Shadrack Kubyane Corporate Consulting director Shadrack Kubyane expanded his business after being contracted by Flexible Workspace.
One-time taxi driver Shadrack Kubyane was able to double the turnover of his communications and public relations business with one good deal.
Kubyane, who runs Shadrack Kubyane Corporate Consulting, scored big when he landed a contract with low-cost property developers Flexible Workspace. His business offers business communication, research and marketing services. Flexible Workspace rents out fully-furnished office and boardroom spaces through its various branches around the country.
“Ever since I started providing public relations and marketing services to Flexible Workspace, my profit earnings have moved far beyond the occasional R16 000 per month I earned when I first opened my company and my commission is now at least 20%,” he says. Just days after he presented the property company with a plan for a custom-made expansion plan late last year, Kubyane’s business was put in charge of introducing one of the company’s range of services to the national market. “My business was contracted to start marketing Flexible Workspace’s services to markets the company was yet to reach.
This included going into universities, some government departments, corporate companies and banks to raise awareness about them,” explains Kubyane, an experienced business consultant. He says the contract where he develops marketing plans and public relations work for the property company is his biggest so far. This is a far-cry from the businessman he was about two years ago when he did not even have enough money to bring his ideas to life.
“When I started my business in 2009 I had no trouble getting clients but I lacked proper funding to do proper research on behalf of clients, I had no premises to work from or to meet those clients,” he says.
He worked as taxi driver in Gauteng while trying to save up money to finance his business. His luck changed when he managed to set up an appointment with Carey da Silva, Flexible Workspace national operations manager, to present his ideas three years ago. All he had to do to be contracted as a marketing consultant was to make a presentation to the Flexible Workspace management, who included founder Bradley Porter and national operations manager Carey da Silva. So impressed were they with Kubyane’s idea to recruit thousands of potential clients for Flexible Workspace that two meetings and a number of days after, Porter and his team hired Kubyane to market the company.
To ensure the Shadrack Kubyane Corporate Consulting would meet the requirements, Flexible Workspace let Kubyane use its premises and an exclusive budget and he started off small with the marketing project he had proposed to them.
Three years later, the company is now a respectable marketing agent and is drawing the attention of both the government and corporate companies.
Kubyane advises other businesses who are interested in doing business with Flexible Workspace that they will need to be registered and must have competent and reliable staff who can deliver timeous results on projects.
He advises business owners in the communications sector who plan to pitching to big companies to ensure that they are sufficiently prepared before setting up an appointment with the company. “As a small business marketing business, your work is basically financed by your client, so it’s important to have skilled staff,” he says. As a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) compliant service provider, Shadrack Kubyane Corporate Consulting is now looking to partner with other certified small businesses. Says Kubyane: “I plan to fund my own marketing project in partnership with like-minded businesses.”
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