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Cultivating a future through entrepreneurship
wood and coal-selling business in the Mpumalanga
province where he lives.
“We had wattle wood at our homestead and I told my
siblings I was going to sell that wood for us to get
money to buy bread. Like everybody, we also use
the wood for cooking and to keep ourselves warm,”
said Njabulo. The family has been hard hit by the
coronavirus pandemic, with no source of income.
Njabulo himself lost his internship because of the
virus. The new venture was the step that gave Njabulo
a chance to show his mettle.
“I sold almost six wheelbarrows in a week. That was
my first success,” said Njabulo. Soon the family
needed to make some important adjustments. “We
decided as a family to sell the family bakkie to buy
a truck so we could sell more wattle wood. Soon I
added coal to my stock that I sell in the township.”
Njabulo gets wood from three local farms, and coal
from the coal mines around Ermelo.
Yandisa Mdolo
Njabulo has learnt from his failed business ventures.
He has a plan that will ensure that Compte, his current
company, does not suffer the same fate. “I want to take
advantage of the digital space to grow my business.
I will use Google and social media to promote it. I will
also lease stands around Ermelo where my target
market will reach my products. This will also ease my
delivery costs,” said Njabulo.
A very confident Njabulo said he was planning to
sell the wood to some of the big chain stores in the
area, but was still working on branding his plastic
packaging. He said he would use skills he learnt in
class to build his business. These skills, particularly
door-to-door selling and social media, have given his
customers confidence to purchase his products. “I
have decided to post at least three messages a day
on Facebook using humorous status updates about
my products. This helps to engage my customers, and
bring awareness about what I sell,” said Njabulo.
None of us has control over the economy, the job
market, or anything else in the global sense; however
we are 100 percent in charge of how we respond to
the challenges that come our way. Given the shrinking
job market in South Africa, it is time for our youth
to create their own opportunities and to look where
others are not looking.
Entrepreneurship has been advanced as a solution
for youth unemployment and wealth creation. The
role of entrepreneurship in economic development is
being recognised by MUT marketing graduate Yandisa
Mdolo, 27, who after taking up a few unrelated jobs
for a couple of years, relinquished the security of
employment and created his own opportunity using
the skills he acquired at the University to penetrate the
business market. Mdolo acknowledged that starting a
business is “a bold step that will need sacrifices, taking
risks and having the willpower to overcome obstacles”.
After two years of intensive research and crafting
his ideas, Mdolo was finally funded by the National
Youth Development Agency (NYDA). He recently won
the SmartXChange Best Newcomer of the Year at the
small business incubator’s annual awards ceremony.
Mdolo is now the CEO of Black Cotton Marketing,
a marketing business solution tailored to help small
enterprises to reach new heights. The company
provides digital advertising space via electronic TV
screens installed in minibus taxis on the KwaZulu-
Natal South Coast. Mdolo envisions his company as
a full-service marketing agency in the next five years.
He has a gifted and highly motivated team behind
him that is working on creating innovative marketing
solutions to suit brand personalities.
“My own path to marketing was not planned. I was led
by talk shows and activities that used to be organised
by my residence at MUT. There is more than one way
that leads to success in marketing,” he concluded. In
order for South Africans to compete globally, he said
we need to become trend setters, inventors and global
suppliers. “Yes we can,” he concluded.