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Leslie Mupeti: The Creative Mind Behind Daily Brand’s Success

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From getting into trouble with his teachers at school for drawing cars at the back of all his exercise books to developing his graphic designing skills while at university, Leslie Mupeti was always destined to leave an indelible mark in the creative industry.

It is no wonder then that many of his friends and fellow students at the University of Zimbabwe failed to come to terms with how a person with such mesmerising drawing and designing skills had enrolled to study for a degree in Biotechnology.

The story of Leslie and the journey he took before eventually establishing Daily Brand as a digital marketing and web designing vehicle is a fascinating one that starts with him vigorously scribbling on his books during his formative years at school.

Running into trouble

“I attended Marlborough Primary School and then St John’s High School Emerald Hill. I was very artistic in High School. I used to always get in trouble all the time with my teachers and parents for drawing cars at the back of my exercise books.

“By then, I had no idea that a decade later I was going to be drawing and designing for a living. It was just a hobby that I enjoyed doing. Drawing all sorts of objects was in my blood and I could not stop because I enjoyed it.”

“Me and two of my close friends used to have drawing competitions all the time. We would draw cars then let our classmates pick the best one. I used to win a lot. I enjoyed Art class a lot and I remember one of my artworks was once displayed at the National Art Gallery. It was a big moment for me.”

Although art classes emerged as his favorite at high school, everyone was surprised when he chose to study science subjects for his Advanced Level.

“I was also incredibly good at History, loved Art and was also fascinated by Sciences class.
I ended up taking Sciences at Advanced Level, eventually enrolling for a degree in Biotechnology at the University of Zimbabwe.”

From hobby to business

While studying Biotechnology, Leslie never lost his love for art and design and decided to continue with his craft as a hobby – whenever he was taking a breather from his hectic study schedule.

“As a guy who loved art and design, I took up graphic design as a hobby. I would design a lot of random posters on canvas and then share the work with my friends, who I must say were very impressed.

“These are the people who gave me my first few gigs as a graphic designer. They had their side hustles and small businesses as students, and they would commission me to design adverts and branding for their businesses.”

As his side hustle grew, so did his popularity among the many fellow students who were left impressed with his talent and ability to come up with eye-catching and high-quality designs and patterns.

And then it dawned on him: Why not transform his art and passion for designing into a fulltime business venture?

“There was no specific day or date that I decided to start my business. It sort of just shaped up by itself. A lot of people were coming to me for their graphic design work and these small jobs snowballed into a business.

“The question I get from most people is how a Biotech graduate now works in Digital Marketing. It’s easy, I have multiple interests. Nothing stops me from getting into any industry. Even if I were to wake up tomorrow morning and get into engineering, nothing would stop me.”

Digital marketing professionals

Daily Brand is a name that has become synonymous with digital marketing and many other technological aspects related to this space such as social media management, web designing as well as paid advertising.

As a tech savvy company that offers digital and social media-related services, Daily Brand is also looking to provide other services as their brand continues to grow from strength to strength.

“We are in the process of expanding into media through our website dailybrand.co.zw where we cover news and offer opinions on everything to do with marketing. We are actually in the process of building a studio and offering visual content.

“We are a very small team of three so far. However, with the expansions that will be taking place and the growth that we envisage, we are bound to become a team that has a larger number.”

Pushing boundaries beyond limits

One of the notable successes that Daily Brand has achieved is gradually moving from working with briefcase businesses to establishing relationships with businesses that generate high revenue figures in the region of US$200 000 a year.

“The goal is to keep growing and to start working with organizations doing a million plus a year. We will get there. On the media side, having our articles on our website read over 100 000 times is something that we do not take lightly. It shows that we have so much potential to become a media powerhouse.”

Jumping over hurdles

Leslie says the major challenge he came across during the formative years of his business revolved around his attempts to try and do all the duties required for the smooth operation of the venture all by himself.

“I needed to start learning how to work on my business instead of working in my business. In the early days, I felt the need to work on every deliverable, design every graphic and write every article, while at the same time doing administration work such as preparing quotations, writing invoices and so forth.

“I was all over the place. I was always busy working on deliverables, but I never realized that this was affecting my rate of closing in on new clients and to look for new business and new opportunities.”

Everything changed when he decided to build a team and learned to assign his colleagues with the various tasks and duties that were critical for Daily Brand to run smoothly.

“That was when I made the conscious decision to start building a team and working with people who were good at stuff, I wasn’t good at or who liked doing stuff in my business I didn’t like doing.

Delegating his responsibilities to others also allowed him to deal with other challenges that face most business ventures such as a lack or shortage of working capital or clients who settle their invoices late.

Ambitions to grow

As the business grows, Leslie has big plans that will also result in the increase of the Daily Brand team.

“In the next five years, we would like to work with million dollar a year plus organizations. On the media side we are looking at having a YouTube channel with at least 100 000 subscribers.”

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