Women show they can at Unbreakable Entrepreneurs competition
“If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody is going to believe in you. There is nobody out there waiting to give you handouts but at the same time you need to strategically position yourself”
CAN DO! closed Women’s Month off with a bang as they announced the first woman winner for their Unbreakable Entrepreneurs competition in Johannesburg last Thursday.
Mirriam Kgole Kanju, founder and owner of Liomi Perfume, won a sum of R100 000 which she is set to use to grow her business. “We’re going to expand the brand, we’re going to create jobs and we’re going to try to get our product into mainstream retail spaces,” said Kgole Kanju.
She notes that one of the biggest challenges she encountered when she started her business was getting clients to believe in her product. “People have this notion that to have a good quality perfume it has to be from an internationally renowned brand, no one is about to take a South African or African perfume brand seriously. They think it’s substandard so trying to prove myself has been more difficult than getting clients,” Kgole Kanju explained.
Season 2 of Unbreakable Entrepreneurs boasted a host of young and innovative entrepreneurs who have tapped into the many needs of the South African society creatively. One of these entrepreneurs is Kgalalelo Kedijang, founder of the Creative Bar and second place winner of unbreakable entrepreneurs. “We are lawyers for creatives and innovators, we help them set up proper legal structures in order to protect their ideas. The aim is to create a very strong creative economy in Africa because I believe we have very rich cultural and indigenous knowledge that we can make a lot of money out of,” Kedijang explained.
The competition had an all-woman top three as third place was taken by Ahang Amalgamate which is owned by three young women, Mannini Setai, Refilwe Mogale and Nthabiseng Molejane. Ahang Amalgamate is a construction company based in the Free State and the three young women plan on using the resources they were given to buy machinery that would help them tap into an even bigger market.
Soweto was represented at the event by Kgomotso Pooe, owner and founder of Soweto Outdoor Adventures who offered the young entrepreneurs motivation to continue working hard. “If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody is going to believe in you. There is nobody out there waiting to give you handouts but at the same time you need to strategically position yourself,” Pooe advised.
Soweto’s young entrepreneurs with a registered small business are encouraged to look out for season 3 of Unbreakable Entrepreneurs next year and enter to stand a chance to grow their business.
