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COVER STORY
KFC PRESENTS THE HACK-A-PRENEUR ISSUE KFC is all about creating meaningful experiences that are relevant and purpose -led which is evident in their latest campaign that sets out to assist young South African Hack-A-Preneurs who have kept their eye on the prize during this pandemic by turning their hustle into real opportunity. Using the new Crunch Sliders on-the-go snack as a platform, KFC has identified up-and-coming innovators, hustlers and hard workers on social media and rewarded three Hack-A-Preneurs with a cash injection towards their businesses. The first prize winner has received R50 000, the runner up R30 000 and the second runner up R20 000. This has offered an opportunity for young entrepreneurs to access capital amid the Covid-19 pandemic. “We recognise that access to markets and funds are the top two most challenging obstacles that young entrepreneurs face. Considering the current pandemic, which is severely impacting the ability to do business as usual, both challenges have become even greater. So, at this critical time, the difference this cash injection will make to the winners, especially considering this time, is substantial,” said Qhawekazi Mdikane, Marketing Manager at KFC. “Young people are anxious about the road ahead and we have stepped up as a brand to support the future leaders of our country!”
“Innovation is the lifeline for these individuals, it is the fuel that keeps them going and so rewarding them for this commitment to their success and for proactively seeking opportunities is a crucial pillar of this outreach,” continues Mdikane. “In fact, through this prize we are making sure that we not only give them the cash injection needed but are also empowering them with a business coach for three months, to ensure they have the perfect combination for success. What exactly is a ‘hack-a-preneur’? Hack-A -Prenuers are individuals that turn niggles into life hacks, these are people that reinvent themselves over and over even during difficult times such as the ones we’re currently faced with, they manage to make the most out of nothing because they have a creative pulse that’s unstoppable. After a thrilling search that saw entries from incredibly talented and passionate entrepreneurs across the country, the winning three hack-a-preneurs have been announced. In first place is Fezile Dlamini, founder of Green Scooter. The first runner -up is Bohlale Buzani, founder of a virtual butchery called Kasi Meats, and the second runner up is Emily Olifant, founder of natural skin care brand, Emour.
COVER STORY
FEZILE DLAMINI KFC HACK-A-PRENEUR 1ST WINNER Q: Please can you give us an overview of who you are? A: My name is Fezile Dlamini, I’m born and bred in Soweto exported to the burbs, brewed in various parts of the country. Q: What product or service do you offer? A: At Green Scooter, we manufacture electric vehicles, assemble and sell them. Q: What inspired you to pursue this entrepreneurial journey? A: You know when people say that you become ordained in a way to be an entrepreneur? I never actually went out looking for it, I just found myself in it. I found myself working in the corporate space for about a year and nine months in three different companies, I escalated very quickly on the corporate ladder, and I grew to hate it very quickly, and I just knew with or without the corporate world I can make it as an individual. I just found myself going back to what I'd originally created and founded back in 2015, and just being relentless and pushing and just not stopping. Q: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced thus far? A: Trying to raise capital for a business that the world, or my country, was not aware
would exist someday. Trying to create your own economic opportunities is tough, trying to get in the room with corporate companies to try and get them to hear you out is also tough. I think getting into the room has just been one of the biggest challenges because there are a lot of gatekeepers everywhere in whatever industry you're in, but for me personally, I've had my fair share. Those are the challenges I've faced but I've always triumphed every single challenge I've ever encountered, hence my business today is a hundred percent bootstrapped by myself. I've had to find ways and find means to establish my brand and establish my business. Q: What advice would you give to people that would like to become entrepreneurs? A: Entrepreneurship is not for the faint -hearted. It’s tough, it will break every single part of your mind, body, and soul. Don't fear anything, a lot of people will tell you not to do it because they have encountered challenges and that's for them. Your journey cannot be compared to another person's journey, you create your own journey. Build friends and have a great support system. Take care of your mental health - it's very, very important, especially when things are bad and your chips are down, and you need to find ways of staying afloat by having a sound mind. Don't be afraid of failure.
KFC PRESENTS THE HACK-A-PRENEUR ISSUE
Outfit: Masango by Siphosihle. Glass by Dior Earrings by Kisten Goss
Q: What has your experience been like in the KFC Hack-a-Preneur competition? A: It's been great, it's something that I never thought I'd ever win because you get so caught up in everything else that I think it hit me on Sunday, where I actually tweeted my partner's, I was like, “yo guys, we actually won.” So, it's been great, I've had some great conversations with the other winners. Shout out to them also for being relentless with their dreams. It's been great, it’s an opportunity and I hope it will be a fruitful one for everyone that is actually taking part in it. Q: How have you managed to navigate COVID as an entrepreneur? A: I don't know to be honest, like I personally don't know how I've managed to navigate it. I've always been in survival mode, that's just my character. I've always just prepared for the worst in life.
"Entrepreneurship is not for the faint -hearted. It’s tough, it will break every single part of your mind, body, and soul."
You need to have a certain mindset, a constant survival mindset, you need to be insatiable, you need to be a hunter. I've just always stuck to my guns, sticking to my guns and following the dream. I think the most important takeaway for anybody during this pandemic is bartering, it became a currency, that's basically how I've managed to do it. Q: How can consumers get hold of your product, use your service? A: They can contact us on Scooter Treats’ social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We do have an app that is waiting for submission with Apple. So we still have to follow Apple's processes, and it's amazing as well that a pilot phase of a business managed to win this competition. People who are transacting with us and ordering from us are part of the entire pilot we’re trying to build which is much bigger than this. It will be coming on Apple's App Store and the website. Q: What will the prize that you’ve won from the KFC Hack-a-Preneur help your business? A: I've been toying around in my mind in terms of how I plan on rolling out a number of things and it could not have come at a better time. I think it's going to help us cement ourselves as a brand and help us have the right tools and resources to be able to fulfill our day-to-day objectives. It’s just come at the right time and the amount is perfect to help us move to our next pilot.
COVER STORY
BOHLALE BUZANI KFC HACK-A-PRENEUR 2ND WINNER Q: Please can you give us an overview of who you are? A: I am Bohlale Buzani, born in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape. I’m passionate about development, especially in the township economy and believe one of the reasons I'm here is so that I can bring emancipation within that area. I'm the founder of a company which is the first of its kind in Eastern Cape. It's a virtual butchery called Kasi Meats. Q: What inspired you to pursue this entrepreneurial journey? A: What inspired me to pursue this entrepreneurial journey was that I started an NPO in 2017. I was running it for three years. We used to fundraise for children to get school shoes then one of our sponsors pulled back in their sponsorship. That left us with nothing, we did not build a sustainable model. I decided that instead of giving freebies, I want to empower people, I want people to have a sense of worth and identity through programs, and through companies that I build I want people to be emancipated economically and for people to have confidence in their communities. Q: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced thus far?
A: To be honest, I'm so grateful for the KFC competition. Our business was doing very well just before it started. We started our own shisa nyama and we had a lot of overheads that we didn't anticipate. We found ourselves in debt of R25,000 with our previous supplier and that really taught us to not have a business model that has a lot of overheads or expenses. It has taught us to really lean in our business model. So we understand that our power lies in our market now, instead of thinking that our power lies in us owning the premises owning resources and factors of production. That's what was the biggest challenge because we went into unventured terrain we owed R25,000. Now I came in second place in the competition, we're going to clear that debt. Q: What advice would you give to people that would like to become entrepreneurs? A: As an entrepreneur, you need to be someone who knows that you need to self sacrifice each and every day. Secondly, sometimes the money doesn't come but you need to be there showing up as long as you're covering your operating expenses. In the first year of business, it’s not about making profits, it's about developing and building systems in your business that can be sustainable. Thirdly, the biggest lesson I've learned, don't employ many people when you don't have the money to.
KFC PRESENTS THE HACK-A-PRENEUR ISSUE
Outfit: Masango by Siphosihle. Glass by Dior Earrings by Kisten Goss
Q: What is your five-year vision for your business? A: My five-year vision for the business is our two business models. The first business model, which is the meat packages to people's doorsteps. I understand it very well to be a 10-year dream. I want to have footprints throughout the Eastern Cape in the next five years. With regards to the second business model of shisa nyama’s, we really want to focus on supplying all the shisa nyama’s in the Eastern Cape. When someone has a shisa nyama and is based in Eastern Cape, they must have Kasi Meat, it must be part of the Kasi Meat distribution network. Q: What has your experience been like in the KFC Hack-a-preneur competition? A: It's been really great. First and foremost, I got to see the people that support us through the social media campaigning that we had to do. Secondly, the experience has been great for me as an individual as well, because I got to see us competing on a national scale. Thirdly, I realized that we're not ready to be in Joburg yet. I'd rather build a solid foundation here in the Eastern Cape and then only head up after five years of running consistently. Q: How have you managed to navigate COVID as an entrepreneur? A: I think I can attribute that to my resilient mindset. Each and every day, I wake up with hope and faith and knowing that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.
Q: What will the prize that you’ve won from the KFC Hack-a-Preneur help your business? A: It's going to help with my business because it's going to restore my confidence as an entrepreneur. When you are left with a debt of R25,000, it’s a point of reference as a failure. It shows you that you are a failure. I've been given hope now using that money to pay that debt. It feels like another opportunity for me to better tomorrow. Q: How can consumers get hold of your product, use your service? A: They can contact us via our social media pages. We are on Instagram as Kasi Meat, as well as on Facebook. Most of our consumers contact us on WhatsApp to place their orders if they're around the Eastern Cape. If they are in Queenstown or any other town, we then link them up with the sales reps that are based in their town.
"In the first year of business, it’s not about making profits, it's about developing and building systems in your business that can be sustainable."
COVER STORY
EMILY OLIFANT KFC HACK-A-PRENEUR 3RD WINNER Q: Please can you give us an overview of who you are? A: I'm Emily, I am 29 years old and grew up in the North West province. I'm currently a doctorate student doing my second year in biotechnology. I love skincare; I grew my passion for skincare when I started to have problems with my skin and experienced the frustration of using a lot of products and not understanding my skin. Then I started looking for products that I can sell that worked for me and then I started getting into the skincare business by selling other people's products, and after some time I realized that I really love this. With the knowledge that I acquired in my studies as a biotechnologist, I knew the kind of product that I wanted. I wanted to go natural and I wanted something that is proudly African and that can be used, bought and be afforded by the girl next door. Q: What products do you offer? A: I offer African black soap bars, African black liquid soap, Kojic- coco cleansing bar which is for pigmentation, and rose water which is a toner. The reason I chose rose water is that a lot of people have problems with toners that have alcohol in them. Either it stings them or dries out their skin, so I chose rose water after I saw that it worked for me. I have clay masks
as well, which are natural and a skin repair moisturizer which is something I worked on myself. I knew the ingredients that I wanted and then after gathering everything I went to a cosmetic lab and formulated it for me. Q: What inspired you to pursue this entrepreneurial journey? A: I guess it's the love, and I took the time to teach myself what works for brown skin and moving to natural products. Seeing that a lot of products are really expensive because of the ingredients and packaging that people are using. I wanted to do something similar but simplify it so that people who can't afford expensive products could afford the products that also work for them. I feel like black girls aren’t really exposed to natural skincare, so I felt that my brand is going to be introduced as natural skincare and to a lot of people who don't really understand what it is all about. To also show other young girls out there that you can do it, if you put your mind to it you can do it. I see myself growing each and every day and that is what I want young girls to see, that it doesn't matter where you come from like if you want something go for it. Q: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced thus far? A: I'm not a skincare expert, it's something
KFC PRESENTS THE HACK-A-PRENEUR ISSUE
Outfit: Masango by Siphosihle. Glass by Dior Earrings by Kisten Goss
that I sat down and taught myself about, so initially there wasn’t a lot of trust, especially from people who didn’t know me. Another challenge that I faced is that I started my business from my own pocket. I started very, very small, and I didn't have a way to ask for funds. For me, it was a gradual growth especially finances, so it was a cycle of re-investing, making profit, re-investing making profit, invest and that takes a toll on one because you just want to grow, it requires a lot of patience. Q: What advice would you give to people that would like to become entrepreneurs? A: I'd tell people don't do something because of the money because if your main focus is “I'm doing this because I want to buy a car and I just want to make quick money,” it’s not going to happen, you need to do something that you love. When you love something, it's very hard to let go of it so do something that you love, do something that you enjoy doing and where your heart is because there are a lot of challenges. Find something that you're passionate about, and even when challenges come you will have the strength to keep on. Q: What has your experience been like in the KFC Hack-a-preneur competition? A: It has been so exciting. I felt like it was the one thing that really validated that I’m doing something right. I’m really doing something right. it was exciting and I know that it's going to open a lot of doors for me. I even got sales from people that are close to me that never really thought about buying, they see that I’m doing something right.
Q: How have you managed to navigate COVID as an entrepreneur? A: During the first phases of the lockdown, level five and four, I didn't do anything as I wasn't able to do anything. During level three, I was not really active on social media and I didn't have a website. During that time I needed a website. So I increased my presence on social media, even on my personal account. I started making videos about skincare about what to use and what not to use. I created my website, I stopped doing hand deliveries and started using couriers. My presence on social media grew because everything is virtual right now so I also had to occupy that space. Q: What will the prize that you’ve won from the KFC Hack-a-preneur help your business? A: I had a few products that I planned a long time ago with a certain cosmetic lab, but they needed funding for me to get samples. Normally when I get a new product, I buy the product and then I get samples and give samples to my loyal clients and my friends and stuff. So I'm going to start that process - get samples, and then get people to get the product if they love it. Q: How can consumers get hold of your product, use your service? A: On social media - I'm on Twitter and I'm on Instagram as emour_shop. I'm also on Facebook as emour shop. My website is www.emour.co.za.
COVER STORY
BLACK MOTION THE HEALERS: THE LAST CHAPTER Black Motion’s ascension to the apex of the South African music industry has been an inspiring tale of passion, talent, resilience, tenacity and entrepreneurial prowess. The prolific duo’s athemic sounds have seen them perform across the world and leave an indelible mark at home. Their latest musical offering, The Healers (The Last Chapter), marks their 10 year journey and aims to serve as a symbol of hope and inspiration to their fans, something that many have needed to navigate the unprecedented challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. Having created The Healers (The Last Chapter) during the midst of the South African lockdown, the talented duo have also partnered with KFC on their latest initiative which sought to seek hungry, driven and passionate individuals who’ve displayed the same level resilience and entrepreneurial prowess as Black Motion have throughout their career. These hack-a-preneurs bravery launched businesses during a period of great economic uncertainty, and with the inspiration of Black Motion and support of KFC, are set to receive an incredible boost to their respective businesses.
Mabogwane (Percussionist) and Robert “DJ Rob Murda” Mohosana. We started releasing music online in 2009 and soon captured the attention of dance music followers. This rapid success led to our singles being licensed for compilations CD by top DJs., these include Oskido, DJ QT, DJ Mmthi, Fresca, Dj Choice, Dj Black Coffee and Adil (just to mention a few).
Q: Please tell us a little about who Black Motion is?
Q: What inspires you musically?
A: We are a music recording duo, from Soshanguve (in the city of Tshwane), the group is made up of Thabo “Smol”
Q: How did the two of you become a duo? A: We were part of a bigger group as per above, which ended up breaking due to us not having the same vision. So Murdah and I then went on our own through the support of our current business partner and brother. Q: How would you describe the music that you typically create? A: Our music is supposed to evoke emotions, if not the soul/spirit in the listener. So we don’t want to box our music to any genre but our tracks cover a wide spectrum which can range from Afro Dance, Afro Tech, Dance, etc.
A: People, various cultures, places, sounds, scents and all the things that surround us. Thankfully, because we are blessed enough to travel, we also have access to a lot of these elements and enriches our music.
KFC PRESENTS THE HACK-A-PRENEUR ISSUE
Outfit: Masango by Siphosihle. Glass by Dior Earrings by Kisten Goss
Q: You recently reached your 10-year milestone producing music, how has the journey been? A: Every single journey has its ups and downs, there times you feel like quitting but the passion always pushes you through. We are however grateful that we’ve stayed true to ourselves and pushed throughout the years. Here we are now - it paid off and the journey continues. Q: Please can you tell us about your latest album, The Healers: The Last Chapter. What was the creative process behind it and what inspired it? A: We had the time to do this album. We were locked in and the only things we had were our studio equipment and our minds. Some of these songs took years to make but some were done within months. We always have stuff in the vault - it’s about upgrading it. It’s sort of like taking from the archives and just putting it to good use. We want to be producers that are sampled in the future because of the archive that we’ve left behind and stories we told. Q: What impact do you hope this album has on your fans? A: In the ‘hood, they say ‘music will heal you, what it’s doing to us is what we feel it should do to others. Most people say our music does heal them and that’s why we called this album The Healers. It’s dominated by women vocalists and is mostly gospel-orientated. We come from a very cultural background - we’re both Pedi and our culture is based on drums, rhythm, chanting, and singing. We grew up around Soshanguvew where house music was mainly drum ‘n’ bass and it grew into
something we liked to interpret in terms of production. Over the years, our sound grew with the traveling we did. We knew we wanted to emphasize more of the drum progressions, the swing of our production and time signatures while using as many native instruments as we could. Everywhere we travelled, we learnt about the instrument most used in the culture, so it’s always been adding up through whatever we experienced and learnt from around the world. Q: How has COVID 19 impacted you guys as performers? A: We were the most hit by this pandemic because our industry went into a complete standstill. Q: How has the experience been like being part of the current KFC campaign? A: It’s been great and we felt honoured to be part of this campaign. KFC has been with us since childhood days where it was part of most of our school trips and you always felt special to have it as part of your lunch box on the school trip. Q: What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow in your footsteps? A: Nothing comes easy, work hard, and always maintain the right attitude towards your craft. Q: What is next for Black Motion? A: The horizon is beyond us. Every day throws something new our way, so we are now developing building blocks for the next chapter that is staring us in the eyes.
INFLUENCER OF THE MONTH | LWANDILE MAKHAZA
YOUTUBER CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR FASHION CONTENT CREATOR
Lwandile Makhaza, also known as The Fruity Chapters, is a YouTuber, Fashion Content Creator, Digital Entrepreneur and Graphic Designer. The inspired fashionista has worked with leading brands such as Mr Price, Trace Mobile and Loccitane SA.
INFLUENCER OF THE MONTH | LWANDILE MAKHAZA
YouTube: L & T Twitter: @lwan_dile Instagram: @thefruitychapters
D
esigual is an international fashion brand that was established in Barcelona in 1984. It is famous for the individuality and unique character of its
creations, which aim to bring positivity and authenticity to thousands of people who want to express the best version of themselves. The company currently has a workforce of over 3,700 employees and is present in nearly 90 countries through 13 sales channels, over 500 branded stores and six product categories: Woman, Man, Kids, Accessories, Shoes and Sport. The el Love SS20 collection is an ode to Desigual's essence, to the only way they know how to do things. Forwards is boring is their manifesto, one that reflects their change of logo, which they've flipped to show their freshest side. The brand is an inclusive brand and seeks to speak to women of all ages. They've also extended their range of genderless garments and adapted their garments to the seasons by playing with the colour palette, and there's a wider range of false plains and plains to boost combination possibilities.
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