By Keletso Mkhwanazi
A Johannesburg-based NPO is empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs so that their success promotes economic growth and builds communities. According to Wongakazi Majola, who is the founder of Impactful Initiatives, which is an entirely black women-owned entity, support for small businesses is mostly fragmented. So, the all-inclusive platform connects small businesses and entrepreneurs to the finance they need to get established or scale while providing them with access to markets tailored to their products or services. It also helps build essential business and marketing skills and offers psychosocial support to deal with the challenges that arise from running a business.
With years of expertise in both the public and private sectors, Majola is especially enthusiastic about empowering women, young people, and small businesses as they expand.
Majola told Vutivi News that one way of doing this is through their food, arts, crafts, and lifestyle markets. Since September 2022, three markets have been held to facilitate connections between small businesses and build public-private partnerships. “The ultimate objective is to create market connections with regional merchants and global organisations via channels such as the AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act),” she said.
In order to maintain a vendors’ profitability, sustainability, and marketability, they collaborate with them to examine their business offerings. Also, by connecting small businesses and entrepreneurs with certain partners, they are able to acquire the technical skills and knowledge for their individual business needs and develop skills to grow and sustain their businesses. “We think that shopping locally does not have to equate to purchasing items of lower quality or purchasing items for beneficial causes,” Majola told Vutivi News, adding that their vendors provided their clients and customers with the best quality. This guaranteed that their products could be trusted and helped grow their client base.
“Businesses that sell edible goods, handicrafts, clothing, and fabrics and take part in our markets will have the chance to collaborate with my team to strengthen your competitive edge. “The products they offer will also guarantee the sustainability of the SMME sector, which is the only method we know of for them to make the kind of meaningful contributions to the economy and job creation that they can,” she said. Also, Impactful Initiatives’ “incubator-style approach” had resulted in an increase in vendors and market attendance.
One of its latest initiatives is working with community beekeepers and honey producers. “Working through our facilitating partner, we provide small-scale honey producers with a risk-free avenue to sell their produce while taking care of their packaging and marketing. In this way, they are able to substantially increase their sales while building their capacity in all aspects of running a business.”
