Helping small businesses prosper

Founder and managing director of management consulting firm Mandisa Makhubalo teaches a small class.

Mandisa Makhubalo prides herself on having a knack for helping others build thriving businesses in the townships.

Her management consulting firm, the Unlimited Company, is based at the Philippi Business Place.

Ms Makuhbalo said after years of working in the corporate world, she decided to launch a business that would help build young entrepreneurs of the townships – for free.

“My journey into what I’m doing today started many years ago whilst still in the corporate world,” she said.

“I’ve always been drawn to challenges and the process leading to finding solutions to challenges has always ignited a fire deep inside of me.”

She said in both her personal and professional life she had always enjoyed coaching, guiding and being part of the solutions team.

For nearly three years she was unemployed but for the past two years now, her business has been thriving.

“It hasn’t been an easy journey. There were times where it was lonely, scary, overwhelming, challenging, taxing, fun, inspirational. In summary, it’s been a rollercoaster ride but worth every moment,” she said.

Ms Makuhbalo said a lot of the work done translates into some form of training or workshop that is customised to meet specific client-related needs. Outside of these paid training sessions and workshops, they host free ad-hoc workshops titled “Let’s talk customers over coffee”.

“The objectives of these are to resuscitate township economy through knowledge-sharing and to help small businesses grow through customer experience,” she explained.

She is concerned that many small businesses are losing ground to big corporates because they do not understand their customers.