Article provided by ProfitShare Partners
ProfitShare Partners has helped more SMEs to do more business this month. Shining the spotlight on Kelecorp (Pty) Ltd and Ndiene Supplies (Pty) Ltd, the FinTech business highlights how access to R100 million in capital has helped grow small businesses.
Now in the second month of its Get South Africa Working SME Growth initiative, ProfitShare Partners is proud to announce that more SME businesses have successfully secured their share of R100 million in capital to do more business. Josias Kele, Operations Director at KeleCorp, shared his story with Hot 91.9FM’s Bunny Majaja recently on how the business pivoted to stay in business during the pandemic.
“We’re in the construction sector doing building work. But the Lockdown, especially level 4 and 5, affected us negatively and prevented us from doing work. To keep us going and to be sustainable, we ended up venturing into supplying industrial equipment and PPE to our clients,” said Kele.
With their share of R100 million in capital received, KeleCorp was able to honour their order and deliver to their client without the hassle of collateral requirements and delays that can be expected from the traditional route. The capital put them in a better position to secure future projects with their client.
“From here, the money that we were able to make with the transaction has eased our cash flow and will allow us to focus on our core business of building work for our clients,” added Kele.
For Ndiene Supplies that provides IT hardware equipment, owner and director Vuledzani Monyai was unsuccessful in her first attempt to get access to the capital. After trying again, and with the helpful business support that she received from the team at ProfitShare Partners, she was successful and delivered her order professionally and on time.
“I am still new to the tendering business. I almost lost hope because the tenders are available for everyone but finance is very hard to attain. ProfitShare Partners declined my first application but when I tried again, my application was accepted and they were able to help me. Since then, I’m more confident to seek opportunities of any amount because I know that ProfitShare Partners will back me up financially. I’m so thankful to them,” said Monyai.
As part of its value proposition to clients, CEO and founder of ProfitShare Partners, Andrew Maren recently shared some progress on the campaign and a few useful tips for small businesses to successfully participate in the SME growth initiative.
“It’s been a great month. There’s been a great uptake and lots of creativity and great ideas coming through too. South Africans are just resilient. We’re seeing a lot more people applying and we’re on the brink of helping SMEs do R12 million worth of business. We’ve facilitated just under R12 Million for six SMEs since our last announcement,” said Maren.
There have been a few small businesses that have not yet been successful the first time around. For every deal ProfitShare Partners approves, there have been two to three that were not successful. The main reason for this is that although there has been great creativity, ideas and concepts, many small businesses have not yet accessed a market or sold their offer or service to a client.
“What we need is for SMEs to come to us and say: yes, I have this great business and here’s a large corporate that is willing to buy my service. This is one way that we can put up the capital on the back of an order. A second key point is that SMEs need to look at their pricing for their product or service. Pricing too low for the service does not take into consideration any challenges that may arise, such as delays in delivery or late payments from clients. It is important for SMEs to cover their costs and build in some fat on the transaction, else their margins are too thin,” added Maren.
“As part of our Get SA Working SME growth initiative, we’re proud that we could partner with these SMEs so that they could deliver and secure more business! We wish them every success for the future,” Maren concluded.
Watch the full interview with Andrew Maren and Josias Kele and Hot 91.9FM’s Bunny Majaja here.
ProfitShare Partners s a proud Partner of the NSBC.