Township-based small businesses often battle to keep their doors open while others face a bleak future due to lack of support and other endless challenges.
This emerged when Sisonke Konnect, in conjunction with the Knowledge2Share Foundation and other stakeholders, held a graduation ceremony for a group of young people who completed an intensive five-week business workshop.
Four students who are ambassadors of the Knowledge2Share Foundation facilitated the workshop.
Twenty-six young people from various areas gathered at Isivivana Centre in Khayelitsha on Friday August 24, to receive their certificates.
There were smiles all round as each participant was called to the front to receive their certificate and applauded for being part of the workshop.
The programme was aimed at identifying the common challenges that small businesses often battle with and to provide ideas to overcome these.
But most importantly, the five-week programme was aimed at empowering young entrepreneurs with knowledge and skills to better run their businesses.
The programme seeks to assist these young people on how to conceptualise a business idea and turn it into a profitable business.
Dumisani Wambe, co-founder of Sisonke Konnect, said the organisation seeks to provide a platform for the development of small businesses in the township.
He said they opted to embark on this daunting yet exciting journey of creating the critical and much needed platform for these small business to interact and share skills and knowledge.
He said they discovered that there were a lot of young people who have businesses but were frustrated because they had no access to information and tools that could boost their ventures.
He said such workshops play a critical role in boosting their confidence and motivating them to keep going .
Mr Wambi said part of the mission of this programme was to urge these young budding business people to use the current limited resources at their disposal to grow their businesses.
He said programme also highlighted the importance of working together and collaborating as oppose to being isolated.
He firmly believes that when local businesses work together, a lot can be achieved.
He said part of their future plans was to have a database of local businesses and to continuously run these workshops aimed at addressing their challenges.
He said this was their first workshop and it turned out to be a mega success.
“We want to ignite the passion and ideas of these budding business people. We want to change the narrative of the small business.
“Business owners are hungry for information to better grow their businesses. We created this platform so that we could share and gain knowledge. As a business person you never stop learning,” he said.
Ambassadors of Knowledge2Share foundation, Margjie Gerritse, said their role was to identify the businesses strengths and weakness and see how can they improve them.
Ms Gerritse said this programme has definitely enlightened and motivated these budding business owners and has boosted their confidence. She said now it was their duty to implement some of the strategies and knowledge they had gained.
Principal of Umsobomvu Edu care centre, Shirley Soshwebe, said she has learnt a lot and would use the skills and knowledge to improve the centre. She said she hopes that programmes like these will not only be held once a year but on a regular basis to assist them to see things from a different perspective.
She said at first she never knew the importance of having a marketing plan for the business and to record the business finances.
Managing director of Aqhame holdings, in partnership with Tsiba educare, Loyiso Koyana, said Khayelitsha was hub of entrepreneurs. He said he sees the struggles of the small business owners daily and he felt that this programme has played a pivotal role in pointing them out. e said this programme seeks to the pave a way for small businesses.