Publications
Partners
ON TUESDAY night I bumped into Esna Colyn, CEO of JSE-listed skincare business Skinwell Holdings [JSE:SKW] , and we chatted briefly about her efforts to turn that business around.
Now Esna is quite interesting, because I remember first meeting her a few years back when she was making a presentation to some companies who were considering listing on the JSE.
Fast forward a couple of years, and she has had to make the jump out of corporate financing to being the person on the ground dealing with the issues of running a business.
During our brief conversation, her primary focus was talking about the effort her staff and supporting management had put in and how under-rated the people factor was in a business.
I thought this an excellent way to highlight how something can look and sound one way on paper, yet we don't always see its practical side or the "moving parts" until we have to live it.
This, I think, is a huge problem with the approach to entrepreneurship in South Africa at the moment: there is a lot of high-level talk and a lot of grassroots activity - but not enough coordination between the various parties.
In other words, there is no shortage of position papers and projects, yet the results are still shaky.
I chat to quite a few funders and entrepreneurs and the same discussions come up regularly - we can't bridge this gap, there are good entrepreneurs out there but we can't find them and back them.
Reading over the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report on SA released in May 2010, I picked up some interesting comments on the low education levels of the country and how this is still holding back small business growth.
Throwing money at entrepreneurship and the small business sector is not working - you need smart entrepreneurs building smart businesses.
So with those two factors in mind, I have done the legwork and found the project you need to back in 2011.
A worthy project to punt
If you are a corporate funder, angel investor or entrepreneur then this message is for you.
Go and check out the website of the Awethu Project and watch the video on the site to get some idea of what they do.
When I first heard of Awethu I didn't give it more than a cursory glance. It sounded like a nice project by some highly educated guys who were doing good, but part of me said I had heard it all before.
However, I sat down for drinks with Yusuf who runs Awethu and he explained it to me in more detail. These guys are not backing small businesses, they're backing entrepreneurs.
They are not talking about supporting a basket-making business or a boerewors stand, but rather the entrepreneurial qualities that got the guys started in running their own businesses. They are throwing resources at entrepreneurs who are smart enough to evolve from running a survival business to managing fully-fledged commercial enterprises.
The principles that apply to Silicon Cape, where the same entrepreneurs regularly secure venture capital funding because they've developed track records as quality business managers and owners, could hold good for the people coming through Awethu.
Yusuf was talking about some of the entrepreneurs they have already backed - young South Africans out of the townships who outscore actuaries on business tests, or the guy who risked everything to move from Rustenburg to Johannesburg to equip himself with skills to launch his business.
No offence to those who write position papers, but you can't capture the spirit these individuals possess.
These people want to scale up the project in 2011 and if corporate South Africa backs them, they can do it - fast.
So what are you waiting for? Check out the video on their site and listen to the entrepreneurial stories.
If South Africa needs a new generation of entrepreneurship champions, you'll find them at Awethu.
- Fin24
