March 16, 2007
By Ndaba Dlamini
WHEN Millicent Segwathle and Tsidi Rathobotha of T-Rat Clothing started their business in Alexandra two years ago, they had no entrepreneurial skills to help grow their company, leading to low returns and a stagnant customer base.
Today, thanks to help from The Business Place Alex, a section 21 company that provides a range of "relevant services to aspirant and existing small and micro entrepreneurs", their company is registered and things look a lot more promising. Business has "picked up" and they are now able to run their business professionally.
"People from The Business Place have been assisting us in many ways," Segwathle said. "We managed to register our business through them and we have gained so much information about how to do our books, where to source funding and how to draft a business profile."
The Business Place Alex offers workshops and networking sessions to small businesses
She was speaking at the official opening of The Business Place Alex on Thursday, 15 March, which was attended by officials from the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), the City of Johannesburg and business people in the township. A satellite of The Business Place Joburg, the centre has been operating since September 2006.
Situated at the Alexsan Kopano Resource Centre, it a partnership with the ARP, funded largely by the provincial department of housing, the City of Johannesburg and Investec, the financial services company.
It offers the following services and networking opportunities to local entrepreneurs:
One-on-one consultations on starting and or expanding a business;
Workshops designed to empower entrepreneurs to make informed decisions regarding their businesses;
Business training that equips the entrepreneur to manage stock, pricing and basic financials of their business;
Internet access and typing services;
Networking sessions for entrepreneurs representing different industries; and
Free legal services for business-related advice.
To date the business centre had dealt with 1 282 clients and had held 25 workshops, according to Dumisani Hlatshwayo, The Business Place Alex manager.
"The numbers have been gradually increasing since the opening of the centre in September last year. We encountered some problems at the beginning with some of the clients very sceptical about the value of our services. Some of them even came to us with social problems, which we couldn't deal with."
Despite this, The Business Place Alex had built a trusting and sound relationship with its clients, he said. "Clients now come to us with confidence after inculcating the spirit of entrepreneurship and increasing their business acumen through the various services that we provide."
The ARP's objective was to transform fundamentally the lives of residents of Alexandra, said Julian Baskin, the project's director. "There are 350 000 people living in Alex, occupying only a square mile, which translates into 770 people per square hectare. Unemployment is rife and poverty and crime are very common in the township."
To date the ARP has installed R300-million worth of infrastructure and 7 000 houses are being built for the homeless. Bridges have been built, there have been improvements to water, sewer and electricity infrastructure and there are plans to build 500 trader stalls for informal traders.
"But if people are unemployed the objectives of the ARP will never be achieved. The Business Place Alex will play a crucial role in creating employment and assisting people to start their own businesses as well as help existing businesses to improve their operating efficiencies," Baskin said.
A successful businesswoman operating in Alexandra, Valeria Mahlangu, said that The Business Place Alex had given her guidance, knowledge and the skills necessary to grow her hair salon and catering businesses.
She saw The Business Place Alex as a "guiding light".
"I would like to implore big businesses to give us small entrepreneurs learnership opportunities and a chance to be afforded tenders to provide services," she said.
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