They now get ready for the gala awards dinner to be held during Global Entrepreneurship Week on Monday 18 November 2013 in Johannesburg.
The finalists were announced earlier in the year and have since undertaken an intensive 12-month journey of personalised business mentorship and business development support during which there have been a number of interventions to place each business on a growth path.
The SAB KickStart Class of 2013 is the first to complete the re-engineered model of the programme focused on developing and supporting sustainable businesses and high impact entrepreneurs who are able to contribute to South Africa's job creation needs.
"Our top 14 finalists represent dedicated individuals whose connection to SAB KickStart yielded more empowered entrepreneurs capable of taking their businesses from start-ups to growing SMEs. The jobs they have managed to create, although a small contribution initially, is an indication of their potential to make a substantial impact moving into the future," says Boipelo Nkadimeng, SAB manager enterprise development.
Some notable numbers of jobs created include young entrepreneur, Ricardo Hood from Vereeniging outside of Johannesburg, whose welding training business, SIH Training, created an additional 23 jobs during his participation in SAB KickStart. This is up 18 from only five before entering the competition.
Juandre Jephta's Cape Town-based vegetation management and control business, Garden & Organics, today employs 46 full time and part time people, up 35 from just 11 before participating in SAB KickStart.
Anda Maqanda's business, AM Group in Port Elizabeth, which specialises in electrical design for the mining industry, created 10 additional jobs during SAB KickStart, up from only five.
For more information on the finalists, go to SAB KickStart national finalists. For the latest SAB KickStart news, follow on Twitter: @SAB_KickStart or Facebook on www.facebook.com/SABKickStart.
