A small education company’s already outsized impact on a community in Soweto got a major boost when they won the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Toolkit Business Plan competition by Business Partners Limited.
RSF Tutorials Combined Pty (Ltd) beat 11 finalists in the annual competition to win R50 000 in cash and mentorship worth a further R50 000. With the cash prize, RSF Tutorials has been able to buy much-needed computer equipment. But one of the company’s co-founders, Mpiyakhe Mlangeni, says much more important than the formal prize was the exposure that the competition gave the business, which provides weekend lessons to hundreds of children in Soweto.
“The publicity caught the attention of the regional education authorities, who reached out to collaborate and expand RSF’s impact in the wider community,” says Mpiyakhe. His co-director, Murendeni Mpfuni, adds that another major benefit of the competition was how it strengthened their team. “It was a lot of hard work and we had to put in long hours, because after our regular weekend lessons, we had to work on our business plan,” she says.
They called on their staff and their wide network in the community including parents to bring in diverse expertise. As a result RSF Tutorials is more entrenched in the community than ever before. Founded in 2015 and based at Nghunghunyani Comprehensive School in Protea Glen in Soweto, they offer Saturday lessons to learners from various local schools. While they cover a wide range of subjects, their core focus remains mathematics and science.
The lessons, which are geared towards the individual needs of the children, have been a lifeline to many learners who have fallen behind at school. RSF Tutorials started with a handful of tutors and learners, but the numbers increased throughout the years as the community grew to trust the quality of the lessons, says Mpiyakhe. Winning the SME Toolkit Business Plan competition has certainly helped to build that trust even more.
Mpiyakhe said they decided to take part in the competition because they had confidence in RSF Tutorials’s good management structures. The competition improved them even further because they is set up as a series of workshops aimed at helping the participants to think through their business idea, and come up with a workable business plan, cash flow forecast and a marketing strategy.
David Morobe, executive general Manager for impact investing at Business Partners Limited, says the competition, which is now in its sixteenth year, is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 35 who are interested in entrepreneurship. It is not necessary to have an existing business to enter the competition. In fact, most of the participants enter the competition at the idea stage and want to develop their business concept into a workable plan.
Apart from promoting entrepreneurship as a career choice among young South Africans, the competition is also aimed at focusing attention on Business Partners Limited’s SME Toolkit, which is arguably the biggest single online entrepreneurship resource in South Africa.
It contains how-to articles, business forms, financial tools, online training and information resources developed by leading experts. All aspects of business set-up and management are covered, from business planning to accounting, financial management, human resources, importing and exporting, legal and insurance matters, marketing, sales, operations, and information technology.
The site also offers a range of self-assessment exercises and tools, aimed at enabling entrepreneurs to take control of problem solving in their companies, and to proactively implement strategies to avoid potential problems.
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