| 74-year-old pioneering entrepreneur ready for his next venture | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/74-year-old-pioneering-entrepreneur-ready-for-his-next-venture | 74-year-old pioneering entrepreneur ready for his next venture | Rolly Nkawe’s first job was as a cashier in a municipal bottle store in Soweto at a time when black South Africans were not allowed to hold liquor licenses. The experience gave him the urgent wish to own his own business one day. | 2018/11/20 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Lighting the way for the revival of SA manufacturing | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/lighting-the-way-for-the-revival-of-sa-manufacturing | Lighting the way for the revival of SA manufacturing | G Light is an inconspicuous factory in an industrial area called Sebenza near Edenvale in Johannesburg. But behind the face-brick facade and the staff of 32 beavering away at their LED lighting assembly lines, lies an amazing story that encapsulates the arc of manufacturing history in South Africa. | 2018/11/20 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Entrepreneur’s big dream within reach after incremental growth | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/entrepreneur’s-big-dream-within-reach-after-incremental-growth | Entrepreneur’s big dream within reach after incremental growth | Lorraine Chitate always loved travelling and tourism, but for a long time her dream of owning her own hotel or resort one day seemed out of reach, until a chance meeting with a guest-house owner changed her life. | 2018/10/29 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Seriously serial entrepreneur tackles the tourism industry - and thrives | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/en-za/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/seriously-serial-entrepreneur-tackles-the-tourism-industry-and-thrives | Seriously serial entrepreneur tackles the tourism industry - and thrives | It says something about the resilience of the tourism sector that, in a very difficult year economically, the De Ja View Exclusive Guest House in West Acres, Nelspruit, had managed to double its business from last year. | 2018/10/29 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Entrepreneurial spirit passed from mother to daughter, and taken to a new level | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/entrepreneurial-spirit-passed-from-mother-to-daughter-and-taken-to-a-new-level | Entrepreneurial spirit passed from mother to daughter, and taken to a new level | Looking back, Unathi Nkomo realises that she must have got her entrepreneurial spirit from her mother, although she was never really aware of it growing up. | 2018/08/21 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Father and daughter a formidable team in cut-throat industry | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/father-and-daughter-a-formidable-team-in-cut-throat-industry | Father and daughter a formidable team in cut-throat industry | For Leonie Finch, taking over as general manager of the family’s powder coating business was somewhat daunting not so much because she would be one of the few female owner-managers in a very male-dominated industry, but because she would one day have to fill her father’s considerable entrepreneurial shoes. | 2018/08/21 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Friendship culminates in thriving car workshop | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/friendship-culminates-in-thriving-car-workshop | Friendship culminates in thriving car workshop | Two friends who started their own mechanical workshop in Rustenburg eight months ago with one employee have already employed three more mechanics to keep up with the demand. | 2018/07/25 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Slow, patient struggle pays off for SA’s only community TV station | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/slow-patient-struggle-pays-off-for-sa’s-only-community-tv-station | Slow, patient struggle pays off for SA’s only community TV station | Twelve years ago, six idealistic people crammed into a small room at the back of a film school in Observatory, Cape Town, to start the community television station Cape Town TV. | 2018/07/25 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Fresh approach helps furniture business thrive | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/fresh-approach-helps-furniture-business-thrive | Fresh approach helps furniture business thrive | When Etienne Erasmus started his furniture-hire company, Rain Productions, there were a lots of competitors in the market, but they were old and staid, and failed to update their stock and keep up with the times. Etienne, on the other hand, was 24 at the time, and thought the industry could do with a fresh approach. | 2018/06/26 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Tech entrepreneur ready to revolutionise SA healthcare | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/tech-entrepreneur-ready-to-revolutionise-sa-healthcare | Tech entrepreneur ready to revolutionise SA healthcare | For all its underdevelopment, lack of public resources and scarcity of skills, South Africa presents massive opportunities for entrepreneurs who are able to spot ways in which technology can solve problems that would otherwise take generations to overcome. | 2018/06/26 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Dream of helping others put food on table fulfilled | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/dream-of-helping-others-put-food-on-table-fulfilled | Dream of helping others put food on table fulfilled | With his stellar career as an electrical engineer and hard-earned top academic achievements David Mmpanyana could have easily stayed on in his comfortable corporate job, but the yearning to build a business of his own was too strong. | 2018/05/30 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Perseverance leads to lucky break | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/perseverance-leads-to-lucky-break | Perseverance leads to lucky break | At first glance, the way that Anthony Doyle landed his thriving Col’Cacchio pizzeria franchise outlet at the L’Corro shopping centre in Northcliff, Johannesburg, seems very lucky. | 2018/05/30 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Down-and-out single mom makes come-back, and empowers thousands of women | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/down-and-out-single-mom-makes-come-back-and-empowers-thousands-of-women | Down-and-out single mom makes come-back, and empowers thousands of women | When Brenda Fredericks became a single mom after a difficult divorce, the last thing she ever wanted to do was work on another garment again. She and her ex-husband ran a clothing business and all she wanted was to move on from that painful period of her life. | 2018/03/25 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Low-key, constant innovation drives manufacturer’s success | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/low-key-constant-innovation-drives-manufacturer’s-success | Low-key, constant innovation drives manufacturer’s success | Nowadays high-profile inventors such as Elon Musk are revered and celebrated as important economic players. But the low-key, incremental innovation that happens every day in thousands of workshops is arguably even more important and not adequately acknowledged for its contribution to economic development and wealth creation. | 2018/03/25 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Amazing last-ditch push turns business around | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/amazing-last-ditch-push-turns-business-around | Amazing last-ditch push turns business around | Even by the standards of business owners, who all go through some nerve-racking months, Mark and Liza Graham’s experience is in a league of its own. | 2018/02/27 10:00:00 PM | | |
| The power of life-long learning in business | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/the-power-of-life-long-learning-in-business | The power of life-long learning in business | Delia Cupido is living proof of the power of life-long education in business. The 57-year-old owner of four growing private schools in Cape Town is clearly at the top of her game, yet she is once again ready to take her business to the next level through an entrepreneurial development programme that she has just completed. | 2018/02/27 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Elevator business on its way to the top | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/elevator-business-on-its-way-to-the-top | Elevator business on its way to the top | Martin Jessen’s business started with his experience of being confined to a wheelchair for a few years just as he was starting school. The needs of people with disabilities and the importance of access and mobility were imprinted on his mind. Little did he know it would lead to a formidable business, and one that is today competing successfully in an industry dominated by multinational players. | 2018/02/04 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Focus on training drives company’s fast-paced growth | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/focus-on-training-drives-company’s-fast-paced-growth | Focus on training drives company’s fast-paced growth | If a business doesn’t grow, it dies, says Peter Flint of Armcoil Afrika, an electric motor and transformer business based in Roodepoort whose exponential growth over the past sixteen years shows that it is in pretty good health. | 2018/02/04 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Business growth only possible if entrepreneur grows with it | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/business-growth-only-possible-if-entrepreneur-grows-with-it | Business growth only possible if entrepreneur grows with it | Shahnawaz Essop believes that entrepreneurs cannot grow their business unless they grow their own knowledge and skills and develop themselves personally. If his career so far is anything to go by, he is clearly onto something. | 2017/12/13 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Turning an overnight stay into a destination | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/turning-an-overnight-stay-into-a-destination | Turning an overnight stay into a destination | Running your own business is the ultimate do-it-yourself project at the best of times, but if you are doing it in an isolated region you have to be even more self-reliant, says Mark Crawford, co-owner of the Crawford Beach Lodge, a resort of free-standing cottages set on a stunning stretch of the Wild Coast near the village of Chintsa. | 2017/12/13 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Bike business fuelled by passion | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/bike-business-fuelled-by-passion | Bike business fuelled by passion | “I could ride a motorbike almost before I could walk,” jokes Dayne Marais, owner of Gravel Pit Motorcycles in Montana, Pretoria. | 2017/11/29 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Small investment blossoms into thriving property portfolio | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/small-investment-blossoms-into-thriving-property-portfolio | Small investment blossoms into thriving property portfolio | Brian von Holdt used the savings from his student job to put down a deposit on a R300 000 house in Johannesburg. Today, sixteen years later, the portfolio that he had unwittingly started with that purchase has blossomed into a R300m multi-faceted property company, Ezulwini Investments. | 2017/11/29 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Crisis action a true mark of entrepreneurial drive | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/crisis-action-a-true-mark-of-entrepreneurial-drive | Crisis action a true mark of entrepreneurial drive | The ultimate proof of Bajith and Joshna Panday’s entrepreneurial drive is not their track record of starting at least three food businesses and an education and training business, or even that the husband-and-wife team were the first of their respective families to ever venture into business. | 2017/10/30 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Finding entrepreneurial opportunities where they are least expected | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/finding-entrepreneurial-opportunities-where-they-are-least-expected | Finding entrepreneurial opportunities where they are least expected | For some, entrepreneurship doesn’t present itself as a career path until an opportunity virtually lands in their lap. Such was the case for Thara Singh, managing director of HJ Shenton Valve Services in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal. The 59 year-old, Durban born businesswoman is making her mark in the competitive valve engineering and manufacturing industry – a historically male-dominated sector.
| 2017/10/23 10:00:00 PM | | |
| Start-up experience 'terrifying, frantic, fun, and rewarding' | | https://www.businesspartners.co.za/bpi/entrepreneurs-growth-centre/success-stories/south-africa/start-up-experience-terrifying-frantic-fun-and-rewarding | Start-up experience 'terrifying, frantic, fun, and rewarding' | Starting a business for the first time is always difficult, not least because of the change in lifestyle that moving from employment to business ownership requires, but few entrepreneurs have had to live through a shift as dramatic as that which Allison and Lawrie Irvine made. | 2017/09/28 10:00:00 PM | | |
