Holistic funeral service provider named Medium Business Entrepreneur of the Year®

Nomfundo Mcoyi, ex-educator and now managing director of KwaZulu-Natal-based business – Icebolethu Group – was named the Medium Business Entrepreneur of the Year® at the annual entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS awards ceremony, held on 6 September 2017 in Johannesburg. Established as a funeral parlour named Icebolethu Funerals in 2009, […]

Young fitness maverick makes big strides in entrepreneurial competition

Itumeleng (Tumi) Phake, founder and owner of Zenzele Fitness Group has been awarded the Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year® title at the annual 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS awards ceremony, held in Johannesburg on 6 September 2017. Launched only in 2014, Zenzele Fitness Group – a level 1 […]

Trailblazing health logistics duo awarded emerging Entrepreneur of the Year® title

Entrepreneurial duoSizwe Nzima and Siraaj Adams, owners of Iyeza Health, walked away as the winners of the 2017 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year® title at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS awards ceremony, held in Johannesburg on 6 September 2017. Iyeza Health – which started in 2013 as a […]

Looking at business success amid a drought

The Western Cape has over the recent past been hard hit by the severe drought in the region which has had direct, severe consequences on local businesses. Strict level 4B water restrictions have been implemented area-wide, and residents and businesses alike have been forced to curb water usage to 87 litres per person, per day. […]

Opportunities ripe for female entrepreneurs to shatter glass ceiling

The entrepreneurial gender gap is slowly closing in many countries, and in these days, women are as likely as men to start a small business. In hot pursuit of such gender parity is South Africa, where seven women are engaged in early-stage entrepreneurship for every ten male entrepreneurs, according to the recently released 2016/2017 Global […]

SME success a by-product of growth

When Pepe Marais and Gareth Leck founded Joe Public in March 1998 in Cape Town, they disrupted the local advertising industry with their innovative business model which was positioned as a Take-Away menu -aimed to demystify the business of advertising by making its service offering transparent to clients. “We started the business without a cent […]

Innovative entrepreneur taking the local ICT sector by storm

100% black female owned company – Mighty Comms – is a broadband solutions company that has carved out a niche for itself in the South African ICT sector. The company offers clients across various sectors broadband and network design services, deployments, installations and maintenance services. Mighty Comms founder, Refilwe Marumo, says she has encountered many […]

A business created for students, by students

Mpodumo Doubada – founding CEO of Pimp my Book, a chain of campus stores founded in 2006 at the University of Cape Town (UCT), is a young entrepreneur making waves in the education sector. 31-year-old Doubada from Cape Town founded the business on the premise of buying and selling used textbooks. Since the business was […]

Independent research firm carves a niche in the investment industry

After having worked as an Investment Analyst for large institutions for 12 years, Shamil Ismail – who was voted the 2014 ABSIP (Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals) Analyst of the Year – founded Primaresearch in late 2015 as an independent, sell-side, equity research firm based in Cape Town. Since then, Primaresearch has grown […]

When sporting passion breeds success

Sports enthusiast and successful entrepreneur, Jacques Grobbelaar, has certainly made his mark in the South African sporting and events management industry – having already collected numerous prestigious industry and business awards both locally and internationally. Grobbelaar is the CEO and co-owner of Stadium Management SA (Pty) Ltd (SMSA) – a management consulting firm responsible for […]