Vuyokazi (“Vish”) Maliwa is a young mother of two, born and bred in Cape Town. Like many other South Africans, she started her business as a side-hustle, in conjunction with a full-time job at Old Mutual, one of South Africa’s largest insurance companies.

A year ago, she bravely decided to take the plunge, and quit the corporate world to focus exclusively on her small business, located in a backroom of her mother’s house, on the corner of Sindile and Brinton Avenues in Langa. Vish offers dermo planning facial treatments, as well as express eyelash extensions – both beauty products that are in high demand in emerging middle-class sectors of South African society.

She is keen to expand her marketing reach and product range, but also to look at her pricing strategy, and to address the significant fluctuations of demand, in line with her customers’ income cycles.