Agnes Loheni is the Owner and Director of Mena International and a Taking Your Business Forward alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 10 November 2022 and all figures and facts quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
How does life look now?
Life is really good! [Mena International] is the family business. We've just celebrated our 20th year, which is quite remarkable in the fashion retail industry. It’s not an easy space to be in. So that was neat, to really recognise that 20 years for us, because it's been a tough road.
There’s challenges, but it's still about family and that's the reason why I get up every morning – to be a mum and a provider to my five children.
I’m just passionate about enterprise and passionate about the ability to create something with your hands, which we physically do, and the whole process of getting it to market and that people actually really want to buy it. It’s just amazing for us that we've been able to do this for 20 years.
How did you hear about The Icehouse and Taking Your Business Forward (TYBF)?
It was my sister, Charlene, who heard about it. We were going through a period of change in our business. We’d noticed some significant growth and we knew that we needed to make some changes if we wanted to really scale up. We thought this looks good.
Why did you and your three sisters take TYBF together?
It’s really important that you all hear the same thing. If there is going to be any sort of transformational change in the business, it's better that you're all hearing it together and discussing it together, rather than someone sitting in on it, and then having to relay it and their interpretation of it, back to the other three.
What were your key takeaways?
We found it really good. Even in the group sessions it was nice to hear one of my sisters talking about a particular topic, and thinking, ‘Ah, I didn't know that.’ You can allow that space to actually hear each other, because normally we're doing the day-to-day operational stuff that happens very quickly. We often don't take the time to sit and work on the business and, because we'd paid into this course, it forced us to have to do it to fit in.
It was also really good to go back over the SWOT analysis, and the why. We really enjoyed those discussions, because we have so much data in our business. What is our secret sauce? What is it that differentiates us from our competitors? We hadn't done that exercise for a period of time. So it was good to do it again, in light of the new information that we've had from our customers with the new growth online.
The sessions on the whole work life/balance were also good because we're all busy mums, and we multitask. We knew it – to have better work/life balance, but also how it really affects your business, your relationship with each other, your relationship with your staff.
So, all in all, it was a wonderful exercise. And we actually took a weekend away after we finished the course and did a whole session together. That was really valuable to us.
What does the future look like?
We've looked at our customers, we've looked at our market, and really tried to drill down into who they are. We’re looking at other product lines outside of clothing, but still sit in that space of Pacific heritage – aspirational, designed products – home furnishings, accessories, and things like that.
We've also been talking about another location and that would be Australia. Mainly because it's been such a growing market for us online, but that will take a lot more planning. So that's where we are at the moment.
What advice do you have for a budding business owner?
Have good people around you as a sounding board to pitch your idea and ask them what they think are the pitfalls. It doesn't mean that you have to just decide that that's what you're going to do, it's just good to have some other eyes on your business and take that on.
Be open to criticism without taking it personally because at the end of the day, if you think you've got something that's going to work, you've looked into it, and you've done your research, then go for it!