By: Tebogo Mokwena
Startup Business Campus, which is a superhub designed for entrepreneurs, enablers, and investors, aims to help at least 50 small businesses with its second “business shower”. The shower, which is similar to a baby shower where a mother-to-be receives gifts, donates equipment to small businesses to help improve their operations. The donations are from other businesses and individuals.
Startup Business Campus’ communication strategist Agnes Nyathi told Vutivi News that this year they would embark on a digital campaign to ensure that there were more donations. It would be run on all social media platforms from June and would include videos of donations being received, and videos of recipients using the equipment. The aim was to encourage more donations and for more small businesses to step forward and register on an online portal that would be set up for them to apply for help.
Nyathi said the idea for the business shower emerged in November when the second annual Startup Business Festival was held by the incubation centre, which is based in Newtown in Johannesburg. The recipients from the first shower were more than 10 small businesses, which received working space from Startup Business Campus, office equipment, and free business consultations through the hub’s business clinic. They were selected from many small businesses. “We have a lot of entrepreneurs in our community that are doing impeccable work and when they reach out to us, we look at the magnitude of the work they do and try to bridge the gap with what they need,” Nyathi said.
“We have received hundreds of emails from entrepreneurs who really need help but do not have enough basic necessary tools to grow and impact (their communities) more. “These tools include the consultation that we do via the business clinic, laptops and gadgets to help them do business at the speed of thought and books to read more and sharpen their intellect,” Nyathi said that over 90% of businesses failed in South Africa because they did not have resources and enough equipment. “The project’s long-term goal is to provide resources and tools to start-ups so that they can grow their business ventures,” she said.
