In the wake of Global Entrepreneurship Week, budding entrepreneur Lebohang Selloane has been named the national winner of the 2015 Business Partners SME Toolkit Global Entrepreneurship Week’s Business Plan Competition for Aspiring Young Entrepreneurs.
The awards ceremony was held in Parktown recently. “I am so excited to have won this award. It just feels like it did not sink in yet that I won perhaps it will a bit later on. This has brought my dream closer towards becoming a reality,” said Selloane.
Now in its sixth year, the competition seeks to equip passionate and enthusiastic youth with the knowledge to turn their business idea into a reality.
Free State-based Selloane is a Diagnostic Radiography graduate who is currently doing her MBA. Her winning idea is based on a mobile X-ray service business called Visionary X-rays. The business will provide onsite mobile tuberculosis (TB) screening services, by making use of X-ray equipment installed inside a trailer, to assist employees and family members of businesses operating in the mining, manufacturing and construction sectors; people who are prone to occupational lung diseases and are in areas with little or no access to quality healthcare services.
Petro Bothma, group enterprise development manager at Business Partners, explained that the competitive advantage of the business model is that it will provide unlimited access to its customers. Unlike clinics and hospitals, it will not be fixed in one place.
This year’s competition saw over 211 entries. After completion of the workshops, 65 business plans were received for judging, from which seven regional winners were selected to contend for the overall national title.
Aspiring entrepreneurs between 18 and 35 were encouraged to submit their business idea and attend one of nine regional workshops across the country to learn the complexities of compiling a business plan and managing the many functions of running a business. Following this, each young entrepreneur was invited to submit a formal business plan to a judging panel.
The finalists of each region received a R5 000 mentorship support voucher from Business Partners, with the overall winner receiving an additional R10 000 mentorship support voucher, a R20 000 cash prize, and a smart tablet.
Details: www.businesspartners.co.za
