Budding entrepreneurs enter final straight for Durban award
BUDDING entrepreneurs in this year’s Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry entrepreneur award are in the final leg of intensive training in the lead up to the big announcement next month.
With four months of training under their belts, Adesh Naidoo from Clean Street – a “green” cleaning company – said he was already adjusting his business strategies in line with what he had learned.
“The training has helped me to understand who my target market is,” he said.
Nonhlanhla Dimba, who owns the occupational health and safety training and consultancy company, SHEQ-iQ, said out of the four sessions ,two had stood out.
“The session on self-awareness made me think about who I am and where I want to go. The section on market segmentation really helped me. I will definitely be revising my marketing strategy after this,” she said.
Dimba said the greatest difficulty for a start-up business such as hers was gaining trust in the market.
“We are an IS001 company, but because we are newcomers, potential customers have companies they already use and trust. They don’t know who we are or whether we can meet their requirements,” she said.
However, Dimba said owning her business meant she was doing what she loved every day.
Runner-up in last year’s competition, quantity surveyor Andile Khanyile, who owns M2M Surveys, advised the finalists to attend every training session and to use the awards money to develop their companies.
“The training we had helped me to turn my business around, opened up opportunities for me, and I improved my business operations model. It was a lot to take in in such a short space of time,” he said.
The criteria for the award are to have a business registered in South Africa and operating in the eThekwini metro.
The business must have been operating for at least a year and making a turnover of not less that R3 million a year. The entrant must also be operating the business fulltime.
The awards are scheduled to be announced at the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry on November 13.
At the event each of the finalists will exhibit and display their products and services.
The winner walks away with R25 000, the runner-up R20 000, third placed gets R12 500 and the company with the best branding gets R2 500.
The winners are also eligible for further business skills training.
They will also automatically compete against the winners from chambers across the province for the provincial award. This will be announced on November 19.
For further information, contact khuboned@durbanchamber.co.za