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MANKWANE Chakela is passionate about beauty and has been ever since she was a skinny four-year-old running around the dusty streets of Sharpeville.

When she was young Chakela would apply ash on her face; black shoe polish on her eyebrows and red floor polish on her lips as her own brands of make-up .

She would also parade around her home in her older sister’s clothes and high heels.

Chakela says: “My mother always tells me that she knew then that I would be a beauty queen.”

Today, she is the founder and owner of Lé Looks Hair and Beauty, which has branches in Sandton City, Eastgate and Maponya Mall in Soweto.

Lé Looks had a turnover of R5.5 million last year, from just over R350000 in 2003 when the first salon opened its doors.

In the next two to three years Chakela is looking at franchising her beauty business and is working with the Industrial Development Corporation to see this goal through.

“I want to partner with my staff and give them the opportunity to own their own franchises,” she says. “When I retire, Lé Looks must stay on.”

Fifty-year-old Chakela started her career as a school teacher in Sharpeville in 1979. She says her teaching background has not left her and she still applies her old methods when she trains her staff.

The chain employs a staff complement of around 40.

The current economic squeeze does not seem to have affected the beauty business much. The Sandton City branch where we met around lunchtime on a Friday afternoon was buzzing with activity, and although Chakela shares the floor with three other salons , she says the competition has not bothered her, but rather keeps her on her toes. “The cake is just too big,” she says.

Besides her loyal client base, Chakela grooms a lot of celebrities and politicians.

She counts among her clients musicians Sibongile Khumalo, Zamajobe and the Bala brothers. Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula and her family also get buffed and coiffed at Lé Looks.

In 2007 Old Mutual Properties invited Chakela to open a branch in Maponya Mall and she says that was the highlight of her career and the recognition validated her hard work and sacrifices.

“For them to actually invite me to go and operate there, without me applying was really fulfilling for me, spiritually and otherwise,” she says.

Chakela says the biggest challenge facing businesswomen, and black ones in particular, is that many have not had proper training on how to run and manage their businesses successfully. She says: “Business used to be a man’s domain, but things are turning around.”

It is important for women to work with each other and not to be afraid to partner with people who are already players in the business that they are venturing into, says Chakela.

“The reason why so many businesses fail is because most people just go for whatever they think will make them the most money, but I believe that passion is key.”

That passion is important because when you start out, as the owner of the business you work twice as hard and get paid three times less, she says. Everything that Chakela teaches her clients about beauty she applies in her own life.

“I live what we preach in the salons,” she says.

Chakela is married and has two children. She works out in the gym three to four times a week and tends her garden to relax. - By LIHLE Z MTSHALI