Joanne Mwangi is the founder of Professional Marketing Services. Her firm came No.1 in the Top 100 SME competition.

The only race you have to win is the race against yourself - there will always be someone faster and stronger but there will never be another you, so look within and push your own personal boundaries.

Though she stumbled into business 13 years ago, Joanne Mwangi has proved to be a successful entrepreneur. The numerous awards she has won over the years are testament to her entrepreneurial skills and spirit.
Joanne Mwangi is the founder of Professional Marketing Services (PMS) Limited, an experiential marketing agency. The PMS Group offers services in advertising, public relations, event management, trade promotions, consumer promotions, trade merchandising and Marketing strategy development.
According to Mwangi
The firm, which started as a small outfit providing merchandising activities, has evolved into Professional Marketing Services Group of companies (PMS Group) providing a wide range of services to a myriad of clients,” she says.

Mwangi started her career as a Brand Manager in corporate Kenya, but left her high paying salary to pursue her entrepreneurial dream. It was during her work as a professional that Mwangi saw an opportunity for the future in the market.
Every time I wanted to organize an event or carry out a promotion I would have to handle all the details since there were no companies to outsource from. This was time consuming, tiring and doubled my duties, but the experience created an opportunity to start a firm that would outsource these services to other firms,” say Mwangi.

In 2010 Professional Marketing Services Limited emerged number one in the Top 100 SME competition in Kenya. Mwangi also won the leading lady entrepreneur award at the competition.
Professional Marketing Services beat 247 contestants to win the competition that honours Kenya’s fastest growing and well managed small and medium sized companies.
Kenya Top 100 mid-sized companies is a survey sponsored by the Nation Media Group and KPMG, an audit firm, honors small and medium sized enterprises which have proved to be competitive and innovative.
The PMS Group consists of three companies 3marketeers, Innovateus and Retail synergy. Mwangi decided to diversify following market demand for more services. She adds that by diversifying and having her firms compete for the same job tenders put her in a better position to command the market and win job contracts.
We currently have offices in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda and hope to have each of the branches fully fledged to mitigate against risks where one country affected by political turmoil ends up paralyzing the entire business,” says Mwangi.

Mwangi is the current chair of Kenya’s umbrella association for women in business; Federation of Women Entrepreneur Associations (FEWA) Sacco. FEWA provides affordable credit to women entrepreneurs. Last year she beat women entrepreneurs from 75 countries across the globe to emerge the winner of the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT) Woman of the Year award.

From the Africa Report