Advice for budding entrepreneurs

Each small business owner shares the struggles they faced over the years, the best advice they received, and why they choose not to work from home in their pyjamas, but instead are members of a coworking community.

According to Dirusha Ganapathy Juta of Beyond Transform, resourcing is one of the first challenges that a small company faces.

“You might have a big project to deliver on in the early stages of your business,” she says. “Finding a way and the means to resource this project will be tough and could cost a lot of money, so you end up doing it yourself. Especially for big projects, you need to structure your time so that you meet all your deliverables by deadline.”

When it comes to the business advice that has helped them along the way, across the board, the entrepreneurs agree on one thing - never give up.

“You need to learn from your mistakes and turn these into lessons,” says Mzuyanda Mfuku of Kagiso Interactive. “You can’t let your mistakes bring you down. Have a look at what went wrong and change your strategy to get a different result.”

Bongani Sibeko of South African Women in Television Arts says that the best advice he can share is never give up on your business idea. “It’s not how many times you fall, it’s about how many times you get up.”

In response to why they choose to be part of a coworking community, their answers all boil down to the same sentiment: working from an office, even when it’s your own businesses and could easily be done from home, allows you to focus on the core objectives of your business. Plus you’re surrounded by like-minded individuals who can inspire you..

Juta believes that working in a coworking space gives you the opportunity to create structure. “Instead of trying to hire staff to run an office, you can figure out what you want to achieve yearly and turn these into monthly goals, which could then be turned into weekly and daily goals. Also, feeling like you’re part of an office environment means that you get up every day, dress for success and you get to work among other budding entrepreneurs”.

“Coworking spaces provide great flexibility,” says Sibeko. “It’s also a nice environment to be around other entrepreneurs, which is good for networking.”

Pulane Shomang, also from South African Women in Television Arts, agrees: “A coworking space provides you with all the things you need so that you can focus on what you do best.

“When you sign up to a coworking space you get a receptionist, a good address, cleaning services and more. Having these tasks taken off your to-do list frees up the mental space that you need to ensure that you can put all your effort into running your business,” she concludes.