Securico, the company that Zimbabwe's Divine Ndhlukula started in her cottage in the late 1990s with four employees and very little capital, has become one of her country's largest security firms.
According to her, perhaps the biggest barrier she had to face when she set it up was her gender.
"Obviously, as a woman, people would not believe that I could run a security company - particularly with no security background," she told the BBC's series African Dream.
However, she held firmly to her purpose and Securico now employs more than 3,500 people, including nearly 900 women.
"We provide cutting-edge services. We move cash and valuables for companies and banks; we also provide electronic security systems - that's the CCTVs, the access control systems, the alarms, the rapid responses, remote site monitoring and so on," she said.
"Our business has grown to be well capitalised in terms of assets; in terms of balance sheet, our balance sheet is close to $8m (£5.1m). This year we expect to turn over just over $16m," she added.
If things keep on going according to her plans, she hopes that within five years Securico will have branches in neighbouring countries and reach an annual turnover of more than $50m.
The company has not only grown physically. It has also been recognised as one of the continent's leaders in business excellence and in 2011 it beat 3,300 other firms and won the coveted $100,000 Grand Prize at the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship in Nairobi, Kenya.
Read full essay @ BBC
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