The iLembe Chamber's The Entrepreneur 2018 Exhibition - The Entrepreneur 20182018-11-26 The iLembe Chamber's The Entrepreneur 2018 Exhibition, during which The Entrepreneur 2018 competition winners were also announced, was held on the 26th of October 2018 at the SMD Showroom Ballito.
The event presented an opportunity to The Entrepreneur 2018 finalists to showcase their businesses to the public. As part of the programme, the finalists revisit their corporate identities and develop marketing collateral that allows them to professionally present their businesses to potential customers and investors. In addition to the programme finalists, exhibitors included other stakeholders and organisations which offer businesses support, consulting and research, including Productivity SA, Department of Trade & Industry, Nedbank and InvoTech. The Chairperson of the 2018 Adjudication Committee Yoliswa Gumede, co-owner of the Cappeny Strawberry Estate, presented the awards to the 2018 winners. According to Gumede the finalists were impressive which resulted in stiff competition. Phumlani Xulu from GospArch Project Solutions was the winner of The Entrepreneur 2018 Competition. Having worked for a professional architectural and construction firm for 18 months, Phumlani Xulu decided to return to his roots in Ndwedwe and founded GospArch Project Solutions. The company renders architectural services in and around Ndwedwe. It aspires to create jobs and development opportunities for the youth of Ndwedwe, and South Africa as a whole. The second place was shared by Lucky Mahanuga from Act & Justice Security, and Osborne Gwamanda from Thumamina Mobile Car Wash. Act & Justice Security was started three years ago and provides guarding services to a variety of businesses on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast. Mahanuga cut his teeth in the security industry with Servest Security, where he was employed for ten years prior to founding Act & Justice Security. Thumamina Mobile Car Wash provides a one-of-a-kind professional and efficient car washing service at the workplace and/or at the home of customers. As per the company's slogan, "You stay put, we'll come to you!!!" The third placed winner was Welile Gumede from Azowel Projects. Gumede, a firstgeneration crop farmer, heads up Azowel Projects, a youth and women empowering enterprise that focuses on developing unused greenhouses in the iLembe region to create revenue, minimise poverty and the unemployment rate in the region. The Entrepreneur 2018 Competition provided the tools for finalists to challenge and interrogate all aspects of, and assumptions about, their businesses. The aim of the approach is twofold, firstly to improve the viability of their businesses and secondly to increase the job creating potential of their businesses. On this journey the finalists were guided by the Chamber's team of programme tutors and supported by Chamber accredited mentors. The 2018 programme once again used Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas to plot a new flightpath for the businesses. The iLembe Chamber is supported in the development and delivery of the theoretical component of the programme by the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and USA-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Entrepreneur programme was initiated by the iLembe Chamber eight years ago, with the aim of identifying and providing entrepreneurs and owners of small and micro businesses with a foundation from which they can develop their businesses to a sustainable level. The focal point of the programme is in knowledge and skills transfer, the probing of all aspects of the individual businesses and ongoing mentoring and guidance. The iLembe Chamber is supported in this flagship initiative by its partners: Airports Company South Africa King Shaka International Airport (ACSA KSIA), Enterprise iLembe, the North Coast Courier, Sembcorp Siza Water and ENGIE Peakers Operations. Nedbank was a business development funding partner in the 2018 programme. |
The iLembe Chamber's The Entrepreneur 2018 Exhibition - The Entrepreneur 2018
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