Testimonials

The Perfect Smoothie (PTY) Ltd.

The Perfect Smoothie is a business that was first established in the streets of Matatiele. During the 2016 December holidays, founder Teboho Zongola would set up a table in town and sell to everyone that would pass by. Unfortunately, due to the reopening of schools, Teboho had close shop until the next December holidays.

In March 2018, he received the opportunity to setup shop at 2^nd Avenue Campus Cafeteria and has since been able to register and grow his business.  His aspiration is to ultimately see his business compete with the biggest brand globally.

Pick Me Up Treats

Zandile Pali opened a business with the focus being on empowering women. She uses her platform to show women that they can live and sustain themselves without having to depend on someone else. Pick Me Up Treats was created for individuals to boost their energy and add some light to their day.

CARTHAGE Fabrics of Africa

About CARTHAGE Fabrics

CARTHAGE Fabrics (Pty) Ltd. Was first established in February 2018. It is a start-up company that is passionate about sharing “Africa with Africans through our traditional fabrics and colours”. They currently supply premium fabrics from Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Swaziland and Mozambique.

Business Background

The business idea come from three passionate university graduate. The three members wanted to start a business venture that represented the different African Countries in this glory. Each member had to source different fabrics from their home countries to sell. The aim is to unite Africa’s beauty through colour, textures and diversity. Nothing brings Africa together like fashion, so there was a niche market and recognised it and are building a long-term brand.

Charged Up

Charged is a clothing brand founded by Ntsako Mahlahle. It provides elegant, classy clothing and street wear clothing. It is a registered business and has showcased in a lot of fashion shows and hosted its own on the Roth of June 2018. It has now branched into photography and a modelling agency.

The main goal is to have it own stores nationwide and eventually globally.

Toning your Talent (TYT) Mobile Academy

Toning your Talent (TYT) Mobile Academy founded by Relebohile Hlabana, is a business idea that aspires to raise nations with entrepreneurship mindset and culture. There is a Toning your Talent book which introduces the reader into innovation and entrepreneurship by first helping the reader identify their talent and purpose for living, followed by guiding them into how to start working on their talents to earn a commercial value.

Their services include:

• One on one pre-start-up coaching
• Pre-start-up group coaching
• Coaching for people who want to become Entrepreneurship Ecosystem builders
• Coaching for communities, parents, teachers, working g class, retired citizens and the government on creation strategies.

PE Travel Agent

Vision

The founders of the company realised the institution accepts several local and international students who come to Port Elizabeth (PE) to study for 4 to 5 years and leave without having the opportunity to explore. This service is a platform in which students can get to know PE. In the near future, the company hopes to collaborate with other branches in the entertainment industry such as museum visits, paint balling, horse riding, helicopter rides and harbour visits. The aim is to allow students to discover PE and get them involved in activities which build essential teamwork skills.

Inno_Christ

Inno_Christ was first established as a tuckshop (Spaza), which sold sweets, chocolates, chips and drinks. At a later stage the business introduced cookies, muffins and occasionally cakes. The business is owners are currently two university students and one alumni university student. Inno_Christ started operating early 2018.

Aycace Designs & Alterations

Aycace Designs & Alterations is a clothing design business run by Sindisa Nonkwelo off campus. Among other services, it offers clothing design, alterations, upcycling and clothing repair. The business has been operating for 2 year. Sjndisa runs it based on his own experience of clothing design and garment construction. The business aims to close the gap between main stream clothing and couture silhouette by providing its customers with more personalised clothing.

Veg To You

Our vision statement for Veg To You is “Delivering freshness to Africa”. The statement underpins what we seek to achieve as a business. We are an E-Commerce delivery service specialising in fast moving consumer goods.

How is it like being an entrepreneur on campus?

Being an Entrepreneur on campus has been a blessing as it has allowed us to experiment within a microcosm of society. This has allowed to capture data on how consumers react to certain things and furthermore it has laid a foundation on how we can implement our growth plans outside the microcosm.We have also learnt

the importance of diversifying our market as the student market is constrained by semesters and often fluctuates.

Woke

Woke aims to fill in information gaps by discussing topics crucial topics aimed at aiding entrepreneurs, exploring investment options and building skills which can be monetised.

What advice would I advise someone building a business on campus?

Social media is your best friend! Most young people are always on their phones, in fact a report conducted by student village found that 64 % of purchases made by students was online. Make use on Facebook’s, Instagram and Twitters paid advertising. The adds are easy to set up and are highly effective as you can select the audience which would most likely be interested in your product.

Profit at this stage should not be your primary objective. Go for growth, growth is a constant process of re-investing into the businesses. So invest in assets, build reserves and work on growing deep into the value chain your business exist in.

ApplyApply for an enterprise development program, these are usually 18 month programs by big corporate firms aimed at upskilling small businesses. Companies such SAB Foundation, Raizcorp and Fetola offer these. Enter pitching competition like EDHE, Engen Pitch for Polish and the Hotseat on Stanley by StandardBank.

Quickstart

Quiqstart is a bicycle rental and maintenance service providing its rentals to the Nelson Mandela Bay. Chose us for your leisure and utility needs!

How did I know I had the right business idea and when?

In 2018 in enrolled at the Nelson Mandela University and was living off campus (approximately 8KM away). Every morning I would walk from my residence to campus like most students did. I also would return late from school and had a choice to either walk or use the over crowed shuttles with long queues in the cold dark stops. I found this method of transport to be very ineffective and so I decided to purchase a bicycle for my daily commuting. 

I found cycling to be very efficient as I would cut my travel time to campus in half as compared to walking. That’s when I realised an unexplored opportunity at the Nelson Mandela University, considering the topography of the area and nearby amenities such as the beach, it couldn’t have been a better idea at that time. I also knew this was the right idea because of my belief that the best business ideas come from personal life experiences.

Campus Clothing

Campus Clothing clinic was born out of the love of reinventing old items into something new. It is located at the Nelson Mandela University, South Campus Kraal mainly targeting students and staff members, founded by Student Entrepreneurs Zikhona and Akhona Matolongwe .The business strives to offer quality service by keeping the originality of the consumers clothing as well as allowing the customer to keep items that have sentimental value. Campus Clothing Clinic is clothing company that offers services such as clothing repairs, alterations, tailoring, dying of clothes and stain removal.