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Entrepreneurial digital duo named Innovator of the Year®

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Webmaster

Muhammad Simjee and Sofiah Docrat, the husband and wife team behind digital consulting and implementation company, A2D24, have received the Innovator of the Year® award at the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS awards ceremony, which was held this morning in Johannesburg.

Founded in 2015, A2D24 provides businesses with cost-effective, innovative technology solutions that can be rapidly developed and rolled out across their operations. Some of their most notable achievements to date include an innovative app for Emergency Medical Services in Gauteng targeting to reduce the time it takes to dispatch ambulances to patients, a predictive model for a mobile phone network service provider in Cameroon, and a mobile application to assist in malaria prevention in Mozambique.

Over the last three years, A2D24 has grown from a one-man operation to a company that employs 18 people. The driving philosophy behind the business has been to use digital technology to enhance or replace inefficient manual processes.

Mohammad, who has a background in engineering, began building the tech start-up after developing a dashboard to monitor hospital bed availability, which the company would go on to successfully implement at nine hospitals in Gauteng to assist hospital staff in optimising bed availability. Sofia, on the other hand, was able to provide the majority of the funding for the business, and has taken on the role of chief financial officer (CFO) and human resources manager.

While the company was started solely on public sector contracts, Mohammad and Sofiah have actively been working towards attaining an equal balance of public and private sector clients. Currently around 70% of the work completed by A2D24 is for public sector clients, while the remaining 30% is for private sector contracts.

A2D24 also recently launched a globally unique point of sale system which allows retailers to track customers in stores in real time using mobile phone data. The system collects and converts data into actionable events for the relevant users. It also keeps track of poor performance, alerts on possible fraud, identifies opportunities for promotions, and provides in-depth information to retail managers.

In keeping with A2D24’s drive to develop solutions as rapidly as possible, this system, and its accompanying hardware, was designed and completed within the span of just three months.

According to the judging panel, A2D24 is a truly exciting business to follow. “Whether it is for a government hospital, or a private sector company, it is clear that the A2D24 team is able to enhance any operation that they are involved in. That is the spirit of an innovator,” the panel commented.

A2D24 has won several awards since its inception, including SITA’s Govtech SMME of the year in 2016 and the Gauteng Premier’s Service Excellence award in 2017. Having evolved A2D24 from a small start-up into an internationally competitive South African tech company by identifying challenges and offering simple, cost-effective solutions, is what makes the team of Mohammed and Sofia truly worthy of the title, Innovator of the Year®.

For more information on their business, please visit the A2D24 website: www.a2d24.com.

Husband and wife team wins top entrepreneurial accolade

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Webmaster

South Africa’s premier annual entrepreneurial platform, Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS, has named mining engineer, Samuel Molefi, and his entrepreneurial wife and business partner, Motlapele Molefi, as this year’s overall competition winners at the awards ceremony held in Johannesburg this morning.

Samuel and Motlapele are the founders and owners of Modi Mining CC, a successful mining services and supplier company that provides clients with contract mining; sweepings and vamping; underground construction; rail installations; services pipes installations; power cable suspension; box front installations among others.

Built on the integration of the Molefis’ extensive experience in the mining and explosives sector, the business comprises of well-proven machines and highly motivated staff who are target driven and have an understanding of the business’ vision and mission.

The judges were particularly impressed by the business’ ability to achieve an average growth rate of over 30% per annum since starting operations in 2011, despite operating within an industry that continues to face high levels of volatility. When asked how they’ve been able to achieve this high level of growth during such challenging times, Samuel says it comes down to understanding the industry and clients.

“We’ve managed to achieve this level of expansion through our unwavering commitment to meet our clients’ ever-changing needs. We’re able to do this because we are continually improving based on feedback from clients, and keep a close eye on how the sector is evolving to ensure we are always providing what our clients require to remain sustainable.”

The company’s support for local economic development and the country’s transformation imperative is showcased through their creation of employment opportunities and affiliated projects. “Sourcing most of our labour from the local communities that we serve in, we now support a total of 420 permanent employees. Additionally, we can safely say we have contributed towards the creation of over 10 000 jobs by businesses within the Black Umbrellas incubator – a non-profit enterprise development incubation organisation that we support.”

On being named this year’s Entrepreneurs of the Year®, Samuel and Motlapele say that they are honoured and feel motivated to continue their entrepreneurial journey. “Being awarded the highly-esteemed title of Entrepreneur of the Year® confirms that we are on track to realising our overall business objective, which is to be the supplier of choice to the mining industry,” says Samuel.

For more information on their business, please visit the Modi Mining website: www.modimining.co.za.

Father and son receive Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year® award

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Webmaster

Father and son team, Kerry and Craig Motherwell, have received the Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year® award at the awards ceremony for the annual 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS, held in Johannesburg this morning.

Kerry and Craig are the owners of Foxolution SE, which designs and builds on-site oxygen generators for various industries, utilising their own purpose-built technology to supply hospitals and clinics. The generators, which extract oxygen from the surrounding air, are utilised for a number of industrial applications, including gold recovery, waste water treatment, water purification and odour control.

While Foxolution is currently the only manufacturer of oxygen generators in South Africa, the company has sold the majority of its units on the rest of the African continent, which helps to bring revenue into the country. The company has installed units in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, among other countries.

Launched in 2003, Foxolution has also prevailed against its share of potentially crippling challenges. Most notably, Foxolution has rebounded from being bankrupted by one of its clients, and successfully weathered the 2008 global financial crisis.

Kerry and Craig have also committed themselves to ensuring that Foxolution’s employees receive the best possible opportunities to grow their skills. Having been accredited by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (merSETA), Foxolution offers in-house training for aspirant technicians, artisans, and engineers. The company also provides financial support for long-standing employees who wish to study further in line with its core engineering activities.

The Entrepreneur of the Year® panel of judges commended the Foxolution team’s tenacity and entrepreneurial drive. “We are extremely impressed by Kerry and Craig’s commitment to understanding every aspect of their industry, as well as their results when it comes to bringing revenue into South Africa. Like many businesses, Foxolution has also experienced situations that threatened to close their doors, and the fact that they could continue to build their business through rough times is a testament to their entrepreneurial spirit,” commented the judges.

On being selected as a winner in the national competition, the father-son duo say this is only the beginning for Foxolution. “This award confirms that we are on the right track with our business, but it also serves to motivate us to keep moving forward in terms of growth and expansion,” they conclude.

For more information on their business, please visit the Foxolution website: foxolution.co.za.

Helping entrepreneurs is a winning business

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Webmaster

Louw Barnardt of Outsourced CFO named Emerging Business Entrepreneur of the Year®

Local entrepreneur, Louw Barnardt, owner of Outsourced CFO, received the 2018 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year® award at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS awards ceremony, held in Johannesburg this morning.

The financial management company that renders technical and visionary CFO services to emerging tech and innovation businesses, is the vision of chartered accountant, Louw Barnardt.

Barnardt says that the business idea came about when he noticed a gap in the South African market for high-level, yet accessible financial consulting. He says that many businesses, especially those in the start-up and scale-up phase, require the time and skills of a qualified CA or CFO, but don’t have the resources or capacity to take one on full-time. Outsourced CFO helps small-to-medium business owners rethink, automate and scale their businesses in the pursuit of business eminence.

In line with the global trend of organisations moving away from traditional business models to take on more flexible structures, Outsourced CFO allows start-up businesses to focus internal resources on the activities which provide a unique competitive advantage, while opting to outsource non-core, yet critical functions such as financial management.

In just under five years, Barnardt has capitalised on this trend and has emerged in Cape Town’s market and beyond, as a trusted CFO service provider and thought leader. Since inception, the business has achieved an 87% growth rate year-on-year adding seven new staff members in the past year alone and there are no plans to slow down.

Outsourced CFO provides a range of financial management services, an offering which Barnardt says is constantly evolving. These services include CFO, cloud accounting and fundraising services. “Our team is always on the look-out for the best tech, the best resources, and the most efficient ways to execute on tasks and deliver value. Our differentiating factors are the entrepreneurial professionals we employ, the top-end technology we leverage and the high quality and innovative service we provide to consistently exceed client expectations.”

Barnardt, who wanted to be an entrepreneur since the tender age of six, says that while his business has received numerous accolades over the past four years, it is the growth of the businesses they help that is a true reflection of their own success.
The competition judges agree: “Outsourced CFO has helped their entrepreneur clients raise over R400 million in seed and growth finance. This is exceptional work, especially taking into account the South African landscape which is desperate for growth in this all important sector of the economy.

“We were very impressed with Louw’s energy, drive and passion for his business – the hard work he has put into not only growing his own business, but other entrepreneurial businesses through their hands-on work in helping entrepreneurs run the financial side of their businesses,” said the judges of this year’s competition.

“I am honoured to receive this award and be ranked among the top entrepreneurs in South Africa, all of whom are doing incredible work in their respective industries,” says Barnardt.

For more information on Outsourced CFO, please visit the website: www.outsourcedcfo.co.za.

Momtrepreneur named Job Creator of the Year®

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Webmaster

For her dedication in putting skilled moms back into the South African labour force, Phillipa Geard of Recruitmymom.co.za has been named Job Creator of the Year® at the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS awards ceremony, held in Johannesburg this morning.

Geard’s online recruitment agency, RecruitMyMom.co.za, recognises that South African moms comprise a valuable portion of the country’s skilled labour force, and therefore caters to a unique gap in the market – providing moms all over the country with the opportunity to juggle both parenthood and a successful career.

From personal experience, Geard realised that there are plenty of moms who have given up successful corporate careers to dedicate more time to their children and families. This, however, was causing the South African economy to experience a “leaky pipeline” of female talent – where the labour force, over time, sees a haemorrhage of valuable, skilled women who choose families over careers.

When seeking flexible employment, Geard explains that traditional recruitment agencies often don’t take these women seriously because the recruitment service tends to be focused on revenue generation, and more money can be made through full-time placements than part-time or reduced-hour placements.

RecruitMyMom.co.za was launched in 2012 to uniquely and successfully meet a specific need amongst professional, skilled women or men wanting to return to work in a flexible capacity. The online recruitment agency offers a personalised service for permanent, temporary and contract positions. The team assists employers by shortlisting and providing them with the best applicants for the advertised position. Employers are simply required to offer some kind of flexibility within the required position.

Since launching five years ago, the agency has grown from a one-woman show to a team of eight full-time staff and has acquired nearly 50 000 skilled moms and thousands of registered employers to their database – which includes over 150 skills, ranging from accountants, actuaries, lawyers, risk managers, analysts, managing directors, marketers, to people with digital, human resources and office support skills and many more.

“Phillipa’s dedication to job creation and her success in changing the way employers regard flexibility in the workplace, is exactly what we need in the current South African economy – she is also driving a change in the public perception of the ‘working mom’ and is worthy of being named the 2018 Job Creator of the Year®,” said this year’s competition judges.

For more information on Recruit My Mom, visit their website on www.recruitmymom.co.za.

Entrepreneur of the Year® competition honours Dr Richard Maponya

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Webmaster

The Lifetime Achiever Award is the highest accolade in the Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS and it is never up for competition. The deeds and achievements of the person who receives the award speak for themselves.

The Lifetime Achiever Award is conferred on an established entrepreneur who has made great strides in business over many years. In our 30 year history, we have only ever given this award once in 2015 to Ms Margaret Hirsch, co-founder of Hirsch’s.

Our 2018 Lifetime Achiever Awardee is Ntate Dr Richard JP Maponya, Chairman of Maponya Holdings. Dr Maponya is a living legend and his family name is synonymous with entrepreneurship in South Africa. He is an outstanding role model for entrepreneurs across all genders and races and an excellent mentor.

He was awarded the South African National Order, the Grand Counsellor of the Baobab (GCOB), in April 2007 and his contributions to the South African economy cannot be overstated. As the Entrepreneur of the Year® committee, we are honoured that he granted us permission to celebrate him.

Dr Maponya is an epitome of an entrepreneur.

Born in Thlabine, a small village near Lenyenye, Tzaneen, in what we now know as Limpopo, Dr Maponya was trained as a teacher which is not surprising that he mentors other entrepreneurs.
He became an entrepreneur around the age of 24 in an era when black entrepreneurs faced many obstacles that prevented them from being successful.
From clothing to milk delivery service to cars, retail and property development, he persevered and made a success of business.
Dr Maponya is a visionary. In 1979 he secured land in Soweto, first on a 100-year lease and then, in 1994, after several attempts, he acquired it outright. This is the land on which Maponya Mall, one of the largest shopping centres in the country, was built and opened in 2007.
He was part of South Africa’s power couple and part of his success is attributable to the beautiful partnership with his late wife, Marina Maponya. Together they raised entrepreneurial children, successful in their own right.
Dr Maponya is an activist and was the Founder and President of NAFCOC (the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry) in 1965.
Dr Maponya is a community builder and since SA is celebrating 100 years of Nelson Mandela, it is worth noting that Dr Maponya is Founder and Trustee of Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. He is also the man who drove President Mandela on the day he was released from jail and he also provided the fleet of vehicles used on that special day.
Dr Maponya has built a formidable business empire in the democratic South Africa, which should remain for generations to come.

Entrepreneur of the Year® competition celebrates Christo Botes, executive director: Business Partners Limited

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Webmaster

The Lifetime Ambassador Award is bestowed on an individual who has spent a notable period of their lives in the service of entrepreneurs and/or contributing to the success of the Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS.

This is the first time we are bestowing this award and the Entrepreneur of the Year® competition team believes that they could not have selected a more deserving person.

The recipient of the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® Lifetime Ambassador Award goes to Mr Christo Botes – executive director at Business Partners Limited.

Botes is a wise and humble person who has been an integral part of the competition since it was introduced 30 years ago. He is the voice of reason in any boardroom where he participates. He is an advocate for entrepreneurs and always wants to see them succeed.

Botes’ vision and leadership has seen the competition grow from being an internal competition for Business Partners Limited to being a premier national competition for recognising entrepreneurs in the SME space.

His tireless efforts involve reviewing each entry that lands in our inbox and assessing it not only with the aim to the entrepreneur becoming a finalist but to also see that entrepreneur grow as well.

Every year he visits each of our competition finalists in order to understand them and their businesses better and to provide feedback to judges where they may have missed an important aspect of the business.

Under his leadership the Entrepreneur of the Year® competition has unearthed entrepreneurs and celebrated finalists and winners from as far as the dusty streets of QwaQwa to the skyscrapers of Johannesburg.

Empowering entrepreneurial minds across Africa

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Webmaster

“Entrepreneurship isn’t the finish line – it’s a journey of continuous learning, unlearning and relearning. As an entrepreneur you must strive to be an expert in your respective field. You may not have all the answers, and that’s okay, but don’t settle for the mediocrity of not knowing.”

This is the expert advice from Anele Mkhuzo-Magape who founded Zinde Zinde (Pty) Ltd t/a African Entrepreneurship Initiative – a consulting and entrepreneurship education training company with a focus on youth in townships and peri-urban areas.

Mkhuzo-Magape is an entrant in the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS.

She started her career at the Gordon Institute of Business Science’s (GIBS) Enterprise Development Academy, designing programmes for long-term sustainability in entrepreneurship. After three years in the position, she discovered that there was a gap in the market: there were too few Enterprise Development Agencies creating programmes specifically targeted at young black entrepreneurs in townships and peri-urban areas. Some entrepreneurs had to travel far to access these programmes and access was further worsened by a language barrier in their execution. This meant that some entrepreneurs didn’t have the confidence to adequately express themselves and what their businesses do.

When she left her job to focus on her business full time, Mkhuzo-Magape had almost nine years of corporate experience in customer service management and project management, and an education background in Economics and Business Administration. This, she says was a solid foundation to build from and she felt very privileged for the opportunities that she had – she knows this is not every entrepreneur’s story.

“I knew I wanted to change that narrative through education and entrepreneurship. It is my responsibility as a young person to plough back into the community what I have learnt and to continue learning every day.”

New business development is always difficult. Mkhuzo-Magape says her greatest challenge was identifying corporates and government departments that were truly passionate about realising her vision. “We didn’t want to simply consult and deliver training as a tick box exercise; we wanted to create sustainable and thriving enterprises, and programmes that change lives and communities.”

Mkhuzo-Magape says the business model is built on accessibility, and that beneficiaries do not pay for their services. Funding comes from corporate and government institutions that they partner with. “Our greatest challenge is convincing potential investors of our passion and making them see the value it offers in terms of their long term strategy.”

But she says seeing entrepreneurs who have been through their programmes develop and reach for opportunities to realise their ideas is her greatest achievement. “There are so many talented young people with amazing ideas but they just need the right support and platforms to help elevate them– I get to do that every day, and that’s my success.”

Over the next five years, Mkhuzo-Magape envisions African Entrepreneurship Initiative to grow into a knowledge hub for young entrepreneurs across the continent, and says she has structured the business’ growth strategies to achieve this. “We want to bring innovation to entrepreneurial education through practical tools such as simulations and gamification. Our training must be relevant and accessible to youth and be presented in the vernacular languages that are appropriate to the youth we want to target.”

Finalists announced for premier entrepreneurial competition’s 30th edition

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Webmaster

Celebrating three full decades of discovering and cultivating the best entrepreneurial talent that South Africa has to offer, we have announced the shortlist of 15 standout entrants who have made it through to the final round of this year’s Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS.

The 189 entries that were received this year really upped the game in terms of the entrants’ entrepreneurial talent and achievements. Every year, we think that we’ve seen it all, but each year we find ourselves being further blown away by the level of talent being exhibited by the South African entrepreneurs who enter the competition.

In alphabetical order, the finalists for the 2018 competition are:

Andrew and Glenn Eriksen – Cango Wildlife Ranch; Beverley Gumbi – Isivuno Containers Business; Chike and Damaris Igwegbe – Green City Solutions, t/a Mustbuy; Christina Ester Geldart – Marven Studios; Esi-Gifty Agbohla – Eli-Bionatural International; James Barrington-Bronwn – NewSpace Systems; Kerry and Craig Motherwell – Foxolution SE CC; Leboneng Mathebula – Gridbow Engineers; Louw Barnardt and Dana Pretorius – Outsourced CFO; Muhammed Simjee and Sofiah Docrat – A2D24 Dot Com; Pepe Marais and Gareth Leck – Joe Public; Phillipa Geard – Recruit My Mom; Praveshen Naidoo – e-Waste Africa; Terence Naidu – EnvisionIt Stock and Tshegofatso Samuel and Motlapele Molefi – Modi Mining.

These 15 finalists operate in various sectors of the economy and are based across the country. While the majority of these finalists originate from Gauteng (47%) and the Western Cape (33%), we received entries from all provinces and KwaZulu-Natal (13%) and the North West (7%) are both also represented in the finalist list this year.

With a wide variety of industries being represented, from mining and engineering to recycling and advertising, there is one thing that all 15 finalists share in common – their invaluable contribution to the South African economy. The SME sector continues to play a vital role in the South African economy, so these trail-blazing self-starters need to be celebrated for what they are – job creators and economic change-makers.

The next step in the independent judging process is the selection of the overall 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® winner, as well as winners for each of the five categories, namely emerging, small business, medium business, job creator and innovator. By running the evaluation process through three different filtering stages, we are able to ensure that every finalist is put under the microscope to avoid any human error or bias from tainting the results.

The 2018 finalists stand the chance to win prizes worth R2 million, which include cash prizes of R70 000 per category and R200 000 for the overall winner. Beyond monetary prices, previous finalists have benefitted greatly from the various networking opportunities and associated media exposure that the competition offers. Past winners have also gone on to win international awards and form valuable partnerships as a result of their success in the competition.

With competition winners being announced on 5 September 2018 at the official awards ceremony in Johannesburg, the judges have got their work cut out for them this year. The calibre of entrants this year looks to be extremely high so deciding on winners will be no easy feat. We wish all finalists the best of luck – you’re all already winners in our eyes.

Finalists announced for premier entrepreneurial competition’s 30th edition

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Webmaster

Celebrating three full decades of discovering and cultivating the best entrepreneurial talent that South Africa has to offer, the highly esteemed Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS has announced the shortlist of 15 standout entrants who have made it through to the final round of this year’s competition.

According to Gugu Mjadu, spokesperson for the 2018 edition of the competition, the 189 entries that were received this year really upped the game in terms of entrepreneurial talent. “Every year, we think that we’ve seen it all, but each year we find ourselves being further blown away by the level of talent being exhibited by the South African entrepreneurs who enter the competition.”

In alphabetical order, the finalists for the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS are:

These 15 finalists operate in various sectors of the economy and are based across the country, says Mjadu. “While the majority of these finalists originate from Gauteng (47%) and the Western Cape (33%), we received entries from all provinces and KwaZulu-Natal (13%) and the North West (7%) are both also represented in the finalist list this year.”

With a wide variety of industries being represented, from mining and engineering to recycling and advertising, there is one thing that Mjadu says all 15 finalists share in common – their invaluable contribution to the South African economy. “The SME sector continues to play a vital role in the South African economy, so these trail-blazing self-starters need to be celebrated for what they are – job creators and economic change-makers,” Mjadu adds.

She explains that the next step in the independent judging process is the selection of the overall 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year® winner, as well as winners for each of the five categories, namely emerging, small business, medium business, job creator and innovator. “By running the evaluation process through three different filtering stages, we are able to ensure that every finalist is put under the microscope to avoid any human error or bias from tainting the results.”

The 2018 finalists stand the chance to win prizes worth R2 million, which include cash prizes of R70 000 per category and R200 000 for the overall winner. “Beyond monetary prices, previous finalists have benefitted greatly from the various networking opportunities and associated media exposure that the competition offers. Past winners have also gone on to win international awards and form valuable partnerships as a result of their success in the competition.”

With competition winners being announced on 5 September 2018 at the official awards breakfast in Johannesburg, Mjadu says that the judges have got their work cut out for them this year. “The calibre of entrants this year looks to be extremely high so deciding on winners will be no easy feat. We wish all finalists the best of luck – you’re all already winners in our eyes,” concludes Mjadu.