City businesswomen scoop awards
TWO outstanding Cape Town businesswomen will be travelling to Shanghai in China in September to receive awards from the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge.
Jill Bysshe and Jaqueline Naughton were nominated by the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Both run businesses with an annual turnover of more than R20 million.
Bysshe runs Neo Trading, a company distributing natural and organic products. She bought the company six years ago as a “one-man” operation representing 12 brands.
Today it distributes 50 brands and turnover has increased more than 20 times. Products are now going into some chain stores.
Naughton is in the call centre or contact centre business. She ran an operation in the UK that employed 12000 people before moving to Cape Town.
Here she started BYC, which provides consulting and training services. It began as a one-woman business and has grown to a team of 130 over the past 17 years.
Chamber president Janine Myburgh said it was inspiring to see these women building successful businesses in a difficult economic climate.
“They embody the spirit of enterprise we so desperately need in this country,” she said. – Staff reporter