Francistown — Venturing into a secretarial company may have been a great challenge, but the sky is the limit for 5M Consultancies Director, Riapius Nthei.

Her business is a beehive of activity, as she, together with her three employees, tries their best to give efficient service to their customers.

Located at the Main Mall, above a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise, 5M Consultancies, is a one stop business center which offers services ranging from the internet, secretarial, photocopying, faxing, laminating, scanning, designing, a photo studio for passport photos, website designing, hosting as well as computer repairs.

32-year-old Nthei started her business in 2005 after emigrating from Kenya to this country to teach. Despite her teaching job, Nthei's ambitions were been higher.

"I came to the country as a teacher. Whilst teaching, I saved some money because I knew that someday I was going to start a business."

Her thriving company started small and they were forced by circumstances to operate in a cramped room.

"We had to make it through with only two computers and a small printer. Hard work, patience and perseverance slowly took the company to greater heights," she said.

Although these qualities contributed to the growth of her company, Nthei believes her relations with the public have attributed to the growth and success of 5M Consultancies.

"We were patient but, we also offered quick and affordable services; we were prepared to correct typographical mistakes at no charge, which is why customers kept coming back to us," she said.

Nthei faces challenges as she tries to grow her business. Some of these challenges include finding qualified staff to work for her.

According to her, they have since ratified the problem and they are expanding.

"We used to have cash flow problems in the beginning; the money we generated was used to service our machines. For example we had to buy more ink and cartridges. It was difficult funding a new machine because we couldn't save for it."