Award winner tells her story

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The 2022 winner of the South African Council of Business Women annual national main award is Mossel Bay's Dinette Wessels, the owner of a hair and beauty salon and growing spa business.

She was announced as winner of the SACBW Business Woman of the Year Award on 22 October.

Last year, the award was also won by a Mossel Bay woman, Marlene Smit, the owner of a gin distillery. Mossel Bay has also won the SACBW branch of the year award for two years in a row - this year and last year.

Wessels (40) says her story is about "choosing to survive".

She says: "My passion is helping people. I thrive on uplifting and empowering others."

She describes her beauty salon in Mossel Bay as "a source of blood, sweat, tears and now pride and joy".

But Wessels adds: "My story doesn't start there. After a couple of years spent travelling the world, I opened a small salon from my home in Dana Bay as a permanent make-up artist.

"Life took a heart-breaking turn with the loss of our firstborn child when she was just 14 months old."

She founded The Dina Community Project in her daughter's memory, with the goal of helping underprivileged children and uplifting the community.

"It was then that I met and raised a beautiful baby girl, from just four days old, until finding her a forever home. She is still very much a part of our lives."

Revamped schools
Wessels said that through both The Dina Community Project and other projects in which she is involved, she and others have revamped schools in rural areas, organised blanket, toy and clothing drives, helped to sponsor medical equipment and assisted single mothers.

"We also regularly visit one of Mossel Bay's care facilities, indulging residents with pamper sessions. The delight we see on the faces of the many locals we've helped is priceless."

Wessels says the beauty industry has always been her joy. She was also involved in the launch of the Garden Route Fashion Council in Mossel Bay to upskill and empower young women and motivate future careers in the fashion industry.

After her children, Rika and Dian were born, Wessels began with her beauty and hair salon, D-Studio.

Despite running a new business during lockdown, she made sure all her staff were looked after, without hesitation. "Together, we survived those trying times," she says.

"During the lockdown, while others were Netflixing, we were networking through the SACBW."

This led to an opportunity to broaden her offerings at D-Studio to include dermatologist cosmetology and a top range of hair-loss treatment products and launch her spa business, which she is expanding, with spa facilities already rolled out at eco-retreats in Cape Town, Marloth Park in Mpumalanga and Mozambique.

She describes her salon in Mossel Bay as a hub for therapists, technicians and hairdressers, most of them the sole providers for their families. "We've melded six previously individual salons together under one roof."

Wessels says: "Seeing the business women I've met through SACBW excel and grow is truly an inspiration. It is so easy to be consumed by everyday routine, leaving little room to dream. Hearing testimonies from these like-minded, driven women, who are facing similar challenges of running businesses while raising children and trying to achieve a balanced life, renews my determination.

"I have learnt we need to remain adaptable. We are continuously surfing a fluid business landscape. We need to educate and bolster each other. Through our own trials and errors, we can help other women not to make the same mistakes."

Business Woman of the Year Dinette Wessels with SACBW national president Hanlie Delport and last year's Business Woman of the Year Marlene Smit at the gala national event held in Mossel Bay.