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The Big Backroom Boom In South Africa’s Townships

A look at some of South Africa’s quintessential micro-businesses producing artisanal, farm-fresh food and drink that make them big on flavor – and success.



Despite South Africa’s challenging economy, there is a thriving industry of micro-businesses focused on producing artisanal foods and drinks. What they lack in size and budget, they make up for in tenacity and a dedication to traditional, sustainable production methods. Froma dairy in Piketberg to a micro-farm in Hout Bay, from a tiny brewery in Noordhoek to an independent distillery in Cape Town, these stories highlight the essence of micro-businesses and the dedication to the process and finished product, regardless of how difficult the operating conditions might be. 



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‘Creating Food Sovereignty’ Cream of the Crop Founder: Maria van Zyl


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<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_8577-2-1024x768.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-59999" style="aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333;width:576px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_8577-2-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_8577-2-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_8577-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_8577-2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_8577-2-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo by Maria van Zyl</figcaption></figure></div>


In the heart of South Africa’s Western Cape province, drawing on tradition, is Cream of the Crop, a micro- dairy founded by Maria van Zyl. Inspired by her studies in Italy and respect for time-honored practices, Cream of the Crop is a testament to sustainability and authenticity.



It was during van Zyl&#8217;s studies at the Italian University of Gastronomic Sciences that she first discovered cultured butter. &#8220;I used to be an olive oil over butter person, and then I had cultured butter, and it changed my life!” she says. Using a traditional method, she uses a kefir made from raw milk to culture the butter. Then, it ferments slowly in the fridge, before being churned. 



“This is the traditional way, using ancient methods,” says van Zyl. “Traditional methods are the most successful way to harness flavor.” 



The resulting flavor is uniquely creamy, with a delicate tang from the cultures. In addition to butter, she sells farm-fresh milk and double-thick yoghurt, and is experimenting with hard-style cheeses, all from her own farm in Piketberg in the Western Cape.



The quality of her product, while supporting the surrounding community is a top priority for van Zyl. “Farming commercially at a massive scale, especially with animals, is so damaging to the environment, the humans working on the farm and the people eating the food,” she says. 



“Consumers see the price of dairy on the shelf and think that it is cheaper but somewhere down the line, somebody is paying and almost always it&#8217;s the actual farmer or the soil!” 



Cream of the Crop aims to create a connection between consumers and the land, honoring the seasonality, the animals, and the local community. 



“I think we produce the way we do because we believe it is good for us and for our customers,” she adds. Van Zyl also believes in the transformative power of &#8220;kilometer zero&#8221; practices, minimizing the distance food travels to reach the plate. 



“I would love to see micro-dairies popping up all over the country supplying communities in their area and creating food sovereignty.” 



Operating a micro-dairy comes with its share of challenges, from fluctuating milk yields to logistical hurdles. 



“We rely on nature for a successful season and the cows will produce more or less milk based on the time of year,” she says. Adding to this, the farm employs organic and biodynamic practices, nurturing nutrient-rich soil and minimizing ecological impact.



The dairy uses glass jars, refilled with each purchase, in an attempt to reduce packaging waste.



&#8220;We don&#8217;t use any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides and focus on building the farm&#8217;s fertility and resilience.&#8221; And while many customers resonate with her artisanal goods, there are always sceptics, particularly when seeing the price. “A lot of people are shocked at the price of my butter and I love giving them the example that it takes 7 liters of milk to make 1 liter of cream and from 1 liter of cream, we get approximately 300g of butter,” she says. 



There’s a fair bit of education required in selling her dairy, but through offering workshops, she is able to give consumers a newfound appreciation for the craftsmanship that goes into each product. “They’re often surprised at how long it takes to make butter and cheese,” she says. “I think South Africans are understandably very price-motivated, however, I think once people taste my products they understand the flavor and quality difference,” she explains.



Van Zyl’s future plans stay true to her business. “We will grow slowly as our herd expands, this way we can iron out any challenges we face while the business grows. We are so governed by our core values that it&#8217;ll be hard to abandon them as they will also dictate the size of our business,” she explains. By allowing the land’s capacity to guide them, the micro-dairy ensures a connection to nature and community remains intact.



‘Build Our Brand Directly With The Consumer’ Aegir Project Founders: Rory and Carey Lancellas


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<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="640" height="428" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/image6.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-59985" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/image6.jpeg 640w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/image6-300x201.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image Supplied</figcaption></figure></div>


If there’s one segment of the micro- industry that is relatively well-populated in South Africa, it’s the craft beer scene. And in the heart of this is Aegir Project, a microbrewery in Noordhoek that produces artisanal small-batch beer. Founded by Rory Lancellas and his wife Carey, Aegir Project tells a story of commitment to craft beers. Aegir&#8217;s story began in 2011 at Speight’s Brewery, a massive operation in Dunedin, New Zealand. After stints in smaller Scottish breweries, Rory returned to Cape Town to launch his own venture. Now, his small brewery produces a wide array of traditional unpasteurized and unfiltered beers, only available for sale on-site. “We still use a wooden paddle made by my father and mash every beer in by hand,” says Rory. “We focus on flavor and strive to play on a global level of beer.”



Navigating growth whilst preserving their artisanal essence is a challenge Aegir tackles head-on. “Big or small, businesses have different hurdles,” he says. The larger producers have more control over the finished product, whereas the smaller guys don’t. “The upside to this is you have the opportunity to continuously recreate and develop your products,” Rory says. Beer is a great example of an economy of scale. 



“Our costs are huge per liter of beer produced,” he says, but he doesn’t compromise on innovation. 



“We release a new beer almost every week keeping it fresh for the regular customers.”



When it comes to finding their place in the market, Aegir took a strategic approach by going straight to consumers. 



“Trying to make a product properly, ethically, with quality ingredients and getting this to the consumer through other avenues felt near impossible on our scale of production,” Rory explains. Natural, unpasteurized beer requires a consistent cold chain and if it perishes or sours, their reputation is on the line. 



“Our only way to survive was to try and build our brand directly with the consumer together, building our taproom and restaurant around the beer.” This direct engagement is another way Aegir differentiates itself from the more commercial players.



“This allows us to talk beer styles with customers, invite them to try something new and offer a different experience,” says Rory.



And as Aegir charts its course for the future, growth, innovation, and preserving their artisanal spirit remain key. “We have pretty big ambitions,” says Rory. “We love to keep pushing our boundaries and adapting to who we have become.” 



Another core value is hiring the best people. “We have found investing in people has been essential to our growth,” Rory explains. “So having the right humans is the most important element to us.”



‘Great Flavor Starts With Great Seed, Great Soil…’ Meuse Farms Founder: Iming Lin


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<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="684" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Claire-Gunn-Farm-pics-12-684x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-59989" style="aspect-ratio:0.66796875;width:472px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Claire-Gunn-Farm-pics-12-684x1024.jpg 684w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Claire-Gunn-Farm-pics-12-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Claire-Gunn-Farm-pics-12-768x1150.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Claire-Gunn-Farm-pics-12-1026x1536.jpg 1026w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Claire-Gunn-Farm-pics-12-1367x2048.jpg 1367w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Claire-Gunn-Farm-pics-12-scaled.jpg 1709w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 684px) 100vw, 684px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo by Claire Gunn</figcaption></figure></div>


In coastal Hout Bay, South Africa, is the Meuse micro-farm. Drawing on a unique blend of backgrounds – from infectious diseases in public health to social enterprise development – founder Iming Lin’s passion for farming soon took root.



Upon realizing that farming was her true calling, Lin opened Meuse Farms in 2017, after months of volunteering on farms in the Hudson River Valley and a season-long apprenticeship at Stone Barns Center in New York. “We knew that we wanted the farm to be semi-public and that we didn&#8217;t want a long commute,” she says. “Hout Bay made sense as it&#8217;s our home village.”



Meuse Farms takes a regenerative approach to agriculture, integrating indigenous crops with modern techniques for efficient, environmentally- sound practices. The micro-farm&#8217;s success hinges on a meticulous process: &#8220;Great flavor starts with great seed, great soil, and harvesting when ripe,&#8221; says Lin. Cover crops, compost tea, and minimal tillage all contribute to building soil health. Unlike conventional farming, Meuse Farms doesn’t use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, to further preserve this delicate balance.



Lin&#8217;s conviction that good farming practices should make business sense led to a unique strategy. “Early on, we identified high-end restaurants as ideal customers,” she says. “They are willing to pay good prices and they are interested in seasonal and unique produce.” 



Focusing on rare, flavorful varieties, difficult to find elsewhere, boosted the farm&#8217;s economic viability and allowed her to shape the market. One of Lin’s core principles is that sustainable farming practices must align with profitability to drive change in the industry. “I don&#8217;t think we will shift how the world farms unless good farming practices make business sense,” she adds.



However, the road to sustainable success isn&#8217;t without its bumps. Limited suppliers and intricate supply chains mean Lin has to import some key farming tools, but she seeks out local experts where she can. “Making our own compost was impractical,” she says. “Relying on experts is a more logical way to build the ecosystem.” Further challenges arise from the cost of producing these kinds of vegetation. Food subsidies often don’t cover the cost of production and Lin knows not everyone will pay their prices. 



“To control this, I choose crops that aren’t easily available or varieties with a noticeable flavor difference,” she says. Yet, navigating responsible farming with profitability is difficult. Meuse capitalizes on selling crops that other producers might disregard while keeping crop rotation in mind. 



“There are some crops on our list that are not very profitable but round out our crop rotation and our availability list,” she says. Catering to a broader audience can be a challenge, but she believes that flavor is the most convincing argument, especially when trying to engage people who might not have an initial interest in sustainable farming. &#8220;Most of the time, they just have to taste something we grow!&#8221; she says.



Looking ahead, Lin’s plan for the farm is continued evolution. “Each season we get better at honing in on a profitable and delicious crop selection,” she says. She also has a vision beyond the farm, contemplating an NGO that aims to address social aspects of food systems in innovative ways. Powered by thoughtful techniques, a focus on quality, and a desire to inspire change, Meuse is only just getting started.



&#8216;Reward Customer Support With An Impeccable Product’ Pienaar &amp; Son Distilling Co. Co-founder: Andre Pienaar


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<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/5D4_8819-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-59990" style="aspect-ratio:1.499267935578331;width:640px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/5D4_8819-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/5D4_8819-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/5D4_8819-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/5D4_8819-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/5D4_8819-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Photo by Tremayne Ward Smith</figcaption></figure></div>


Cape Town’s Pienaar &amp; Son was born in 2015 from a blend of passion, science, and creativity. Founded by Andre Pienaar with his father, the distillery started as a hobby when Andre acquired a small still to explore distillation. Today, Pienaar &amp; Son far surpasses hobby status, as that single still has given rise to custom-built equipment producing over six small-batch spirits, including gin, vodka, vermouth, whiskey, and brandy.



Despite Pienaar &amp; Son’s success, there is a constant battle to balance innovation with a sustainable business, compounded by South Africa’s challenging economy. To set them apart, the distillery focuses on creating interest and flavor. “I operate under two questions which have to have a resounding ‘yes’ as an answer. One, is it interesting, and two, does it taste great.” By following these, Andre ensures each product reflects value and quality. Instead of sticking to strict routines, this method promotes innovation that focuses on connecting with consumers. 



“If you are able to create interesting products that taste great, the rest will take care of itself,” says Andre. “Convince your customers that what you are doing is worthy of their time and money, and then, reward their support with an impeccable product.” 



When crafting the perfect spirit, Pienaar &amp; Son&#8217;s craftsmanship starts with the meticulous design of their equipment. “We use a bespoke continuous still, designed and built by my father,” explains Andre. Marrying traditional craft with modern innovation, Andre likens his role to that of a chef using the stove (or still) that his father built. “It&#8217;s really special to be able to work on equipment we started drawing on paper and then manufactured ourselves right here in the Western Cape.&#8221;



There is no denying that Pienaar &amp; Son embodies authenticity – even when competing in a saturated market against larger brands with financial clout that affords them more influence.



“They have marketing budgets that force their products to the front of the shelf and to the top of the menu,” says Andre. These budgets also allow them 



to reduce costs during the production and sourcing process, meaning a lower retail price. “This cost advantage makes their retail price so much lower than we could ever dream of selling our products,” says Andre. Despite their small size, prioritizing innovation is a cornerstone of their philosophy. From packaging to flavor combinations to collaborations, Andre is always looking for new ways to shake things up. 



&#8220;A lot of the alcohol industry is filled with people just repeating successful brands or recipes and, to be honest, I just think it is so boring.&#8221; But balancing growth with integrity isn’t easy. Pienaar &amp; Son&#8217;s recent launch of small-batch and rare releases aligns with their artisanal essence, but larger growth would rely on external investment, potentially altering the dynamic that’s been at their core. 



“It’s just a whole other kettle of fish,” says Andre. Even in South Africa, where the artisanal market is smaller than it would be elsewhere, Andre’s entrepreneurial spirit fuels this drive, outweighing the lure of commercial pursuits – despite how attractive they might be.



The future is bright for this small but mighty distillery, where there is ample room for growth. “The distillery is probably only operating at about 60% capacity,” says Andre. “The supply is not the issue, creating the demand is.” 



As they nurture demand, Andre also dreams of expanding internationally. “I would love a small warehouse in Europe to stock and sell online in the next few years!&#8221; Growth, while maintaining his core values, is central to Andre’s plans, but considering their achievements so far, they’re undeniably on the right path.



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So Far(m), So Good: South Africa’s Micro-Businesses Producing Artisanal Food And Drink

Old woman walking with her dog and her wares through the streets of Makhanda, Eastern Cape, in 2021

Cityscapes: Snapshots Of South Africa’s Thriving Informal Economy

Quantum computing, once it truly arrives, is expected to make significant improvements for a number of different applications, from helping to fight climate change and improving the process of drug discovery. While there are quantum computers out there in operation, developed by companies like D-Wave, Rigetti, IBM and Google, none have the capability to solve practical problems any faster than a conventional computer. Most observers think that practical computing is about a decade away, or even longer.&nbsp;



Atlantic Quantum, founded earlier this year by Bharath Kannan, Simon Gustavsson, Youngkyu Sung, Jonas Bylander, William Oliver, Shereen Shermak and Tim Menke, aims to speed up that timeline by improving the basic hardware behind quantum computing. On Thursday, the company announced a $9 million seed investment led by The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT. Other investors involved with this seed round include Thomas Tull, Glasswing Ventures, Future Labs Capital and E14.&nbsp;



The focus of Atlantic Quantum is building hardware that improves the “coherence” of quantum computation, which reduces the errors that are the major speed bump for these machines. Qubits, the basic computing unit of a quantum computer, have an advantage over the bits on the computer or phone you’re reading this article on because they aren’t reliant on the binary 1s and 0s that form the foundation of today’s computer science. Instead, qubits take advantage of principles of quantum physics that let them exist in more than one state at a time. What’s more, this process enables hardware to get exponentially more powerful as you add more qubits, whereas conventional computers only make linear gains.



Of course, that sounds great, but right now qubits never achieve their theoretical computational speeds because the process creates computational errors that have to be fixed. That’s because of what’s called “decoherence”— when the qubits interact with their local environment, that changes their quantum states. It’s the subatomic equivalent of accidentally wiping away part of a math problem you’re doing on a whiteboard with your sleeve–you have to go back and do that part of the problem again. 



The companies building quantum computers do a lot to reduce the amount of decoherence their machines face. One solution is to keep everything as close to a temperature of absolute zero as possible, which helps limit environmental interactions. Other strategies are being worked on and deployed but many quantum computing companies have also devoted a lot of their time focused on scale: building processors that contain more and more qubits. That’s the wrong way to go, argues Milo Werner, a general partner at the Engine who’s joining the board of Atlantic Quantum. “Until now, the prioritization of scale over qubit coherence has slowed quantum’s potential. It’s exciting to see a different path forward &#8211; one that will bring us closer to quantum reality,” she said in a statement.



Atlantic Quantum’s advantage, the company says, is the superconducting qubit known as fluxonium. Most quantum computers in operation today use a different set up called a transmon qubit. “The properties of the fluxonium qubit differ from those of the transmon in several ways, but the key difference being the significantly lower operating frequency of fluxonium versus transmon,” says CEO Kannan. “This lower operating frequency has several consequences, which include longer coherence times and simpler control integration for fluxonium.” he adds.



Right now, Atlantic Quantum is headquartered in Cambridge and has an office in Sweden. The Cambridge office is focused on system integration and computer assembly. Cofounder Jonas Bylander, who’s also an associate professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, will be spearheading the effort to fabricate and manufacture the chips for the company’s machines. The seed round allows Atlantic Quantum to grow their team in both areas.&nbsp;



One of the reasons why Milo Werner was interested in investing in Atlantic was because of its origins in MIT’s quantum computer research lab that’s led by William Oliver, which she describes as “second to none.” “It is an amazing founding team that we are really excited to back,” she continues. “We focus on backing strong technical leaders and we really see that in Bharath and his team. We look forward to watching them grow.”



Update: This piece has had minor corrections since publication to list its full set of cofounders and correctly identify its headquarters as Cambridge.



By Ariyana Griffin, Forbes Staff

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This Startup Raised $9 Million To Make Better Quality Quantum Computers

Sebastian Daniels’ Ground Culture is focused on bringing township entrepreneurs into the formal economy, helping bridge the gap in Cape Town with an online store and cafés stocked with products made locally by them.



WHAT happens when a 52-year-old beekeeper from the Khayelitsha township in Cape Town meets an entrepreneur born in 1994? Old school meets new energy and honey gets sold at 10 times the rate it used to, as the beekeeper is now connected to the formal market. This is what Sebastian Daniels does best, integrating the informal eKasi economy in Cape Town with mainstream market systems.



Daniels’ parents were both journalists and he had a good upbringing, also at times attending protests with his mom. This was the beginning of understanding how deeply segmented South African society was – and continues to be. Delving into history and Steve Biko, Daniels desired change.



First, he began working with the idea of creating a Stokvel app called Yethu, centered around the country’s famed Stokvel savings concept, where members contribute an amount regularly and receive a lump sum payment. It’s how many in the lower-income groups in South Africa save up for buying furniture, building houses or sending kids to school.



“People were so interested in what we had to offer. But what ended up happening is that we started building a system around the formal economy, and lost track of who our actual customer was in the end,” explains Daniels to FORBES AFRICA.



“When we launched people were like, ‘oh, we don’t want this, this is the bank’. You know, and that’s kind of really where you can start to like really see that the divide still exists, and that the informal economy operates in its own way that the formal sector doesn’t understand and doesn’t want to understand. The formal sector wants it done its own way.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sebastian-Daniels-and-Siki-Dibela-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-55417" width="425" height="637"/><figcaption>Daniels and Siki Dibela</figcaption></figure></div>



Two and a half years ago, Daniels’ dad passed away after a battle with dementia. An accomplished writer, his dad wrote ‘Sunny Side Up’ breakfast reviews that featured in ‘Weekend Argus’ for years. He was familiar with most of the coffee places having done reviews of over 150 establishments.



Inheriting that public connect, Daniels too made a commitment to go into Khayelitsha once a week, in order to understand the informal sector better.



Since then, he has made many connections that have eventually led to successful collaborations, such as between Siyabonga Mbaba and George Kirkinis. Mbaba runs the event, Ghetto Sessions, and it resonated with Kirkinis, who found sponsors for the music festival.



“That’s one of the proudest connections I made because I wanted to take someone that I felt was cool, to something that I thought was cool. And through that, a whole lot of other stuff happened,” explains Daniels.



“And that’s the level of where we need to understand white privilege and that kind of thing. It’s so much more than meets the eye. And it’s so much less that you need to do sometimes than you think. It’s often just one connection, one bit of guidance. Help someone with a pitch or a plan. Small things. It’s much smaller than you think. [We] need to get rid of that negative stereotype,” Daniels adds.



In Khayelitsha, Daniels also met Lufefe Nomjana from Spinach King, Msokoli Zilani of Ubusi Honey and Sikelela Dibela from Siki’s Koffee Kafe.



Incorporating all their products, during the lockdown, Daniels developed Ground Culture, an online store for local goods focused on bringing township entrepreneurs into the formal sector. He started strong, with 100 orders a month, and many repeat orders.



Ground Culture reinvests 10% of profits into the businesses it works with. Daniels says it was successful in the start, but as lockdown restrictions eased, people went back to the shops.



“So that’s why we’ve now come back to the coffee shop to have physical space to kind of just build foundations, and share our sustainability.



“You know, people really want to support township entrepreneurs, there is just difficulty. It’s not accessible. Where do you find these products? Often they’re not consistently on shelves, so you go back and it’s out of stock,” Daniels explains.



One of the biggest success stories out of Khayelitsha is the gluten-free spinach bread from Spinach King. Ground Culture receives endless calls about the product, and it’s their number one selling product by far.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sonwabo-Ngqumkile-Shelley-Cozijn-Sebastian-Daniels-Roscoe-Arendse-Tanashe-Ndubiwa-1-1024x683.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55418" width="703" height="469" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sonwabo-Ngqumkile-Shelley-Cozijn-Sebastian-Daniels-Roscoe-Arendse-Tanashe-Ndubiwa-1-1024x683.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sonwabo-Ngqumkile-Shelley-Cozijn-Sebastian-Daniels-Roscoe-Arendse-Tanashe-Ndubiwa-1-300x200.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sonwabo-Ngqumkile-Shelley-Cozijn-Sebastian-Daniels-Roscoe-Arendse-Tanashe-Ndubiwa-1-768x512.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sonwabo-Ngqumkile-Shelley-Cozijn-Sebastian-Daniels-Roscoe-Arendse-Tanashe-Ndubiwa-1-1536x1024.png 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sonwabo-Ngqumkile-Shelley-Cozijn-Sebastian-Daniels-Roscoe-Arendse-Tanashe-Ndubiwa-1-2048x1366.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 703px) 100vw, 703px" /><figcaption>Local talent: Daniels with Sonwabo Ngqumkile, Shelley Cozijn, Roscoe Arendse and Tanashe Ndubiwa</figcaption></figure></div>



“People get really annoyed because it’s out of stock quite frequently. And this is, again, the logistical problems that exist working between the informal economy and the formal economy; sitting in a factory in Khayelitsha, and somehow figuring out delivery routes to get into the formal sector with a fresh loaf of bread every single day.”



He says the logistical problems include inventory tracking, invoicing and following up on them – these things are not necessarily inbuilt because the informal economy is predominantly a cash-based system.



“It’s cash on delivery. If you borrow money, you learn that the whole community knows about it. It operates in a very different manner. So the formal sector assumes entrepreneurs are going to act like normal entrepreneurs, but they’ve been ingrained with a different kind of upbringing.”



Ubusi Honey is the right example for Daniels for what he believes the formal sector can do for township business. In March 2019, he met Zilani, a beekeeper in Khayelitsha who was originally selling 25kg of honey a month in the township.



“It’s been a super-cool relationship to work with him, because we come from totally different backgrounds, and to compare our differences and be really open and honest [is] what makes the relationship work.”



Over the course of 10 months, they worked together to rebrand the product and supply coffee shops. After almost a year, Ubusi Honey sold 250kg a month.



Similarly, Siki’s Koffee Kafe is the place Daniels has based a lot of his thinking off, and what he calls home in Khayelitsha.



“It’s been amazing to watch his [Dibela’s] progress, because it’s taught me so much about building a business in the sense that, as an informal sector player, you have to build one little step at a time.”



Daniels says that while he is blessed that he can fall back on family, go to the bank or get a credit card loan, in the informal settlements, there’s little going around to back any idea.



Dibela has worked for six years, and is now getting another coffee shop in Claremont with big names like Cassper Nyovest popping by to buy his coffee.



Behind the Claremont coffee shop is a clothing factory that offered Dibela the front courtyard free of charge, until he’s in a financial situation to pay rent.



“That’s the kind of collaboration that we need to see between the informal and the formal sector. Not the formal sector setting stringent rules on the informal sector players 



that are just stepping into the game, just stepping into the market,” says Daniels.



A challenge that Dibela has faced is sourcing a roasting machine, and money for petrol to drive around to hand out samples between Khayelitsha and central Cape Town.



“Again, it’s access to markets. It’s just incredibly difficult, and the resources don’t exist to bridge that divide. And so that’s kind of what we need to be talking about and enabling – how do we make infrastructure that can allow for that to grow?”



Ground Culture is looking to be the first point to market for entrepreneurs that are testing out products, to get their foot in the door, and provide an income stream.



Ground Culture has a second café on Long Street in Cape Town, complete with local products, coffee, and food. They employ five people full-time and are looking for 30 new products for their online store.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Ubusi-Honey-Msokoli-Zilani-and-Sebastian-Daniels-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-55419" width="584" height="389" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Ubusi-Honey-Msokoli-Zilani-and-Sebastian-Daniels-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Ubusi-Honey-Msokoli-Zilani-and-Sebastian-Daniels-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Ubusi-Honey-Msokoli-Zilani-and-Sebastian-Daniels-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Ubusi-Honey-Msokoli-Zilani-and-Sebastian-Daniels-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Ubusi-Honey-Msokoli-Zilani-and-Sebastian-Daniels-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px" /><figcaption>Ubusi Honey’s Msokoli Zilani with Daniels</figcaption></figure></div>



Tied to their grant funding, 20 entrepreneurs who have been through training are going to be showcasing their items in the online store.



Speaking about the grueling effects of lockdown for all businesses, and the restrictions eventually lifting, Daniels says: “The kind of stuff we are starting to see is that people are very keen to do business. Now, a lot of people are tired and have resources. And then on the other side, there are people that don’t have any resources, but a lot of energy and good ideas.”



Sometimes all it takes to get them off the ground is a helping hand, or even a handshake.

Lufefe Nomjana and Sebastian Daniels 1

The Cape Town Entrepreneur Who Wants to Help Grow Businesses in The Informal Sector From The Ground Up

Momoko Harada is turning macadamia nuts in Rwanda’s verdant, virgin fields into valuable export currency, in turn also helping the farmers and protecting the environment.



WORDS AND PHOTOS BY RIDHIMA SHUKLA



AT A FACTORY farm, about a 45-minute drive east of the Kigali city center in Rwanda, is a modern facility where the world’s most expensive edible nut – macadamia – is being laboriously processed.



The delightfully round nuts dangle off dainty trees – some the height of a Sports Utility Vehicle – overlooking the valley and are picked by the farmers as they drop to the ground.



Momoko Harada, the 41-year- old Managing Director of the Rwanda Nut Company, is often among the farmers, overseeing their rich, daily pickings.



The mother of two with a keen eye for detail turns around and points out to us: “It takes 15 years for a macadamia tree to grow to this puny size, it takes a lot of patience and discipline in the farmer to not pluck them right off the branch.”



Native to Australia, the macadamia nut’s demand has grown consistently among the world’s richest and discerning consumer markets. Kenya and South Africa are among the top exporters of the golden nut. Rwanda too has now joined the race for growing and exporting this prized natural commodity.



This is in line with the land- locked country’s strategy to diversify its crop exports beyond coffee and tea in ways that are sustainable and expandable.



Unlike other nations in the race, Rwanda’s weather conditions favor macadamia farming, allowing yields around the year as compared to only seasonal harvests. This realization led to the introduction of the crop to farmers of all scales by the leadership of the nation along with NGOs and the World Bank in 2004.



It was only in 2012 that the first matured nuts started falling to the ground. But in the absence of processing units, they were not ready for the world’s markets that only consumed it in its processed form.



This is when Rwanda began working towards the future. Funded by multiple investors from Japan, the Rwanda Nut Company was established in 2013.



The company has grown significantly whilst holding on tightly to its values and aspirations under the leadership of Harada who came down from Japan to kick-start this infant 



industry almost a decade ago and has not looked back since.



However, her history with Africa predates her relationship with macadamia nuts.



She fondly reminisces her first time on the continent at the age of 19, on holiday with her mother; a single woman who she commends for her commitment and dedication to giving Harada all the opportunities she never had.



Harada says: “I had seen poverty before, I knew poverty! But, what I saw in East Africa was more than that. Despite being impoverished, the people of East Africa were full of aspiration and with the desire for changing things.”



She traveled around East Africa and decided she would learn more about the region and return to develop a deeper relationship with this land rich with friendly people and ripe with untapped opportunities.



After completing a degree in law and spending three years working in the human resources department of a company in Tokyo, she went on to study economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.



“I always wanted to learn about East Africa. People are aging in Japan and are very protective of their ways. In East Africa, people have open minds and the readiness to take risks,” she says.



As the woman behind setting up one of the first macadamia processing plants, establishing an export market for fine quality organic Rwandan produce and running a company of 350 employees, Harada has come a long way from when the Rwanda Nut Company was all but a few farmers and consultants.



Today, the company works with over 1,200 farmers with farms as big as a hectare to those that have a single tree in their backyard. Harada says the company’s policy is to promote inclusivity and growth in the agriculture community – something she feels strongly about, having had a taste of struggle in her early years in Japan.



“I have first-hand experience of having less; we lived in a 10/10 house and shared a community shower. The idea was never to invest simply for monetary gains but to make an impact by creating a sustainable business and providing a living through jobs.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="518" height="454" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-09-at-14.35.47.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55046" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-09-at-14.35.47.png 518w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screenshot-2022-05-09-at-14.35.47-300x263.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px" /></figure></div>



The global demand for macadamia nuts outweighs the supply which makes Rwanda’s move to upgrade its export crop list with the nut promising.



However, the country’s lateness to the market marks another challenge for producers like Harada.



In 2021, Rwanda exported around 600 tonnes of macadamia, which reportedly takes Kenya only two days to produce, package and sell and South Africa less than six hours.



China is planting the nut at a massive rate and within the next decade, could likely become one of the biggest suppliers of 



macadamia, posing an even bigger challenge to smaller producers. The United States, China, Japan and Germany are the biggest



buyers of the nut and so far, the Rwanda Nut Company only supplies to North American markets.



But despite the low volumes, Harada says her company is working with agronomists and quality controllers, and has developed a personal rapport with the farmers to ensure a specialty product for wealthy consumers around the world.



“There is no international grading system for macadamia; every producer sells their product under their own brand definition without strict quality control. The grading system in coffee and cocoa has allowed producers to capture markets and sustain long periods because of set expectations among buyers,” says Harada.



She is inclined to replicate a grading system for the industry, based on the produce’s oil content, moisture and freshness.



She asserts that her factory not only complies with the North American processed food standards but controls the quality of production across its entire value chain.



The company is currently expanding its processing facility to build capacity.



“We are growing; even in the face of the pandemic and a competitive market, the demand is still high. We are looking to rebrand our product as specialty food grown in the virgin fields of Rwanda with only organic practices, farmed under fair trade laws, and exceptional quality control for our refined consumer,” attests Harada.



The efforts are also ecological-friendly.



“We are working towards being zero waste and are fully circular in our business. Our husk is used by farmers as a fertilizer; the shell is used in our kilns for its caloric value and later turned into charcoal for farmers to take back to their village.”



The global macadamia nut market was valued at $1.31 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow up to $3 billion by 2030 (Grand View Research).



Although a small part of the pie, Rwanda is aiming for the highest hanging fruit in this sector, going by the long-term vision and commitment of its female business leaders such as Harada.

Screenshot 2022-05-09 at 14.35.40

Seed Capital: Turning Macadamia Into Currency In Rwanda￼

Even during the best of times, starting a small business is tough. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it became a quest for survival. While&nbsp;<a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/america-united-states-covid-small-businesses-economics/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">roughly one-third of small businesses</a>&nbsp;were closed amid the lockdowns, many have reopened their doors or launched anew as consumer demand roars back.



Each of the 31.7 million small businesses in the U.S. has its own unique flavor, challenges and path to success. Some never expand beyond a single founder; others could scale to become the next unicorn. Along the way, many founders will face common sets of challenges as they reach new levels of success.



For that reason, we’ve decided to bring you some real-life examples that illustrate the five stages of small business growth: existence, survival, success, take-off and resource maturity.



We didn’t invent this model—it was&nbsp;<a href="https://hbr.org/1983/05/the-five-stages-of-small-business-growth" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">developed by</a>&nbsp;researchers Neil C. Churchill and Virginia L. Lewis in 1983. Our goal is to bring each stage to life and start a conversation around the opportunities and experiences that business leaders encounter.



Every day this week, we’ll bring you insights from our contributors on each stage of growth. Today, we start at the beginning: the initial stage of launching a business and figuring out everything from product fit to customer acquisition.



Stage 1: Existence



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nishacharya/2021/08/02/move-your-ideas-from-lab-to-market-to-maximize-impact/">Idea validation and commercialization of research</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbevis/2021/08/02/how-to-determine-market-fit/">Product market fit</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2021/08/02/agile-taking-your-small-business-to-the-next-level/">Being agile</a>



Stage 2: Survival



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2021/08/03/survival-of-the-nicest-customer-service-as-a-business-growth-and-survival-engine/">Customer service and building customer loyalty</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abdoriani/2021/08/03/is-sacrificing-profitability-in-favor-of-growth-a-good-idea-for-all-startups/">Profitability and growth</a>



Stage 3: Success



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianscudamore/2021/08/04/every-entrepreneur-comes-to-this-fork-in-the-road-heres-how-to-decide-your-path/">The founders dilemma</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abdoriani/2021/08/04/5-ways-to-incentivize-word-of-mouth/">Incentivizing word of mouth</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jodiecook/2021/08/04/securing-funding-to-drive-expansion/">Securing funding for expansion</a>



Stage 4: Take-off



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewfilev/2021/08/05/3-keys-to-successfully-scale-your-organization-from-small-biz-to-big-time/">Scaling operations</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisacurtis/2021/08/05/three-things-everyone-does-wrong-when-hiring/">Hiring and growth</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rochellemclarke/2021/08/05/for-successful-small-businesses-resilience-is-a-strategy-not-an-option/">Resilience, business continuity and contingency planning</a>



Stage 5: Resource Maturity



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2021/08/06/has-your-company-lost-its-customer-service-mojo-7-ways-to-make-customers-love-you-again/">Maintaining customer service while scaling</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/moiravetter/2021/08/06/the-future-of-marketing-is-lean-for-businesses-big-and-small/">Lean marketing for businesses</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dileeprao/2021/08/06/how-99-of-unicorn-entrepreneurs-plug-vc-holes-with-reverse-vc/">Unicorn entrepreneurs and financing</a>



By Maneet Ahuja, Forbes Staff

Sole Trader Barbers shop in Ghana, Africa

Insights On The Five Stages Of Small Business Growth

Tshego Manche grew up in Klerksdorp and found sartorial visibility in big city Johannesburg.



Born in Klerksdorp, a small town in the North West Province of South Africa, Tshego Manche was raised in a business-oriented family.



Her parents owned a salon and cosmetic store in the township for over 20 years before venturing into other businesses.



“Coming from that environment, I already knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” says the 30-year-old fashionista today. “I aimed for what I am passionate about. Growing up,&nbsp;I always said I am&nbsp;a small town girl with big city dreams.”



Manche, known for her sartorial sense among friends, studied for a BCom degree in Marketing Management and whilst in varsity, worked at Pulsate, a fashion store in Africa’s richest square mile, Sandton, in Johannesburg.



“Two weeks after being employed, the owner flew down and said he had to meet me as there was a spike in sales. I was never afraid to approach people and tell them about the store, and also interact with customers. I then learned customer and marketing skills, and developed a deeper love for fashion which led me to want to start my own brand,” says Manche.



La Manche clothing was registered in early 2012 and was ready to put the all the theory into practice. Manche dropped out of varsity during her third year and went on to start selling on a small scale to friends and family, and she opened her physical store end of 2012.



Her mother contributed immensely to her startup and invested in clothing, packaging, and also paid for her flights and accommodation to look for stock in China and Turkey. The brand started growing. In 2014, she employed three workers, teamed up with stylists and magazine editors and the brand grew with sales doubling, she says.



“In 2015, we hit our million mark [offering local and international clothing]. From 2016 onwards, we hit a decline in sales as new entrants in the market came; rental for my space was also high and the location remote. In 2017, I started 100% custom-making; growth had been slow yet steady and I had nine employees by the end of 2019. I decided to close my physical store in April 2019 and stay with one employee.&nbsp;Now in 2020, we are focusing solely on the online space we have rebranded and restructured.”



The coronavirus also had an impact on business but this has taught her that digitizing the business is the best way to go. She also took to social media, encouraging other entrepreneurs during the tough times.



“I invited different people from different industries to come talk to people and engage about entrepreneurship every Monday for 10 weeks. We had one livestream with over 10,000 viewers,” says Manche.



Who would have thought a small town girl would encourage entrepreneurs in a big city to keep pushing ahead in the hard times.

Tshego Manche

The Small-Towner With Big Dreams For African Fashion

Lydia Mbayo went from an engineering job to making some sharp-suited statements in the fashion business.



How does someone go from being an IT engineer to becoming a modeling agent and entrepreneur with a suit collection?



Lydia Mbayo, 39, who is all of that, says it simply: “I will never let anything stand in my way, if it’s the right time for me to do something, then it’s the right time. I will follow my dreams.”



After a stint as a modeling agent that saw her in-house talent grace global campaigns, Mbayo, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and now based in South Africa, has launched a collection of ladies’ suits and jackets called La Jaqueta.



“I was always in love with fashion. I have always liked to dress up. I always wanted to be a model. And I always had that entrepreneurship spirit,” she says.



Her new brand seeks to empower women through clothing and help build their confidence and self-esteem.



“I love suits, and I feel confident in them, so I wanted people to be inspired by that so that when they wear my suits, they feel confident too,” Mbayo says.



By her own admission, she is not a designer, but she hand-picks the fabric and adds her own personal flair to it, getting a lot of help from a local ‘cut, make, trim’ factory that assists in manufacturing her “dream collection”.



So how did a young woman who came to South Africa from Kinshasa in the DRC in 2001 to study IT engineering at the University of Johannesburg come to represent models?



Her degree led to her working as at an IT engineer in Johannesburg, but there was something missing. It was not in line with her true passion.



“They used to call me the IT Noami Campbell because I was clever and did well at university, meanwhile, being a Naomi Campbell,” she laughs.



Mbayo aspired to take underprivileged young women from small townships and turn them into international models who could one day represent the biggest names in the fashion industry.



“That was my dream, you get a girl from Hammanskraal and ask her, ‘do you know Paris’? She says to me, ‘mama, what’s that’ and then, I would say to her ‘come sit, let’s Google’ and I would show her the Eiffel Tower and say to her, ‘yeah, we are going here one day’.” &nbsp;



So, in 2013, she represented her first model, who went on to win a local pageant. In 2015, she started a modeling agency, FabulousDotCom. And two years later, she says some of her models were well on their way to attaining global fame.



“You know, in the beginning, no one wanted to book my clients, and I had no idea what I was doing. Everything I learned, I learned from Google – Google was my teacher,” Mbayo laughs. “I even resigned from my job as an IT engineer, and that was a big risk, but it was worth it.”



With the pandemic still at its peak, Mbayo’s brand will be available online for now.



“When it&#8217;s rain, you have a good time. You cannot have a good time if there is no rain. So when you have those challenges, those difficulties, those are just the rain and then the good time is coming,” Mbayo says.



“The coronavirus is not stopping my dream, so it should not stop yours.”

The Entrepreneur In Fashion Who Learned From Google

Black businessman working in new office

Survivors & Thrivers: Small Businesses That Persevered During the Pandemic

South African tattoo artist Sibusiso Cele on how he has been leaving an impression despite the pandemic.



‘Stay home, avoid contact’ is the prevailing motto of our times.



But, as it appears, not for South African freelance tattoo artist Sibusiso Cele, who has actually been receiving more requests for home visits at this time.



Tattoo art is hugely popular in Johannesburg, and since the reopening of tattoo parlors in level 3 of the national lockdown, artists admit to increased interest in people wanting to get themselves inked, some even reportedly wanting to capture the historic pandemic with a tattoo. &nbsp;&nbsp;



“Personally, the lockdown has worked out in my favor in so many ways,” says Cele.



Known as ‘Inkboy Que’, Cele, now 24, was born in Johannesburg and raised in the Umlazi township in Durban, a coastal city in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, by his aunt who has been his greatest support. His older brother, Simphiwe, taught him to draw from a young age.



“Simphiwe played a huge role in the manifestation of my career. It is unfortunate that Simphiwe is now late and he can’t see my exceptional work thus far. Eventually, I put my all into drawing, to a point where I drew everything and anything in school; it was a passion,” recalls Cele.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;I already had a face tattoo and the corporate world regarded it as being unprofessional to have any visible tattoos.&#8221;</blockquote>



In 2013, with a good friend, Cele invested in his first tattoo kit. He traveled locally tattooing but worked mainly from his backroom at home in Umlazi. At the time, his family didn’t consider tattoo art a career, but he persisted.



“In 2015, I was admitted into Durban City College for an engineering course. It was an amazing opportunity to further my studies, however, it was affecting the family financially, also, I already had a face tattoo and the corporate world regarded it as being unprofessional to have any visible tattoos.&nbsp;That was more of a reason not to pursue that career, [so] during the third semester, I dropped out. Above everything at that time, I had invested so much into doing tattoos and the name ‘Inkboy’ was born,” says Cele.



Shortly after that, he moved to Mpumalanga where he had already created a clientele.&nbsp;In 2018, he joined the Soweto Ink family that helped mould his craft until early this year when he officially became an independent tattoo artist and traveled widely across provinces.



But with the coronavirus pandemic and South Africa closing borders and businesses, including tattoo parlors, and the country going into lockdown, Cele had to slow down on the travel. But that didn’t stop him from seeking opportunities locally.



“Firstly, I have financial control, I take my own decisions, and I am comfortable. Normally, I see one or two clients a day because of the traveling and setting up,” he says.



Before the lockdown, Cele mostly traveled to Durban and Mpumalanga, from his home in Johannesburg. His daily travel expenses to clients start at R900. But clients are considerate enough to meet him half-way; besides that, his tattooing rates start at R300, depending on size and detailing.



Cele says getting himself tested for Covid-19 is a big priority for him.



“I do it regularly. Actually, the last time I was tested was a few days ago and because my clients are mostly artists, their profession requires them to get tested too. Besides, I make sure I always wear my PPE for extra safety,” he says.



Since branching out on his own, Cele has been seeing professional growth and has worked with socialites and celebrities in the entertainment industry such as South African musicians ‘DJ Tira’ and Naak MusiQ among others.



Cele says he has learned a lot from the business and his art.



“I wouldn’t say I am making a lot of money but I am getting the hang of being financially stable and it comes with all the responsibility, but it’s a good thing, I’m getting used to this,” he smiles.



Clearly, leaving an impression is his specialty.

Sibusisi Cele InkBoy

Ink Is In: Tattoos In The Time Of Covid

As small businesses struggle to survive the economic havoc caused by Covid-19, new research shows that small business owners are optimistic about the future. Some 75% of small business owners agree that if a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic were to happen again, they’d be better prepared to handle it, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/Documents/SHRM%20CV19%20SBO%202%20Research%20Presentation%20v3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;by the Society for Human Resource Management.&nbsp;



Additionally, 52% of small businesses surveyed expect to recover to pre-Covid profitability in six months or less. This optimism is encouraging to Liz Supinski, SHRM’S director of research products, who says that Covid-19 has been a “big driver of innovation.” Many small businesses, spurred by the limitations imposed by the coronavirus, have invented new products, while one in three of those surveyed say they’ve found new ways to deliver services. “For the whole world of work, this has been a large, uncontrolled experiment in changing what work looks like,” Supinski says. “It’s opened the door to a lot of ideas that have been dismissed because change is hard. And if things are good enough, then why would you change?”&nbsp;



According to SHRM, 43% of small business owners have pivoted their business models. One of those entrepreneurs is Denise Woodard, the founder of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://partakefoods.com/" target="_blank">Partake Foods</a>, an allergy-friendly, gluten-free, vegan cookie company. Since much of her New Jersey-based company’s marketing involved live demos and local events, Woodard has had to come up with new ways of promoting her brand digitally, includingpartnering with minority- and women-owned brands on a “Spot Us at Target” campaign and teaming up with The Blackbird Collective on Instagram Live and Facebook Live events. 



This sort of flexibility is something that Supinski expects to see from businesses of all sizes during this period of business recovery. Three fourths of small businesses are planning to change their policies in response to employees’ childcare needs, with 43% implementing or considering flexible hours or compressed schedules, and 31% offering full-time remote work. “Small businesses are in a unique position because often they’re able to be more flexible with workers than larger businesses. They don’t have the same kind of issues,” Supinski says. However, she adds that small businesses run on small margins, which makes it harder for many to offer this kind of help to employees.&nbsp;



Not only has the coronavirus pandemic spurred innovation, but it’s also led to an uptick in reskilling and upskilling. SHRM found that 22% of small businesses have asked employees to learn new skills to support changes in their business. “There’s certainly a lot of opportunity here for businesses and workers to explore different ways of doing business and having a career and new ways that those two things can come together and change the way the world of work works,” Supinski says. “Opportunity out of adversity.” 



None of this is to say that small business owners aren’t without worries—53% report feeling somewhat or very concerned about the increased risk of lawsuits and liability while reopening amid Covid-19, as the cost of defending one can be burdensome. Despite these concerns, the way in which small businesses have been able to successfully pivot has made them optimistic about the future, and the support they’ve received from their local communities has only helped. “We’re seeing a lot of people put their money where their mouth is and really work hard to support local businesses during this time,” Supinski says. “You would hope that people would continue to appreciate those local businesses going forward.”&nbsp;



Woodard has witnessed this increase in support from the community around her. The company first saw an uptick in sales in March, when consumers were stockpiling groceries due to the pandemic. One of few Black-owned nationally scaled businesses in the country, Partake Foods, saw another increase in sales in May, following the death of George Floyd. “Our business has really received a large outpouring of support from people wanting to support small-owned business, women-owned business, Black-owned business,” Woodard says. “I’m hopeful for the future of small business in America.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthatodd/">Samantha Todd</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/leadership-strategy">Leadership Strategy</a>

gettyimages-1197189901-170667a

Small Businesses Are Optimistic About The Future, Even As They Continue Navigating Covid-19

When Jay Wilkinson, founder and CEO of marketing, printing and website-development company Firespring, was 15 years old, he attended a leadership summer camp with his high school’s student council. While there, he learned about Stephen Grellet, a Quaker missionary whose words would change his life forever: “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” It was this quote that motivated him to become an entrepreneur.



Since launching&nbsp;<a href="https://www.firespring.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Firespring</a>&nbsp;in 1992, Wilkinson has worked with clients in 50 states and 14 countries, growing his staff to 180 and revenue to $25 million in 2019. That’s not to say the Lincoln, Nebraska-based business hasn’t seen its fair share of struggles: In 2002, Wilkinson was fired as CEO by the investor-led board of directors after refusing to lay off employees amid the economic downturn that followed 9/11. But four months later, with the help of family and friends, he bought out the venture capitalists, and within two years, the business was profitable again. “We climbed out of it, and we survived,” Wilkinson says. “The culture that we have today was forged in the fire when we were just trying to save the company.”



That tenacity has proven essential in the current economic environment, not to mention it’s propelled Firespring onto <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2020/05/12/forbes-small-giants-25-companies-that-believe-smaller-is-better/">Forbes’ annual Small Giants list</a>. The 25 companies that make up the 2020 list all value greatness over fast growth and are weathering the coronavirus crisis in their own way. 



While much of corporate America has been affected by Covid-19, small businesses have been especially hard-hit, with 31% stopping operations as a result of the crisis, according to Facebook’s State of Small Business&nbsp;<a href="https://dataforgood.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SMBReport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>. And in the marketing and advertising world, where global ad budgets are expected to drop 36% in the first half of the year and eight in ten marketers have delayed campaigns as a result of the pandemic, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://wfanet.org/knowledge/item/2020/05/13/Survey-Covid-19-global-response-April-2020" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;from the World Federation of Advertisers, many businesses are struggling to stay afloat.&nbsp;



Firespring has seen an increase in demand for its quick activation marketing programs, such as creating digital fundraising campaigns, as well as virtual strategy sessions, of which it has done more than 200 over the past couple of months. It has also worked with clients to adjust their campaigns so that they are reflective of the times. “We’re very mindful of making sure that we are messaging everything with the Covid-19 restrictions in place so that we don’t come across as being tone-deaf and that our clients don’t, as well,” Wilkinson says. “It’s going to be critical for marketers moving forward and out of the pandemic to understand how different things are going to be, in terms of the way people connect with brands.”



The firm primarily serves purpose-driven organizations and nonprofits, which Wilkinson says are uniquely positioned to navigate the changing marketing landscape, as they always keep clients at the center of their work. But the pandemic has disrupted many nonprofits’ fundraising events, hurting them financially. In an effort to help its nonprofit clients during this challenging time, Firespring partnered with GivingTuesday, a nonprofit known for its advocacy of its namesake charitable holiday for the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The initiative, called Giving Tuesday Now, raised $3 million for nonprofits over the course of May. 



In Birmingham, Michigan, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://brogan.com/" target="_blank">Brogan &amp; Partners</a>, another full-service marketing agency and 2020 Small Giant, has been supporting its surrounding community by working with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to produce an ad spot promoting the wearing of face masks to flatten the coronavirus curve. Thanks to the ad and accompanying hashtag—<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/zrj5CzpqjMfOKMQ9t4BY6m" target="_blank">#MiMaskChallenge</a>—Brogan &amp; Partners was able to get the word out to more than five million Michiganders, including celebrities such as musicianKid Rock. “I don’t want to make money off of Covid-19. That’s not my business,” says Ellyn Davidson, owner and CEO of Brogan &amp; Partners. “I want to help and be part of the solution. As much as possible, we want to give back.”



An hour south, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jim Hume, founder and principal of 2020 Small Giant marketing advertising agency&nbsp;<a href="https://phiregroup.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Phire Group</a>, has also been working with clients to craft their coronavirus messaging. He believes the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of trends such as authentic storytelling. “True authenticity includes vulnerability and putting yourself out there and just becoming more human as a brand,” Hume says. “Everything that we do has to be pointed toward making companies, organizations and brands more human, more accessible, more real.”



That authenticity, he says, is important in every aspect of Phire Group’s business, including how it communicates with clients. “It’s an important time to reach out to customers to let them know you’re there for them, but also to just be transparent with what’s happening,” Hume says. “Just let them know that you’re doing fine, you hope they’re doing fine, and you’re there for them.”

Businesspeople at big creative agency

How 3 Small Businesses Are Navigating Covid-19 In The Marketing Industry

One man working alone at night using notebook during quarantine

Covid-19: The Ultimate Disruptor

The coronavirus pandemic has continued to take a catastrophic toll on America’s small businesses. According to Facebook’s State of Small Business&nbsp;<a href="https://dataforgood.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SMBReport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>, 31% of small businesses and 52% of personal businesses have stopped operating as a result of the crisis.&nbsp;



“What we know today is pretty sobering,” says Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. “We’re in a really hard economic situation that is hitting all businesses, but particularly, small businesses really hard. We also know how critical small businesses are for jobs—long before coronavirus,” she says. “Two thirds of new jobs in this country happen because of small businesses and so that means what’s happening with small businesses has always been important, but it’s more important than ever.”



Especially concerning is that only 45% of business owners and managers plan to rehire the same number of workers when their businesses reopen. That number is just 32% for personal businesses. 



“If these businesses are letting people go, it’s not that they don’t want to rehire them,” Sandberg says. “It’s because they don’t think they’re going to be able to. That’s a pretty serious thing for us to be facing.”



Businesses that have been able to maintain operations still face significant hurdles, namely access to capital and customers. Some 28% of businesses surveyed say their biggest challenge over the next few months will be cash flow, while 20% say it will be lack of demand. 



The report, conducted in partnership with the Small Business Roundtable, was based on a survey of 86,000 owners, managers and workers at U.S. companies with fewer than 500 employees. It is also a part of the company’s broader data collection initiative with the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on the Future of Business.



“We were already in the process of developing this report before the coronavirus pandemic hit,” Sandberg says. “We expected it to be a pretty rosy tale back then of low unemployment, flourishing entrepreneurship, and jobs growing all over the world. Fast forward to today and we’re in a very different position.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="960" height="540" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45576" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook-600x338.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/facebook-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption>An example of Facebook&#8217;s new Shops feature, which creates digital &#8220;storefronts&#8221; for businesses.   FACEBOOK</figcaption></figure>



Now, the company is launching&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook Shops</a>, an ecommerce product that allows businesses to set up online “storefronts” on Facebook and Instagram. Businesses can customize their digital shops, using cover images to showcase their brands and catalogs to highlight their products. And just as customers can ask for help when shopping in physical stores, they can message business owners directly via WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram Direct to ask questions, track deliveries and more. “Our goal is to make shopping seamless and empower anyone from a small business owner to a global brand to use our apps to connect with customers,” wrote Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10111927602176421" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>&nbsp;announcing the new product. As was the case with the survey, the rollout was planned prior to the pandemic, but was accelerated as businesses have turned to online tools to adapt in the face of the ongoing crisis. According to the survey, 51% of small business owners have&nbsp; increased their online interactions with customers, and 36% of operational businesses are now conducting all sales online.&nbsp;



“One of the things I find so amazing is how much of the activity has migrated online and that we’re doing things we never thought were possible,” says Sandberg. “If I had asked you or you had asked me, could I work entirely from home? Can my whole company go home? I would have said ‘No way.’ But we did it. Small businesses have even more entrepreneurial spirit.”



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There are more than 30 million small businesses in the U.S., many of which are struggling to stay afloat amid forced closures and are still hoping to receive financial relief from the government. According to a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-businesses/US/infographic-small-business-relief/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;by Goldman Sachs, 71% of Paycheck Protection Program applicants are still waiting for loans and 64% don’t have enough cash to survive the next three months. As of April 19, more than 175,000 businesses have shut down—temporarily or permanently—with closure rates rising 200% or more in hard-hit metropolitan cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, according to Yelp’s Q1 Economic Average&nbsp;<a href="https://www.yelpeconomicaverage.com/yea-q1-2020.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>.



Employees of these businesses are disproportionately affected, with 74% and 70% reporting not having access to paid sick leave and paid time off, according to Facebook’s survey. For hotel, cafe and restaurant employees, those figures are over 90%.



Facebook, which relies heavily on small businesses for advertising revenue, was among the first major tech companies to provide much-needed aid. On March 17, the company announced $100 million in grants for small businesses, the majority of which will be distributed in cash, with some ad credits for business services. Of those funds, $40 million will be distributed across 34 American cities, with 50% being reserved for women, minority and veteran-owned businesses. The other $60 million will be distributed to small business owners throughout the world. In addition to financial assistance, the company also rolled out various product offerings including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital gift cards</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/fundraisers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fundraisers</a>&nbsp;and easier ways for businesses to communicate service changes to their customers.&nbsp;



Small businesses are resilient, even during times of crisis. According to the report, 57% of businesses are optimistic or extremely optimistic about the future, with only 11% of operating businesses expecting to fail in the next three months, should current conditions persist.&nbsp;



“The report raises awareness about the struggles small businesses face from the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Rhett Buttle, founder of Public Private Strategies and co-executive director of the Small Business Roundtable. “But small businesses have brought us out of previous economic downturns and they will do so again.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/">Maneet Ahuja</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs">Entrepreneurs</a>

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31% Of Small Businesses Have Stopped Operating Amid Coronavirus: Sheryl Sandberg Shares How Facebook’s Latest Product Aims To Help

In late February, Jeff Davidson, cofounder and co-CEO of fitness company Camp Gladiator, was on an annual boys fishing trip on&nbsp;Lake El Salto, at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains in western Mexico, when he was struck by an overwhelming sense of dread and déjà vu. After a long day of bass fishing, he logged onto his laptop for his daily browse of investment forums, an old habit from his days as a&nbsp;senior vice president at AXA Advisors. Hedge fund managers and Wall Street analysts were following the development of a novel coronavirus out of Wuhan, China, scouring the region for under-the-radar money plays. The more he read, the more he found himself feeling as he did at the start of the Great Recession.&nbsp;



“I just remember the way it felt when we saw Bear Stearns go bankrupt and the panic of the stock market crash. All of that just burned really harsh memories into my mind,” Davidson says. “I immediately went back to our headquarters and told my team, ‘I think we need to be prepared for a major event.’” From Camp Gladiator’s offices in Austin, Texas, they hatched a plan, “Project Mars,” to pivot their fitness bootcamp business in real time.



Founded in 2008 by Davidson and his wife, Ally, who used the $100,000 she won after being crowned champion of NBC’s&nbsp;American Gladiator&nbsp;(which she had auditioned for on their wedding day) to launch the now $60 million company, Camp Gladiator’s training sessions were always meant to run outdoors, in public spaces like parks and schoolyards where people could come together and support one another on their fitness journeys. In recent months, Ally had been conducting a competitive analysis of the virtual workout landscape, with plans to roll out their own remote offerings in 2022.&nbsp;



As state-wide shutdowns and shelter-in-place mandates have forced gyms to close indefinitely, casting the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ihrsa.org/improve-your-club/industry-news/2019-fitness-industry-trends-shed-light-on-2020-beyond/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$94 billion fitness industry</a>&nbsp;into financial freefall, Camp Gladiator has emerged uniquely poised to profit. While chains like Gold’s Gym&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/05/04/coronavirus-golds-gym-chapter-11-bankruptcy-covid-19/3077385001/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed for bankruptcy</a>&nbsp;and billion-dollar startups like ClassPass have seen&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/technology/virus-start-ups-pummeled-layoffs-unwinding.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">95% of their profits</a>&nbsp;evaporate overnight, Camp Gladiator’s lack of physical locations and trainer income model (the company’s 1,000 instructors collect 75% of the revenue from their classes) have served as advantages. “Camp Gladiator is like 1,000 small businesses rolled up into one medium business, because each of our trainers are local owner operators that collect the profits of their own locations,” Davidson says.&nbsp;



This alignment they have with their workforce helped accelerate the launch of their virtual offerings to&nbsp;March 16,&nbsp;well ahead of competitors like Orangetheory Fitness.&nbsp;After a week of free #HustleAtHome classes streaming on Facebook Live, they released a 6-week virtual workout challenge for $39 (in-person memberships usually cost between $59 and $79 a month). The quick pivot paid off: Since launching two months ago, Camp Gladiator has gone from 4,000 outdoor workouts a week to nearly 10,000 Zoom workouts a week. It has retained 97% of its customer base of nearly 80,000 and has acquired an additional 20,000 customers and $700,000.&nbsp;The adoption rate has been so high that the Davidsons plan to maintain their virtual offering long term and have been hiring new trainers, many of which were recently laid off from other fitness companies.&nbsp;



“Six weeks ago, we thought we were making a Band-Aid. Four weeks ago, we thought we were making a supplemental product offering that might be worth keeping,” Davidson says. “And now we think we’re making the way forward. There’s a chance that in a year virtual will be our primary product offering.”



Needless to say, fitness isn’t the only industry that’s been affected by the pandemic. The coronavirus crisis has taken a significant toll on the majority of America’s more than 30 million small businesses, many of which are still hoping to receive financial relief from the government. According to a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-businesses/US/infographic-small-business-relief/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;by Goldman Sachs, 71% of Paycheck Protection Program applicants are still waiting for loans and 64% don’t have enough cash to last the next three months. As of April 19, more than 175,000 businesses have shut down—temporarily or permanently—with closure rates rising 200% or more in hard-hit metropolitan cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, according to Yelp’s Q1 Economic Average&nbsp;<a href="https://www.yelpeconomicaverage.com/yea-q1-2020.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>.



The restaurant industry has been especially crushed. A recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.saverestaurants.com/news-item/april-16-new-survey-only-1-in-5-restaurant-owners-are-certain-they-can-survive-the-covid-19-crisis-despite-stimulus-assistance-putting-at-risk-11-million-workers-and-1-trillion-industry-without-urgent/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;conducted by the Independent Restaurant Coalition and James Beard Foundation found that the food services industry only received 9% of PPP dollars, despite accounting for 60% of job losses in March. The National Restaurant Association&nbsp;<a href="https://restaurant.org/Articles/News/Restaurants-on-track-to-lose-$80-billion-in-sales" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimates</a>&nbsp;the restaurant industry lost $80 billion through April and is on track to lose $240 billion by the end of the year.



La Monarca Bakery and Café, a $15 million Los Angeles-based chain described by cofounder Ricardo Cervantes as “if a Mexican bakery and Starbucks had a baby,” expects revenues to drop as much as 40% across his 12 locations this year. “Being that we purposely positioned ourselves in working class Hispanic neighborhoods, we are in areas where the employer and employee basis have been hit the hardest,” Cervantes says. “We have not stopped,” he adds, referring to the work he and cofounder Alfredo Livas have been doing to adapt to the new normal. They’ve kept all of their locations open for pick-up and take-out and reduced all costs and management salaries in an effort to keep the majority of their team intact (about 10% were laid off) and expand their business to include more prepackaged items and family meal options. In response to the needs of their local communities, they started carrying essential items like milk, butter, flour, paper towels, toilet paper and bleach. “Some of our neighborhoods do not have access to large supermarkets or Costco, and if they do, many individuals don’t usually have the resources to stockpile two months of toilet paper,” Cervantes explains. “They need daily goods but in smaller quantities and that’s what we’ve been providing.”



When the duo met as MBA students at Stanford Business School in 2001, they had no idea they would someday be putting their finance degrees to work like this. “We are busier today than we have ever been—and that is not to say that business is great. As the analogy goes, we’re building this new airplane while we are in the air,” he says.&nbsp;



But while the need for social distancing has forced business closures around the world, taking a toll on every sector, some like the wine industry have found somewhat of a silver lining. According to data from&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&amp;dataId=230448" target="_blank">Nielsen</a>, wine sales for off-premise consumption during the period from March 1 to April 18 were up 29% as compared to the same period year-over-year, with total alcohol sales for off-premise consumption up 24%.&nbsp;



Kingston Family Vineyards is banking on this trend. Founded in 1998 by Courtney Kingston, the $3 million family-run business is headquartered in Portola Valley, California, with a 100-year-old farm and 350-acre vineyard in Chile’s Casablanca Valley that doubles as a premier tourist destination, one that’s been awarded TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence for the past six years. It produces just 3,500 cases of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc annually (they sell 90% of their grapes to other winemakers), so when Chilean President Sebastián&nbsp;Piñera declared a state of catastrophe on March 19,&nbsp;Kingston lost a significant amount of revenue during what’s been their most profitable season of the year.&nbsp;



With Kingston’s 20th wine-grape harvest of the year well underway, the vineyard shifted to offering virtual wine tastings, shipping bottles to customers in advance. Revenue in the U.S. for the month of April was down just 10% year-over-year.



“Based on these virtual tastings, we’ve made up a lot of revenue with a totally new business,” Kingston says. “Before the coronavirus, hosting guests in an intimate setting was key to how we shared our small corner of the world with others. They’d often become customers for a lifetime. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, we can’t do that. The bright light in the darkness is what we can do.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/">Maneet Ahuja</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs">Entrepreneurs</a>

Happy business owner hanging an open sign while wearing protective mask

How Three Small Businesses Are Pivoting To Stay Afloat Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic

Tech entrepreneur Mandla Ngcobo dabbled in everything from poultry farming to selling airtime and electricity, until he found his niche in telecom – and his connections are growing.



Mandla Ngcobo represents everything the digital age stands for.



He’s young, happening and ubiquitous, with hopes and ambitions in every sector: from the poultry business to IT and everything in between.



&nbsp;Born in Newcastle, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, Ngcobo is the founder of Accelerit Technologies that’s heading forth in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.



“Entrepreneurship is something that has always been around me,” he says resolutely, taking a sip of his drink, when we meet him at an upscale restaurant in Sandton, Johannesburg.



“My father was a taxi owner. My mother was unemployed but used to sell clothes and plait people’s hair from home. She was a firm believer that one must have multiple streams of revenue. My mother used to do whatever it took to put food on the table.”&nbsp;



This attribute made him resourceful too, as he saw it work. He was employed but was inspired to start his own business.



His job for six years at a global technology and consulting firm in Johannesburg exposed him to the inner workings of the ICT business.



The computer had been a loyal companion since high school.&nbsp;



In the mid-1990s, his brother bought him his first TV game console, then gave him his old Pentium One computer with 133 megabytes of data.



“I was fascinated by the fact that you could program a computer to do certain things,” says Ngcobo.



Graduating from the University of Cape Town in South Africa with a BSc in 2005, he wasn’t particularly passionate about theory, but was driven by formulae.



“I also did business as an elective because I was thinking about the trade. So, varsity was mostly about computers and business and that’s where it all began.”



Two years later, he ventured into the chicken feed business as his mother had started a chicken farm.



He ran the business for five years with a fair turnover and employing three.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“That money was able to pay for my car; I saw it had legs. I tried so many businesses; I even sold prepaid airtime and electricity around where I grew up.”



The chicken business didn’t take off but at least he was now lured into the art of making money.



In 2011, the 36-year-old serial entrepreneur registered Accelerit Technologies, a small and medium enterprise providing turnkey ICT solutions. He needed to have licences to run a telecom business to do business with other companies and consumers.



He was still an employee with the company he worked for, but time had come to go on his own.



“I had to be billable as a consultant, so I had to work. There was a project I worked on that absolutely almost broke me; I didn’t enjoy it at all, so I was in a space knowing I didn’t have to do what I was doing. If I could dedicate a little bit of my time to pursue my own venture, I could make it work and that was it, I was done, and I resigned in 2013,” he says.&nbsp;



Having tasted entrepreneurship, he knew he could do it, but this time, he had to be fully present and committed.



“I sold my fancy white Audi TT car, and moved out of my lavish apartment in Sandton. I had to downgrade my life, I needed to bring it back to a level where I could manage my month’s expenditure and align with the fact that I was no longer an employee,” he says.



He shared office space but had a business address; it was time to get his first customer.



He set up a Wi-Fi base station at his sister’s house and sold vouchers; expanded to Greyhound Lines, an intercity bus carrier; then a student commune around the Johannesburg CBD, and within months, Ngcobo was turning over R10,000 ($617) a month.



“That made me feel chuffed,” he says. His sister was his first employee and two other friends soon were on his payroll.



“I was coming from a job that paid me R60,000 ($3,700) a month, and the R10,000 ($617) had me super excited. I knew I never had to work [for someone else] a day in my life. If I put in 10 times the effort, then I would be making R100,000 ($6,168) a month and that is how the journey started.”



Business was growing and within 24 months, Ngcobo set up Wi-Fi base stations in estates around Midrand still using the voucher system; at the time, it was massive.



In early 2017, Accelerit Technologies moved to fiber optic technology delivering high-speed data.



“That made us very competitive; we went from north Johannesburg to providing services nationwide, turning over R900,000 ($55,512) at the end of the 2018 financial year.”



Currently, Ngcobo is projecting R30 million ($1.85 million) for the financial year 2020 and employs 20 full-time staff.



It’s big numbers and wired ambitions, but as always, he is sure he can make it work.

IMG_5448

The $600 That Sparked A Telecom Trade: This Entrepreneur Represents Everything The Digital Age Stands For

The hygiene industry has received a shot in the arm with the recent pandemic. With emptying retail shelves, small business is also coming to the aid with innovative sanitizing ideas.



Retail stores in Johannesburg, as in most urban centers in the world currently, have run out of wet wipes and hand-sanitizers – the widely-recommended weapons to keep the coronavirus at bay.



With the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province on March 5, the pandemic has brought the country to high alert and a state of national disaster proclaimed by President Cyril Ramaphosa merely two weeks later, with 116 confirmed cases and counting (at the time of going to press).



Where there was plenty before news of the outbreak, exasperated customers are seeing ‘Out Of Stock or ‘Sold Out’’ signs in bold red letters on hand-sanitizer shelves at retail outlets and pharmacies. There is a long waiting list at dispensaries such as Clicks in Johannesburg.



At a store at The Marc, a fairly new retail mall in Sandton, Africa’s richest square mile, the manager echoes the sentiments of his counterparts in other malls in the area: “Three weeks ago, we were fully stocked, now, we are out of stock. This happened the week of the first coronavirus report in KwaZulu-Natal, when we had foreign nationals who bought hand-sanitizers more than the [locals] because of the [five-star] hotels in the area.”



About 21kms from Sandton in Roodepoort, another city in Johannesburg, Khensani Moleko, a 27-year-old account manager in the advertising industry, says she mall-hopped a whole weekend in search of hand-sanitizers.



“We went to multiple shops in the Roodepoort area and found nothing. However, we had sanitizers before the outbreak so we still have some left but it’s running out. I’ll be looking online,” says Moleko.



This is what consumers like Mufhenyi Mashamba, a Johannesburg-based interior designer, are doing too.



“On the websites, all sanitizers were out of stock, and they are usually priced between R20 and R30. When I checked the next day, people were auctioning hand-sanitizers [at ridiculous prices]. So now, I’m sitting here with no wipes and no sanitizers. I’m relying on personal hygiene and making sure I’m aware of my surroundings and that people have their hygiene in check,” says Mashaba.&nbsp;



This is also an opportunity for private business and small entrepreneurs such as Ludwick Marishane, founder of Headbody Industries and inventor of DryBath Gel, an innovative gel that can be used as a water-less body wash.



“We are making an antiseptic version of the product and the idea is to provide it to businesses because facilities are no longer safe. We have also been approached by a few retailers interested in listing our product.”



The gel is currently sold online, and should find its way on to retail shelves by June next year, says Marishane.



He is not the only entrepreneur making money off the hygiene industry.



Whitey Chemicals, founded by Joanna Stewart in Johannesburg, is a chemical cleaning service and supplier. The company started with cleaning petrol stations; one of their products is used to remove oil from concrete and restore it to its original form. The company also supplies disinfectants and cleaning solutions for schools, businesses and homes. “When I started the business two months ago, we fully got into hand-sanitizers because of the increase in the chaos going on in the country. Sanitizers are in high demand and business has picked up rapidly, it’s the main focus currently,” says Stewart, who has been in the pharmaceutical industry for the last 15 years. She has a full-time staff of six but has had to employ another 15 as freelancers to keep up with the demand.



With emptying retail shelves, small business is coming to the rescue, whilst also cashing in on the timely opportunity.

Sanitizer 520

Hands-On Approach: Small Business Is Coming To The Aid With Innovative Sanitizing Solutions

For continental traders like Robert Mensah and Nomkhosi Shongwe who sell organic soaps made of cocoa, the border bans induced by the pandemic have meant undelivered products and a backlog of work.



Ghana, the beautiful country in West Africa, famous for its cocoa, is one of the world’s largest exporters of the natural product. The humble bean is also used to make organic black soap, favored by many for its dermatological benefits.



But the current Covid 19-induced lockdown in the country has meant that Accra-based traders like Robert Mensah are not seeing any monetary returns for their esoteric organic cocoa products.



The brand he founded, named Akwaaba, produces and supplies ‘raw African black soap’, organic cocoa butter and even shea butter (another West African specialty) to overseas markets.



Mensah’s entrepreneurial journey had initially even included a stint in South Africa, when he sold djembe drums in the quaint old suburb of Yeoville in Johannesburg, but then, decided to return home to Ghana for good and start selling the soap.



“I left South Africa about three years ago to set up this organic black soap business to sell locally and internationally. The business has been operating for over two years, employing three people; two of assist with packaging and the remaining one is a dispatch driver,” he says.



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Like most other countries in Africa, Ghana too has travel restrictions, so this means Mensah cannot make deliveries to other towns.



“International trading is one of our biggest challenges as all borders and airports are closed.”



Mensah had orders that were meant for overseas deliveries but at the moment, his goods are stuck, although production is ongoing.



“It’s very tough, that is how the world has come to be, for now,” he says.



All he can do, for now, is mentally travel back and forth in time.



In 2018, when his business was still new, he recalls receiving an order online from Nomkhosi Shongwe, a South African curious about his organic skin products.



Shongwe, an advertising professional in Johannesburg, who is now Mensah’s business associate, had been researching organic products when she stumbled upon the black soaps.



“I just saw the benefits of African soap and shea butter online and searched for an African supplier and Mensah’s name popped up. I ordered the soaps to try them out and possibly sell. People liked it and I promoted the business on social media and I now sell it nationally.”



From Ghana to South Africa, her woes are the same as Mensah’s.



She says business has also been slow since the lockdown effected in South Africa from March 27. She is unable to collect the supply delivered prior to the lockdown because of travel restrictions. &nbsp;



“The product is in high demand globally and locally; customers locally have even made deposits in case they run out of money post the lockdown.”



Luckily, Shongwe has another source of income so is not solely reliant on the sales of the organic products.



But the business is dependent on social media promotions, as she regularly posts and educates people about the organic products.



“I am comfortable knowing that the information about the product is out there and whoever searches for skin solutions might come across my page and all the information is there. So the business manages itself while I am still busy with my nine-to-five [other job],” she offers.

Nomkhosi Shongwe

The Dark Patch In The Black Soap Business

A salon owner in the township of Soweto in South Africa laments how she has no option but to dip into her savings and await the relief fund promised by the government after the lockdown.



At a time when self-preservation has become far more important than keeping up with the Joneses, retail establishments offering grooming and hair treatment services have taken the cut, not listed as ‘essential services’ in the 35-day lockdown period in South Africa.



Le Salon is one such, founded by Thembeka Nkosi in South Africa’s sprawling township of Soweto in 2014 after she won a national hair competition, and received R10,000 ($536) in cash and a year’s supply of hair products and equipment, and she started working with major hair brands.



Nkosi was able to grow her business, but the coronavirus pandemic has now derailed all the progress she made.



“The business has been operating for six years and I employ three people paid weekly based on commissions. Now it is very difficult for the employees and myself because if there is no work, there is no income,” laments Nkosi, who is now dipping into her savings to sustain herself.



She urges people to abide by the rules of the lockdown to help flatten the curve, so life can return to normal and people like her can go back to business.



“I had applied for the relief fund promised by the government for small businesses, but the problem is that the money is needed now. We are not open now and not having an income now, but we’ll wait for that money which will help when we reopen, however, the problem is now!”



Before the lockdown, Nkosi had a couple of orders for wigs and is currently working on them.



“Luckily, I had enough stock [hair to make wigs], but even though I can’t deliver them, hopefully, after the lockdown, people will be able to get their hair. I will also lower prices when we reopen and work long hours to generate the money lost.”



Hopefully, she will be able to make up for lost time.

Thembeka Nkosi

Wigs, Weaves And Woes: Beauty Not Priority In Crisis

Ntokozo Hadebe had just started his business when South Africa went into lockdown. He is hoping he will be able to recover payments and keep his enterprise alive. 



Ntokozo Hadebe, an occupational health and safety (OHS) entrepreneur from Soweto, Johannesburg, only recently founded his own business, BNH Pty/Ltd, a consulting and training business concerned with the health, safety and welfare of workers. 



Little did Hadebe know that a killer virus would shut down South Africa. He had just opened shop, and the timing could not have been worse.



“Business had to stop all operations due to the lockdown. I had already invoiced clients and processed jobs that I had recently done. Going into lockdown, I had to put jobs on hold that were scheduled and paid for. I also had quotes awaiting approval and they too were put on hold,” he says.



Like many small businesses, the three-week lockdown in South Africa has affected his operations too; and he, like many of counterparts in business, are uncertain if the lockdown will be extended.



At this point, he is unsure of the business recovery plan of his clients, as that would inadvertently affect payments.



“Recovery is also going to depend on my clients’ strategies. After this crisis is over and business operations continue as normal, I am not sure if my clients will have a budget for me because of the financial constraints they may have incurred during this lockdown. This leaves me in a very tight corner for me to continue to provide my services,” he says.



Hadebe is using this period to strategize and find ways to help BNH recover because, “if there is no operation, there is no income for the business, meaning, I can’t grow the business going forward.”



He is currently surviving on previous payments but also mindful of cash-flow issues for running costs once business kicks off again.



“In a nutshell, I have to use a hand-to-mouth system in order to survive. At least I have settled costs incurred with my suppliers and other service providers, like printers. But for now, I have nothing else coming in at all.”



Hadebe had earlier been employed at a company but quit because he felt he wasn’t getting the support he needed and decided starting his own entity would satiate his hunger.



The lockdown is a harsh learning curve and he hopes he will become a tougher entrepreneur as a result.

Blessed Ntokozo Hadebe

‘Hand-To-Mouth To Survive’: A New Entrepreneur Banks On Hope During Lockdown

Tshepo Phiri has had to shut down his branding and printing business but is turning to online marketing to pay his bills during the lockdown.  



Riding motorbikes as a hobby and having a passion for visuals led to Tshepo Phiri from Mabopane, a township in the north of Pretoria in South Africa, to found Prodigy Studios in 2016, a video and photography business that soon expanded to branding, printing and social media marketing for mostly the motorsports industry. &nbsp;



During the three-week lockdown imposed by South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa, Phiri’s small business has also been affected – he has closed shop and hopes good times will roll again. &nbsp;&nbsp;



“The lockdown hasn’t been good to us; we feel the effect of the virus. Suppliers have increased prices and we on the other hand couldn’t suddenly increase ours, because of the current orders we had already been busy with. We just had to take the fall for it.”



Young Phiri, nonetheless, understands the need for the lockdown, but says that with the whole world panicking and stock markets crashing, who will pay attention to small entrepreneurs like him?



“I can say I am fortunate enough to have the likes of MFE Motors and Ducati South Africa as my clients. I am busy with a large order I had received prior to the shutdown which I’m currently finishing, but again, the lockdown might come as a hindrance to delivering and that may obviously have its effects on getting paid on time,” he rues.



But it’s not a losing battle yet for Phiri; he runs social media pages for clients on month-to-month contractual agreements and is using that income to help him survive this period.



The motorbikes are parked away and silent, and so too the engines of the economy.

Tshepo Phiri

‘We Feel The Effect Of The Virus’: This Entrepreneur is Turning To Online After Business Shutdown

The historic Vilakazi Street in South Africa is now eerily quiet. With the lockdown, small entrepreneurs here like Sifiso Moyo are pondering new ways to resuscitate life into the precinct.



Sifiso Moyo is the co-founder of The Box Shop in one of South Africa’s most historic tourist hubs.



The lifestyle and retail outlet he founded with his business partner, Bernard Msimango, is on Vilakazi Street, known for being the only street that has famously housed two Nobel Peace Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in South Africa’s township of Soweto in Johannesburg.



Even before South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa announced the national lockdown from March 27, Moyo says he had been seeing dwindling visitors to the street and The Box Shop.



South Africa had confirmed its first Covid-19 case on March 5.&nbsp;



“The street is literally on lockdown. All businesses, especially formal establishments, have ceased operations, however, businesses that will survive on Vilakazi Street post the pandemic are those that didn’t invest [much] in attracting and appealing to international tourists,” says Moyo.



The Box Shop will need to start dropping prices, he adds, to attract more locals to the outlet.



“We need to position the street as a destination that is futuristic, cutting-edge and tourism-friendly, especially to the locals. So we are strategizing, decreasing our prices, marketing ourselves aggressively to the locals and addressing ourselves as a destination of choice.”



Moyo predicts it will take four months for global tourism to return to normal, but will South Africa be one of the preferred destinations?



“We at The Box Shop and some operations on Vilakazi have positioned ourselves so well that we appeal to the locals too, but looking at the economic impact of the virus, we have less cash circulating in the market and that affects all of us. So as a precinct, we have to start thinking differently,” he says.



The Box Shop has taken the lead in integrating technology into its operations, developing an app for the upcoming Youth Day; a South African public holiday in June. The app shares the Vilakazi Street experience and allows people to book tables and make advance payments for the event.



All this, only if the coronavirus has been brought under control by then.



For the period of the lockdown, the shop is not trading, and Moyo says they too are applying for a relief fund from the government.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“We are feeling the effects, we really need subsidy from government, otherwise there is a threat that the entire precinct might shut down and it will need to be resuscitated and re-established which will mean all the 20 years of effort that has been put in to develop the street will go down the drain,” he laments.



For now, responding to the situation using technology and some clever marketing seems to be the only way forward for most small businesses like The Box Shop.

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