"Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it, but he who caught it chased it."

--South African Proverb

I know the purpose of this blog is mainly meant to talk about the entrepreneurs we help and how they are working hard to become successful.

But what about us? What about all the behind the scenes work that most people have no idea about. What about the centre?

The TSiBA Entrepreneurship Centre was founded in January 2007 as part of TSiBA Education to provide entrepreneurs a place to plan, develop and grow their businesses.

Successful economies are built on small to medium-sized enterprises. Lack of resources and insufficient managerial talent has hindered the growth of these in South Africa. According to the 2008 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey, South Africa only has a new business prevalence rate of 2.1 percent which ranks it 38th out of 43 countries meaning that only 2.1 percent of new businesses survive. The TSiBA Entrepreneurship Centre has created a hands-on operational assistance method including very practical skills development programme and one-on-one mentorship to solve these problems.

All entrepreneurs that go through our programme will learn how to develop their skills, create jobs for others through their businesses, become sustainable and have a positive social impact in their community. When the entrepreneurs leave our centre, they are self-sustainable and have the tools to successfully maintain and grow their businesses.

The work at the Centre is also a cornerstone of the entrepreneurship curriculum at TSiBA Education: the case studies developed at the Centre are used in the classroom and the Centre provides our students with an opportunity to cut their teeth at helping to run real businesses.

In our first two years, we have served over 100 small businesses in the surrounding communities since our founding and currently house four of those in our facilities.

So what does all that mean?

From my very brief time here so far, let me give you a few of my insights.

The centre isn’t just about helping businesses. That’s a huge misconception that I had when I came here. The centre is about helping people. Obviously those people must have a business, but it is more complex than that. If people need help with building their confidence, the centre will coach them with that. If they need help figuring out how to use a computer, we’re ready to show them. Even if it’s something as seemingly simple as the person has had a hard business week and needs to vent, we have open ears.

Each of the staff members in the centre deeply cares about the entrepreneurs that come through the centre and want to succeed with the necessary hard work. The centre is not just a place that says they are here for the people, they really are.

I feel like my eyes have been opened so widely by the entrepreneurs and staff here. There is so much determination and drive behind everyone that it makes me question myself.

You have to be willing to work extremely hard to be successful at the centre. You also must have the right attitude because without that, you will never succeed. But if you’re willing, the centre has the tools, determination, and compassion to help your business.

Iziko lo Lwazi

I had the honor of visiting Iziko lo Lwazi a week ago to prepare for the Northeastern Project with Peter and Johan.

Iziko lo Lwazi is a non-profit organization that helps women from the nearby informal settlement Imizamo Yetho earn money while learning. It started as an adult literacy program that offered free English lessons but has now grown into a business that helps empower women.

The company decided to help the women earn money through paper making. They have now expanded into cards, beadwork, and other gifts.

Johan and I had the privilege of watching paper being made (a beautiful shade of pink) and received a cool explanation about different materials that can be used in the process.

Did you know that paper can be made out of rooibos tea, seaweed, or dung from horses, camels, or elephants? Neither did I. Each material gives the paper a different look and feel. It can also be dyed any colour under the sun and would go beautifully in any scrapbook or journal.

We then were shown where the women do the beadwork. I'm not that crafty with my hands, and I was amazed at what all the women can make. We saw a coin purse, key chains, and pins being made among other things.

Then we moved on to the trailer where English classes are taught. Training is also given to the women about business skills, product development, and marketing.

We finally ended up in the store. I couldn't resist myself and bought the most beautiful beaded necklace that I'm saving for a special occasion. I also bought some cards with wired animals on them. Later that day when I showed them to my friends, they begged me to go back and buy some for them.

Eventually, Iziko lo Lwazi would like for the 12-16 women that work there to take over the running of the business. I left with a sense of hope and excitement for the company. You can't help but feel it when you're there.

If you're interested in assisting the business financially or through funding, or if you just want to buy some of their amazing products, you can e-mail them at izikoll@gmail.com. You can also visit their website at http://www.izikoll.co.za/ or call administrator Fezeka Dyani at 021 790 2273 or 084 580 8684.

TSiBA's 5th Birthday Supports Local Entrepreneurs

On Friday, May 22nd, TSiBA Education celebrated its fifth birthday party. The party included a ceremony, a clown, DJs, and local entrepreneurs from the entrepreneurship centre.

Abu’s Hiring Services and Comida Catering provided their services to help make the big day special.

Abu’s Hiring Services is a business that provides assets like cutlery, furniture and kids entertainment. It was started in 2006 and is run by Mandle and Zoleka Khusela.




For the birthday party, they provided the clown, and the jumping castle. The kids couldn’t get enough of them! They also provided the chairs and the tent where the ceremony was held.



Comida Catering is another local business that assisted in making the birthday memorable. The company currently does the catering for TSiBA Education in the canteen and provides wonderful food every day. It is owned by Jose and Teresa Joao.

Comida provided the beautiful cupcakes that spelled out TSiBA and had the number five on them in honor of the birthday. They also provided other delicious finger food. All the goodies were gone in minutes.

The ceremony went on without a hitch and was made even more memorable by supporting TSiBA entrepreneurs.

If you want to contact Abu’s Hiring Services, you can call them at 021 361 2775 or 073 251 3119 (mobile). Or you can send them an e-mail at info@abuhiringservices.co.za.

To contact Comida Catering, you can call them at 073 245 3407 or 021 532 2750 x113 (business). Or you can e-mail them at info@comidacatering.co.za.

Next Gucci in South Africa?

Will the next Gucci come from South Africa? Not a doubt, according to Mluleki, maker of sandals, bags and belts from Crossroads in Cape Town (below right). And he is going to extraordinary lengths to achieve that goal. After completing our micro-MBA course in February, he realized he was getting nowhere selling his products from his container in a quiet street in the township of Crossroads. No traffic, no sales.


But Mluleki does know his struggle history, and was aware that two youngsters, Mabhuti Fatman and Goodman Mali, had been shot and killed by security police in October 1985 next to his container. The Human Rights Media Centre got involved, a book was written (see this link for more information), and, recently, a graphical artist and a wood sculptor commissioned to design a simple memorial to the slain men. The container was repainted with a detailed description in Xhosa of the events, a sculpture erected and a gravestone carved into the trees where they were slain.



Now that the site is finished, tour operators are being approached to make this a stop on their tour of the townships. The first group of Norwegians were very impressed by this simple but very elegant memorial site!

Micro - MBA Follow Up Session

One and a half months ago, the Entrepreneurship Centre conducted its first Micro- MBA workshop. The week long program aided 21 develop and grow their businesses by providing valuable business training. Unfortunately, in any workshop there is always a gap between acquiring knowledge and putting it to actual use. To bridge this gap, the Entrepreneurship Centre ran the first of three Micro - MBA follow up sessions on April 7th. The purpose of theses follow up sessions is to ensure that the entrepreneurs’ businesses continue to grow, that they use the skills learned from the original workshop, and also build upon them.

The session began with many familiar face, smiles, and pats on the back as participants chatted about what has been happening since the last workshop. After exchanging pleasantries, the entrepreneurs gave speeches, detailing the obstacles and successes they have experienced in their business since the Micro – MBA. Various other exercises were conducted throughout the session including group brainstorming on why some small businesses fail and why others succeed. We also had a brief ceremony in which participants were given their Micro – MBA certificates.

To finish off the half day session, the group was given assignments for the month ahead to ensure that their skills developed in the Micro – MBA would be put to good use. Overall the session went quite well, and the participants had quite a lot to say. They even went so far as to write to us about how the course has affected them.


I am really happy that I took the opportunity to study about business at Tsiba in the Micro - MBA.

I gained knowledge on a lot of things like how to start a business, how to keep the customers you already have, how to keep the business booming, how to get the business well known among the people, and how to calculate the cost of sales and selling prices.

I also got friends that I can contact when I need assistance and advice.

-Nongqele Kalashe

What I have achieved from the Micro MBA course is how to price and add my markup, how to keep my books in order and balancing, how to create a marketing plan and how improve my purchasing strategy.

After the course I developed a marketing plan and orders have started to come in. I am busy processing many orders these days. Thanks to the Micro MBA course I was able to add value to my business.

-Evelyn Mbenyane




Through my encounter with TSiBA I have found the right attitude in dealing with my customers by reading in minute detail possibilities for potential customers. I learned how to tell apart the buyers from the window-shoppers. I found business should not be isolated within the notion of merely closing a sale. Instead it is important to realize an opportunity to build sustainable relationships with each customer.

-Mluleki Sinuku

Day 3 of MIT Start-up Workshop

After yesterday's action-packed day, I was prepared for a relaxing Friday. Jessica Jackley Flannery shattered my hopes immediately and completely. She told another improbable story: how a few friends, making a few loans of a couple of dollars each, helping a few farmers in Uganda, grew within the space of a few years to kiva.org, an international community of 470,000 lenders providing US$ 65,000,000 in loans to 95,000 entrepreneurs. The recovery rate of these loans is an amazing 98% with interest rates about 10% below the norm for most micro-finance programs. Go to www.kiva.org to learn more and become a lender yourself.

What strikes me again and again listening to stories of Jessica and Alicia yesterday (pictured below), is how improbable they sound and how they rely more on character, grit and determination than on anything we can teach in an Entrepreneurship class.

What is especially heartening is that many of these very modern success stories are being told by women. In fact, a decade or so ago, a conference like this would have attracted very few women. Today, almost half of the participants were female. In fact, if you leave out the age groups north of 40, I would wager that women were in the majority. In entrepreneurship, the glass ceiling has not only shattered, it has disappeared completely!


And then there was William Kamkwamba from Malawi. His story is so unbelievable, all I'm going to provide you with is a link to YouTube: Moving Windmills. Who said there was no entrepreneurial spirit in Africa?


And so ends a magnificent three day event. There was a lot of networking going on. I'm especially pleased that South African organisations pitched up in great numbers. Richard Branson School of Entrepreneurship, Raizcorp, SEDA, DTI, Wits Business School, the City of Cape Town, the Bandwidth Barn, TSiBA of course, and just about anyone who is anyone in SA entrepreneurship was there.

Day 2 of MIT Start-up Workshop

Wow! What a day! Almost every event was superlative.

A session on Entrepreneurship Support Structures was highly relevant to our work at the Entrepreneurship Centre. It started with a very provocative question and one I continually grapple with at TSiBA: how on earth can a non-profit organization (university, incubator, government agency) teach entrepreneurs to make a profit? Can a non-profit truly produce the aggressive tigers that thrive in the market place or do they produce tame lions that die once they are let out into the wild? A troubling question with no easy answer...

Another highlight was Mansoor Mohamed (pictured above), Executive Director for Economic, Social Development and Tourism of the City of Cape Town, whom Leigh and I had just met in his office last week. He gave a compelling overview of the steps that the City is taking to foster entrepreneurship and innovation. One of his pet projects is an innovation hub, an area of about 10 hectares; where organisations in the entrepreneurship space will be housed together to create synergies and economic opportunities beyond their individual potential. One of these is a well-known provider of a tertiary degree in Entrepreneurial Leadership. :-) A serial entrepreneur himself, it is heartening to see a dynamic business person like Mansoor in such an influential position within city management.

And just when we thought it couldn't get much better, Alicia Polak, an ex-investment banker who left Merrill Lynch well before their demise, told her story of starting Khaya Cookies, a very profitable venture targeting unemployable women from Khayelitsha to produce high-quality cookies both for local consumption and for export to the United States.

The icing of the cake goes to Cebisa, who entered the Elevator Pitch Competition. He did really well, and tomorrow we will learn whether he can go through to the finals. "I have never been so nervous in all my life", a visibly relieved Cebisa confided to me after the event.

And just as we were completely exhausted, the Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Kenneth P. Morse, pulled off an entrepreneurial show of epic dimensions. Whatever I try to say about his performance, you wouldn’t believe it. So I won’t even go there…