POLOKWANE – Thabo Ntswane is an entrepreneur who is living his dream while at the same time providing employment opportunities for people in his community through his businesses under the Thabo Equipment Hire umbrella.
“I have provided many wendy houses for people in and around Polokwane. I noticed while I was in Pretoria that, unlike here, almost every house has a wendy house, whether for storage or extra living space. I saw a gap in the market in Polokwane and seized the opportunity. I use to collect wendy houses in Pretoria and bring them to Polokwane but three months into my venture, a contact of mine let me know he had wood which would make it possible to make the wendy houses here instead of Pretoria.”
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Thabo has always been business-minded and explained he cannot do just one thing at a time which is why he always dabbles in different businesses because he wants the bigger picture he sees come to fruition.
He was also recently announced the winner of the SAB Foundation Tholoana Enterprise Programme, where he saw growth in his business and creation of employment. He added he has other business pursuits and all of them run like well-oiled machines in such a way that he does not need to be present every day to ensure their smooth running.
“I work from 11:00 to 13:00 and I sometimes get so bored that I do not know what to do with myself. I placed a lot of focus on skills transfer to ensure my employees are able to continue without me. Early in the morning, you will see me at street corners giving out pamphlets and after that I have nothing else to do. That’s why I end up following many different moneymaking avenues because I have so much time on my hands,” he added with a smile.
“I want to spread my wings as far and wide as possible so that I can reach my dream, which is quite an expensive one. All these smaller businesses are helping to build up to the bigger business I plan to have. Once that dream is achieved, all these smaller businesses will disappear.”
His major up-build has been skills transfer, where he supplies wendy houses to other smaller businesses who in turn sustain themselves.
Entrepreneurs who are interested in being part of the programmes which have seen growth for Thabo can send an e-mail to tholoana@fetola.co.za or visit https://sabfoundation.co.za/tholoana-enterprise-programme/ for more information.