Preparing small business for a big future

Emerging entrepreneurs gathered at Site B library for a two-day digital entrepreneurship workshop aimed at equipping township SMMEs with knowledge, skills and resources to grow their businesses. Among these were

The workshop, which took place on Thursday November 24 and Friday November 25, was spearheaded by non-profit organisation Indwe Skills Development, in partnership with the University of the Western Cape.

The business people were equipped with various ways of using digital technology to do business activities and understand digital marketing.

Indwe Skills Development founder, Nhlanhla Mhlaba, said the main mission of the organisation is to build the capacity of communities to attract better employment chances and opportunities.

He said last week’s workshop was aimed at helping small businesses to streamline their workflows, communicate more effectively with customers and gain better insights into their operations.

He said a thriving SMME sector was the key to addressing challenges such as poverty, inequality and unemployment.

“The idea is to position these business people so that they could take advantage of opportunities provided by the digital age. We also have what we call the digital economy and I would love to see them tapping into that space. We want to make them aware of such opportunities and find ways to grow their businesses.

“We want to instil the culture of entrepreneurship among our people so that they could be self employed,” he said.

He said there are many businesses which have potential to grow but due to endless challenges some entrepreneurs are left frustrated and eventually give up on their journey.

Emerging business owner, Hope Nongalaza said such platforms were critical as they empowered them with new information.

She believes that as business people they need to upskill themselves all the time so as to overcome new challenges as they arise and sometimes realign their business strategies.