Local entrepreneur aims for the sky
"Within a year a lot has happened and the achievement has been great so far."
Thembisa local entrepreneur Phumzile Mthembu, from Phomolong, had a chance to grow her business during The Hook Up Diner (THUD) Ekurhuleni at Germiston Theatre on March 5.
The 27-year-old founder of Ingcweti has won herself a pitch about her self-produced skin product. The pitch was delivered at THUD.
In this manner, local small businesses are given a chance to connect with each other and grow together.
Mthembu said from the pitch other business people pledged to help her with their expertise in sales, creating a website, documentation of business papers, marketing. R3 010 was raised as her business capital during the event.
“We manufacture coconut oil-based baby ointment products. In 2018, I had a baby boy, and when he was three months old he was diagnosed with eczema. The treatment he received was not good for his skin. That was when I started to develop a formula that worked for my child.
“We were linked with NYDA, where they said I qualify for a loan. NYDA has this initiative called 1 000 Youth-Owned Enterprises in a 100 Days. This entrepreneurship development programme is aimed at creating a conducive environment for young entrepreneurs to access relevant entrepreneurship skills, knowledge, values and attitudes for their businesses,” she said.
Mthembu added that she was named Innovative Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 by Christian Women Entrepreneurs’ Network in Africa.
“Ekurhuleni funded me by buying me raw material worth R20 000 to help grow my business. The Youth Ideas Development programme underwent studies on stability testing of the product. Based of their report I was able to identity the expiry dating of the product. That’s when they gave me reports on the instructions of use and how to store the product and package it.
“Within a year a lot has happened and the achievement has been great so far.
“Township Entrepreneurs Alliance were the first to fund me after my first pitch in 2018.”
Mthembu is currently enrolled at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) for chemistry.
THUD is primarily a peer-to-peer networking community for aspiring, seed and early stage entrepreneurs building SMME’s. They focus on networking, education and investments as a bridge to catalysing growth for small enterprises.
Their strength lies in building a culture of entrepreneurship by actively engaging their community through curated events and structured sector-focused accelerator programmes. Their mission is to enable and catalyse trade across borders for one million African entrepreneurs by the year 2025.
