Meet your business friend

THE Shifting Hope, Activating Potential Entrepreneurship, or SHAPE, a progressive social entrepreneurship programme, will host a Meet Your Business Friend Day event at the Durban Undersea Club from 8am to 2pm on 23 July.

Established entrepreneurs and business professionals are invited to attend this event in the hope of forming partnerships with young entrepreneurs. These partnerships may adopt the nature of either starting a new business that serves the social needs for KZN or expanding current business operations. SHAPE is supported through a partnership between the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), eThekwini Municipality and the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).

The founder of the SHAPE Project, UKZN academic and doctoral candidate, Thea van der Westhuizen, is of opinion that it is crucial for entrepreneurs to align their business objectives with economic development objectives KZN has as a province. Van der Westhuizen, former business owner and entrepreneur, recently returned to South Africa after spending almost 10 years building a career internationally. Her action research project looks into ways how entrepreneurs can be inspired and supported to enhance their levels of self-confidence to taking risks, thinking innovative and acting pro-active. She believes that many entrepreneurial actions fail because owners lose their passion and drive when the going gets tough.

“Often entrepreneurs are clear about the 'what' of their business, but not too sure about the 'why' of their objectives,” she said.

Partnerships formed on the day will receive long term business development support through the infrastructure of UKZN, eThekwini Municipality and the DCCI so that new business ventures can have a long term plan.

To participate in the forming Business Friends event visit https://shapentrepreneurs.com/meet-your-business-friend-day/ or email SHAPE founder Thea van der Westhuizen on shape@ukzn.ac.za