In an industry where she often felt like a goldfish swimming among the sharks, Noko Ramasenya’s strategy is to lean into what makes her stand out. She doesn’t waste much time on a sales pitch. “It’s basically ‘Look, I’m black, I’m female, I’m young, and I can do this job’,” says Noko, who lets her track record do the rest.
Such chutzpah, combined with persistence, has allowed her to single-handedly build up Noleo Projects (Pty) Ltd into an industrial maintenance company of 18 full-time workers over a period of 8 years.
The fact that she did it with minimal outside finance in an industry notorious for its slow payments and upfront costs, speaks to a steely discipline which Noko believes comes from her childhood in Limpopo. “If you’re raised on a farm by your policeman grandfather and your granny, a teacher, then you’re used to getting up at four to feed the chickens. Work is in your DNA,” says Noko.
After studying civil engineering, which she chose at random when her chance of studying medicine after school fell through, she “fell in love” with construction as soon as she started working.
A few years into her career the idea of starting her own company started forming, especially since she started managing projects all on her own, including compiling big invoices on behalf of her employer. When her employer failed to pay salaries for one month in 2018, she took the leap.
Because she had virtually no capital or equipment, she decided to start at the very bottom, doing small residential building jobs.
For two years she slowly built her team and equipment before she decided to move up a level to industrial maintenance. It was daunting to knock on huge roller-shutter doors, but Noko simply did not take no for an answer. She remembers phoning a maintenance manager of a large manufacturer every Thursday at noon for six months until she finally got hold of her.
The result was a chance to quote on building a small brick wall. She underquoted, got the job, lost about R4 000 on it, but was able to prove her mettle. Today, the manufacturer still counts as one of her five big regular clients.
By its fifth year, Noleo Projects had finally moved beyond the uncertainty that characterises so many young businesses. What made the achievement even more remarkable was that Noko had built the company with minimal external funding, receiving only R50 000 from the National Youth Development Agency for personal protective equipment (PPE) and R100 000 from a CSI programme to invest in concrete tools.
Noko attributes her success to a disciplined approach centred on incremental growth, reinvesting profits back into the business and spending as much time as possible on site overseeing projects and maintaining quality.