Starting a business often begins with identifying a need and finding a way to address it. But turning that initial idea into a sustainable enterprise requires a different set of skills, decisions and responsibilities.
When I started Little Mermaids Swim School in 2012, I wanted to address a need for swimming lessons. I did not anticipate that it would grow to serve hundreds of children, employ a team and develop partnerships to extend access to swimming education.
More than a decade later, the experience has changed how I understand entrepreneurship. Passion may provide the motivation to start a business, but building one that can withstand setbacks, adapt to changing circumstances and create opportunities for others requires much more.
The challenge of building a sustainable business
South Africa has no shortage of people willing to start businesses. The greater challenge is keeping those businesses going long enough to become established.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data for 2025 found that 15% of adults were starting or running a new business, while only 4% owned an established business. The difference highlights the gap between getting an enterprise off the ground and building one that can survive over time.
My own experience has shown me that having a strong purpose does not automatically provide the skills needed to manage cash flow, pay salaries, maintain facilities and make sound business decisions.
I had to learn to think beyond the swimming lessons and take responsibility for the enterprise behind them. This prompted me to invest in my business education, completing the Stellenbosch Business School Small Business Academy programme, a postgraduate diploma in business management and administration, and later an MBA.
The value of that education was in applying what I learned to the challenges I was already facing. Sometimes it helped me understand problems I had struggled to solve; at other times, it challenged decisions and approaches I had previously taken for granted.
Running a business requires a willingness to keep learning, particularly when circumstances change and familiar approaches no longer work.
Resilience is tested by circumstances
For a swimming school, some of the most difficult challenges have been those affecting the basic conditions needed to operate.
Covid-19 interrupted lessons, the drought put pressure on water availability and load-shedding disrupted the heating of facilities where warm water is essential, particularly for young children.
These were not simply operational inconveniences. They threatened our ability to deliver a service that families depended on.
Resilience is often discussed as a matter of attitude, but in business it requires practical decisions. It means confronting problems, identifying what remains possible and finding ways forward without knowing exactly how things will turn out.
These experiences also made me reconsider how the business could operate more reliably and what changes would be needed to reduce its vulnerability to external disruptions.
Growth means recognising new opportunities
As the business developed, my understanding of its potential also changed.
We began working with early childhood development (ECD) centres to introduce swimming at an earlier age. We also partnered with a safe house supporting vulnerable children and scholarship programmes that help children from disadvantaged communities attend more affluent schools.
These experiences shifted my thinking beyond the number of children attending lessons. They raised a broader question: which children have the opportunity to learn this life-saving skill in the first place?
The World Health Organization's 2024 Global Status Report on Drowning highlights the importance of accessible approaches to water-safety education.
In South Africa, where access to swimming education remains unequal, learning to swim is about more than participating in an extracurricular activity. It is an important life skill with potentially life-saving consequences.
A small business cannot address this challenge alone, but it can identify practical ways to contribute through its existing expertise, resources and partnerships.
For me, this has become an increasingly important part of the business's purpose. The original idea was to teach children to swim. The opportunity that emerged was to help extend access to children who might otherwise be excluded.
Purpose must be supported by financial sustainability
Having a worthwhile purpose is not enough to keep a business operating. Good intentions do not pay employees, maintain equipment or cover operating costs.
Financial sustainability allows a business to retain employees, maintain its facilities and continue serving its customers. It also creates the capacity to pursue opportunities that may have a wider social benefit.
GEM's latest research found that more than half of South African entrepreneurs had taken steps to maximise social impact or minimise environmental impact.
This suggests that many business owners are considering their contribution beyond financial returns. I believe these objectives can reinforce each other.
A financially sound business has greater scope to create opportunities, support employees and contribute to its community. Equally, understanding the needs of that community can help a business identify where its skills and resources can make a meaningful difference.
Neither outcome happens automatically. Both require deliberate decisions about how a business operates, where it invests and what it wants to achieve.
Trust is built through everyday decisions
Another important lesson from running a business that works with children is the responsibility that comes with earning the trust of parents.
Parents are not simply paying for swimming lessons. They are entrusting a business with their children.
That responsibility is reflected in everyday interactions, from how instructors work with nervous toddlers to the care taken to help children develop confidence in the water.
A business's reputation is shaped by these experiences over time. Trust is earned through consistency, reliability and delivering on commitments. It cannot be taken for granted.
Entrepreneurship is a continuous process
Looking back, I could not have planned every stage of the journey when I started Little Mermaids in 2012.
I began by responding to a need. Running the business taught me how to manage an enterprise, the challenges forced me to reconsider how it operated, and new opportunities expanded my understanding of what it could achieve.
I am still building the business, and my ambitions have grown alongside my experience. There are challenges ahead, but I have a clearer understanding of the responsibilities involved in making an enterprise sustainable.
That, to me, is the work of entrepreneurship. It is not simply about turning an idea into a business. It is about recognising when the business needs to change, developing the discipline to sustain it and remaining open to opportunities that may not have been visible at the beginning.
Starting a business is the first step. Building one is an ongoing process.
