Bridging the gap between make and sell
US Consulate’s pop-up entrepreneurship course offers valuable advice
Creating goods or services is the relatively easy bit. Selling them is the real challenge, and this is where entrepreneurs are likely to fail without professional assistance, according to business trainer Yolisa Ndhlovu.
Born in East London and educated at Clarendon Girls High, Ndhlovu is a consultant attached to the US Consulate’s training division, Pop Up American Corner, in Cape Town.
She was in East London on Wednesday, running an entrepreneurship course which taught delegates how to vault the gap between creating and selling.
“The consulate funds what we call ‘pop-up’ entrepreneur programmes, such as the one we hosted at the museum in East London. The primary aim is teaching entrepreneurial businesses how to sell. It is their biggest challenge.
“Almost 40 delegates attended the course, which is free. They were bused in from Komani, villages throughout the Chris Hani district, King William’s Town and East London.”
One of Each MD Tamburai Chirume was the main facilitator.
“I was trained in the US. To my mind, the use of successful local businesspeople as facilitators adds to the effectiveness of the one-day programme.
“I have personally been in a situation where I had a great product, but needed the impetus and skill to take it to the market and actually sell it.”
East London company Ozzys Eco Decor director Yolanda Msutwana, who attended the programme, said: “There is a massive journey in moving from making the goods to selling them, and that is the process that was covered.”
“We manufacture furniture from scrap tyres. It is a fun product, innovative, plus it does wonders for cleaning up the environment. Wherever we display the work, it sells well.
“Now our challenge is broadening our sales footprint.”
She said the course focused on sales skills and got delegates to use their product knowledge to think more broadly.
“It has enabled me to explore new sales openings and devise strategies to push into them.”
Nomfusi Sixaxa and Nomvuyo Tshiva represent a Keiskammahoek bead-making consortium, where villagers work in teams. They said their products had sold well at outlets in Makhanda, the Rand Show and East London’s Industrial Development Corporation.
“This is the second programme we have attended. From the first we learnt how to create a marketing plan.
“Now we have learnt how to actually sell our beads and expand the outlets.
“We came here to extend our knowledge, to create a selling plan, and we have done it.”
The deputy chief of the US Consulate in Cape Town, Mignon Cardentey, said the programmes were part of the consulate’s social responsibility programme.
“We have a number of programmes, including coding, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, heritage preservation, gender-based issues, alternative energy innovation, and “shaping the way we teach English”.
“The programme’s delegates have demonstrated a dynamic approach to entrepreneurship, but the needs in the three provinces are different.
“Western Cape delegates focus on high-tech businesses. In the north it is more social entrepreneurs, while in the Eastern Cape it is product-driven.”
She said the training was not a “one-day wonder”.
“There are regular follow-up initiatives to ensure that what delegates were taught is transferred into their companies.
“We monitor and assist, and then assess the effectiveness based on the results.”
She said aside from the free programmes, the consulate did not offer direct financial assistance.
“However, we are in contact with several groups that do offer assistance and we put delegates in touch with them.”
It has enabled me to explore new sales openings and devise strategies