R100 to start your business

Caroline Mazibuko has been a resident of Zandspruit since 2002 and, after losing her job as a tea lady, she was stumped as to how she would provide for her two children.

When her pastor told her about the Dynamic Business Start-Up Project she grabbed the opportunity and said that she would be able to build her dreams through it.

The organisation, in partnership with Jewels Of Hope, is running a 12-week micro business start-up called the MBS Programme, in Zandspruit for 14 entrepreneurial residents to empower them to start up a business of their own and to run it in a sustainable, growth-producing fashion.

The main component of the programme is that the participants only need R100 to start up their business and throughout the course, they are monitored on their performance.

CEO of DBSP, Chris Black said that the programme’s training methodology was very practical in nature, teaching participants to identify viable business opportunities in their communities and lead them on a path of researching these opportunities, so that at the end of the training, each participant would have written their own business plan based on solid research that they had done themselves.

“A hallmark of the training is the moneymaking activity that each participant has to do week by week. This exercise is extremely important to the training process because it provides a very practical way for participants to see how the business theory can be implemented practically,” he said.

Black pointed out that the weekly exercises built confidence, proving to the participants themselves that they could actually engage in business and sell things, which he added boosted their self-esteem and also provided a very easy way for the participants to pay off their course fees.

Black added that the training will be followed up by a 12-month coaching and mentoring service to ensure the business hopefuls put their business plans into practice and build a solid foundation for their businesses to thrive.