Mompreneur Langutani Magadzi started J Worldwide in 2013, a company that creates cartoon characters from Bible verses and prints them on different merchandise. It started as a mother’s quest to find alternative cartoon-branded clothing from what was in the market. Said Langutani, “I wanted clothes that had a positive message that I, as a Christian mother wanted my child to learn and be inspired by. After months of researching, I found nothing that met my requirements. Unbeknown to me, I was researching a niche market that I would subsequently service. I was employed full-time at the time, but I was unfulfilled. I could not take my son to his drama and choir practices, activities that he enjoys the most. It really broke my heart that I had to take him out of drama classes. I could not bear to look at his sad face and I knew that I needed an arrangement that would fulfill both my maternal and professional sides. As a single mother, resigning from work without an alternative stable income was not an option at the time. However, the pain of staying employed became unbearable as my desire to be the mother I wanted to be, became intense. I needed to be able to control my time. I eventually resigned in December 2015 to pursue my business on a full-time basis”.
It has not been easy for Langutani, she professes that in her naivety, she thought that every pastor and church in the land would jump up and embrace her business idea, but this was not so. She found that most churches have their own branded t-shirts and they deemed her brand as competition. Some of the churches would first ask her whether she was a member of their ministry or not. The negotiations always went south, as soon as she mentioned that she was not a member. However, she was not deterred by all the doors that were shut in her face, her passion for her business helped her to persevere.
Today, J Worldwide currently has three cartoon characters in circulation. They started off with t-shirts as a way of creating brand awareness and to launch the cartoon characters and have since expanded to mugs, fleece blankets and storage boxes/ottomans. They are in the process of releasing a set of puzzles, all showcasing their cartoon characters. They now have grown to offer an online store and also accept orders via email and cellphone and are available on Facebook and Instagram, under J Worldwide.