Since registering her business in 2008, a Gauteng businesswoman has created employment for more than 1 000 women through her domestic worker placement agency. It’s no surprise then that her business scooped the Most Jobs Created and Best Performing Company award at the Shanduka Black Umbrellas awards in early 2013 and, more recently, the top… [Continue Reading]
A nine-year-old schoolboy and his eight-year-old friend recently won an international entrepreneurial award for creating a mobile application that shows how open data from local communities can be made available to everyone. Much information is collected by governments to allow cities and towns to run smoothly. This data is currently not available to citizens to… [Continue Reading]
Hemis Lacala is onto something good. Not only is he pursuing a great business idea, but he is also educating the nation at a fraction of the usual cost. This he does through his online book store, eAfford, which helps university students save money by renting out academic textbooks at low prices. As a Bachelor… [Continue Reading]
In a province where low economic growth and high unemployment rates are the norm, a business owner is trying to turn joblessness around for his village with the help of a R3 million loan from the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (Mega). Mega provides funding ranging from R10 000 to R3 million to business owners who… [Continue Reading]
An engineering student saw a gap in the market, grabbed the attention of 13 000 students two weeks after launching his business, and then made a huge success of it. As a result, he is now selling his technology business to a big media firm listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). This is the… [Continue Reading]
Xolani Mtshizana had to dig himself out of the clutches of gangsterism and other challenges as a youngster, but it is this rocky road that led him to establish his aptly named design business, Keep Digging Africa, to motivate aspiring entrepreneurs. Growing up in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape was not easy for the 35-year-old… [Continue Reading]
Since opening their first coffee bar in August 2006, Andrew and Chris Brown have not looked back and now own a chain of establishments throughout Gauteng. The brothers also ended off 2013 on a high note by winning the Sanlam/Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year award. Shortlisted after a tough vetting process, telephonic interviews and… [Continue Reading]
Looking at conventional ways to fund a growing enterprise does not always pan out the way a business wants. This is why Kurt and his father, Adrian Paulse, a thriving business man with a vision to win a multinational passenger-transport firm, turned to the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism and National Empowerment… [Continue Reading]
Becoming a Woolworths supplier and being considered for the retail giant’s enterprise development programme is not for the faint-hearted, but has massive pay-offs for business owners who persevere. The retailer’s supplier development initiative is unique in that a business first has to meet its strict product requirements and successfully make it onto the Woolworths’ supplier… [Continue Reading]
Successful Woolworths suppliers share some tips on getting your foot in the door with this major retailer: Founder of Chic Shoes Rachmat Thomas says listening carefully to the retailer’s requirements is very important. “Ultimately it’s linked to the needs of their customers,” she says. Another tip is to try understand the critical issues that affects… [Continue Reading]
