-one business planning support as she worked towards developing her bankable plan.

She had some nuggets of wisdom to aspiring fashion designers and entrepreneurs: “Go to school! I’m in fashion school. I just enrolled a couple of months ago. I learned a lot the hard way. I have my own crazy way of putting things together. But you can avoid a lot of mistakes if you acquire knowledge and expose yourself to the processes that come with formal education.”

It goes without saying that only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.