As I bounced around Hoedspruit, fighting with an air conditioner that was playing up in the car, I happened upon Paintsmiths Hoedspruit – I wasn’t meant to go there but fate dealt its hand on this particular afternoon.
As I entered into this wonderfully cool (temperature wise) space, I was met by possibly one of the bubbliest people that I have met in Hoedspruit, Lizelle Bigalke. As it turned out, Lizelle is the owner of Paintsmiths Hoedspruit. I was certainly drawn in by her enthusiasm and demeanour – although I do think that she was somewhat surprised, when I decided, off-the-cuff, that she should be my next ‘Spotlight Time” victim! I did catch her off guard, but she soon warmed to the ‘challenge’.
It turns out that Lizelle is married to Craig (a big ‘oke’ that she met one day on site), has a son William (7), and basically describes herself as the “chief cook and bottle washer”. My brief encounter that day, and subsequently, was such that I feel she is almost ‘one of the boys’.
Having grown up in Richards Bay, she always had in mind that she wanted to do Hotel Management and Catering. She went off to do a degree in BComm Hotel Management but for reasons, decided not to complete the degree. She then went and worked for eleven years in the hotel/catering world before moving on to work for BHP Billiton Mozal in Mozambique for two years.
On being asked to help tart up a friend’s house in Magoebaskloof, she rolled into town 16 years ago, never having been here, and subsequently has never left! She has been in her own business since then. On a whim she bought a paint franchise – knowing nothing about paint and flooring. She spent the first part of the business journey in the application of floors, and then steadily progressed to paint sales.
A self-confessed emotional and highly strung person, Lizelle is not afraid of adversity, but when all else fails resorts to keeping her sense of humour. She is an avid dissectologist! Hah! I knew I had you all guessing. Well, this is someone that loves devoting spare time to doing jigsaw puzzles! We’ve all learnt a new word now. She has been involved in this over the last 3 years, and loves it.
Lizelle’s favourite band is REM, and her current favourite song is ‘Woman’ by Mumford & Sons. She views that her greatest achievement was keeping her head above water during the Covid crisis – “it was not easy carrying on when the times were tough”. On par with that she would like to put being a boss, a wife, a mother, and a sister – all in one! Having said that, she gives credit to the help of her entire support structure which contributed to her making it through.
She hates conflict – especially when brought about for no real reason, but always views life as a get up and go situation. I can vouch for that – two cups of good coffee later, and plenty side-line chat, I knew I had to ‘get the hell out of dodge’ or I may be there for a very long time!
Personally, I believe Paintsmiths Hoedspruit can be proud of Lizelle, and what an asset she is to the business and the community as a whole. If you want to get great insightful help in all aspects to do with paint – she is the go-to.
Thanks Lizelle, I thoroughly enjoyed our time together, and to close with Lizelle’s quote for life – “Get up and make it happen”.
As a postscript – I did walk out with two tins of paint!
Paintsmiths Hoedspruit / Lizelle can be contacted on 078 304 2034, or email: lizelle@paintsmiths.co.za
