South African Entrepreneurs: Listen Up

Its interesting to look at the motivation and inclination of entrepreneurs in South Africa. Entrepreneurs are those who are passionate and driven about the business plan that they intend to implement. Neither a shortage of business finance, not the opinion of others will stop them from what they know they can achieve. If you compare them with the rest of the population we will quickly find that entrepreneurs are go getters, not blaming anyone for their situation and not waiting for anyone else to improve it. These are people who take responsibility for their actions and futures. A great example of this was one of the finalists of the country's most prestigious empowerment awards program

Unique motivation has powered Design Communications Group CEO Zoë Molapisi into the finals - a burning desire to encourage South Africa's 'no capital, no connections' entrepreneurs.

"I'm honoured to be a finalist," said Zoë Molapisi. "The accolade is for personal achievement, but I won't be at the finals in my personal capacity. I will be there for all the start-up entrepreneurs who began with no capital and no connections and asked for no favours.


CEO of By Design Communications Zoe Molapisi
"It's important a strong message goes out that you don't need patronage and a handout to succeed in business. You can do it by hard work and perseverance; by holding your head up and never holding your hand out.

"It's satisfying to be recognised for that type of success and a great opportunity to give encouragement to self-starters, hard workers and go-getters that have very little else going for them."

Eight years ago, Zoë Molapisi launched her 'one-stop' communication group By Design as a one-woman start-up with no seed capital and no contracted clients. Today annual turnovers are fast approaching the R100 million mark and clients include major brands and institutions such as Coca-Cola, Telkom, Cell C and many blue chip clients across different sectors.

In addition to local communication and promotional projects, By Design organizes conferences and travel incentive programmes in several markets in sub-Saharan Africa and island territories in the Indian Ocean.

Expansion to South America is being explored.

"My message to tomorrow's entrepreneurs is simple," said By Design's founder. "You don't need government incentives. You don't need hand-holding by some official program. You don't need to be well connected.

"You need passion, commitment and the sort of commonsense that tells you to keep overheads low and service standards high. You can make it. I know ... because I did."

This is certainly a very important lesson for many who see their futures relying on others. When speaking to young people about their futures this is a key message I try to get across. Yes of course you need to connect with and work with others to get where you want to be but no one else is responsible for your future success other than yourself