Skills development and empowerment event held for entrepreneurs

Tembisa Entrepreneurs Alliance (TEA) hosted a skills development and empowerment event for township entrepreneurs at Rabasotho Community Hall on April 6.

TEA, in partnership with First National Bank (FNB), invited entrepreneurs to the event with the aim to equip them with the knowledge on how to start, run and sustain a business successfully.

Business people from different sectors, like photography, baking, fashion and construction, were also given the opportunity to ask questions and interact with each other.

Junior Mngomezulu, operations manager of TEA, said they have noticed township businesses are neglected, have no access to information or knowledge to fund their products.

“We provide leaders and educators to educate on how to formalise a business, and bring people together to network. The township economy is huge, it just needs to be formalised and people provided with knowledge so they can grow.

“We hope to inspire and educate people to grow their business while forming relationships they will benefit from,” said Mngomezulu.

The entrepreneurs in attendance also participated in a competition where competitors were given 60 seconds to pitch their business ideas. The winner was selected by the audience.“The winner will get exposure on TEA tours around townships, from Mamelodi to Soweto, and on radio interviews, as well as business training and coaching,” said Bulelani Balabala, founder of TEA.

“This will create exposure to new ideas. The people we bring in must be strategic and push to innovate, plan, prepare and practice. The winner must be prepared to learn and to grow their business.

“People need to value their businesses and the services,” added Balabala.

Benedict Siyotula, sponsorship manager at FNB, said entrepreneurs need to understand the types of consumers they deal with because there is a very good business system in the townships, businesses that need to be formalised to grow within their own system.

The business development support that will be offered to winners of the FNB Business Innovation Awards 2019 is:

The FNB Business Innovation Awards have three categories:

• Global category in partnership with Endeavor for businesses with an annual turnover of R10 million and above.

• National category in partnership with 10XE for businesses with an annual turnover between R5 million and R10 million

• Unseen economy category in partnership with TEA for businesses with an annual turnover between R0 to R5 million.

The winning businesses will each get business development support to the value of R1 million to help them take their businesses to the next level.

The winners will be announced and celebrated as the FNB Business Innovators of the Year 2019 at an esteemed award ceremony in October.