Johannesburg, South Africa – November 2020) Ending off its 12th successive year, the NSBC in association with World Famous Events has announced at a virtual gala event South Africa’s Top 20 Finalists, Special Award Winners and the Main Category Award Winners for the 2020 South African Small Business Awards. These prestigious awards have gathered a diverse range of entries all with one thing in common – a driving entrepreneurial force.
“We are astounded at the diversity of entrants again this year, but equally encouraged as it shows the depth and breadth of South Africa’s entrepreneurial spirit. Growing small and medium businesses is vital to the local economy and its ever-growing rate of unemployment. This type of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit will undoubtedly cultivate a much healthier business landscape for all involved,” says Mike Anderson, Founder and CEO of the NSBC.
The 2020 South African Small Business Awards are sponsored by Discovery, Vodacom, Absa, Netstar and MTN.
“We are humbled by the support of such esteemed industry leaders. Without their commitment to building tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, these businesses would have less opportunities to thrive and flourish,” says Anderson.
The 2020 Top 20 Finalists are:
(in alphabetical order)
ACDC Express Rustenburg – Thabo Kgowana
Bridgement – Daniel Goldberg
Bumba Technos – Bongani Mkhwebane
Digemy – Kobus Louw
Elenjical Solutions – Tinu Elenjical
Global Unique Fabric – Shakeel Karjieker
Honeycomb BEE Ratings – Deirdre Mitchell
Ikusasa Technology Solutions – Thusile Dlamini
Imagin Eight – Adam Rabinowitz
Kopano Creative Concepts – Melita Mohlala
Medinox – Mike Labuschagne
Mintor – Leanne Viviers
NK Innovations – Mo Malele
Pro Talent – Cindy Norcott
TASK Interior Styling – Malehu Langa
The Tax Shop Hartbeespoort – Kimberly Ebersohn
Tigerfish Software – Gary Goldie
The Zinto Marketing Group – Michelle Combrinck
Vision Tactical – Yaseen Theba
Xero – Colin Timmis
The Top 20 all receive a Top 20 Winner Award and were all automatic finalists for the Main Category and Special Awards. Anderson says “the categories are selected with strategic intent, paying homage to sectors within the business landscape that potentially present greater stumbling blocks to success.”
The 2020 Special Award Winners are:
National Innovation Award Winner:
Medinox – Mike Labuschagne
National Funding Award Winner:
Bridgement – Daniel Goldberg
National Retail Award Winner:
ACDC Express Rustenburg – Thabo Kgowana
National Franchisee Award Winner:
The Tax Shop Hartbeespoort – Kimberly Ebersohn
National Creative Award Winner:
TASK Interior Styling – Malehu Langa
National Fintech Award Winner:
Elenjical Solutions – Tinu Elenjical
National Youth Development Award Winner:
Mintor – Leanne Viviers
The 2020 Main Category Award Winners are:
National Small Business Champion:
Xero – Colin Timmis
National Entrepreneur Champion:
Global Unique Fabric – Shakeel Karjieker
National Woman in Business Champion:
Kopano Creative Concepts – Melita Mohlala
National Start-Up Champion:
Tigerfish Software – Gary Goldie
“Each entrant has in some way made a difference to someone’s life, either through employing them or by offering services to them. At the heart of this great nation is its people and I am proud to be associated with all these worthy winners,” says Anderson.
He says that the NSBC and World Famous Events would not only like to congratulate the Top 20 Winners, the Special Award Winners and the Main Category Awards Winners, but also thank them for their relentless commitment to building a better tomorrow.
Click here for the media pack.
Meet the Top 20 of the South African Small Business Awards
ACDC Express Rustenburg
ACDC Express Rustenburg is an electrical retail franchise specialising in everything electrical. Their core focus is to provide customers with quality solutions when it comes to anything to do with electricity. From 2018 to 2020 they have experienced exponential growth by doubling their revenue year on year.
During 2020, ACDC Express Rustenburg have embarked on community service projects by supplying COVID PPE to identified communities and primary healthcare mobile clinics without PPE.
Bridgement
Bridgement is a group of data scientists and engineers with a single goal – to use technology and data science to bring a new approach to traditional business funding and to minimise the complexity and costs associated with it. One of Bridgement’s proudest achievements to date is getting funding to a first-time client’s account within 90 minutes of them landing on Bridgement’s website.
Bridgement is the only SME funder in South Africa with integration into all three of the major accounting packages (Xero, Sage, and Quickbooks). In addition, they have consistently achieved a 5-star ratings on South Africa’s Xero marketplace app and Google reviews.
Bumba Technos
Bumba Technos is an ICT company which specialises in helping small to large businesses use information technology solutions to meet their business requirements or needs. Their solutions lead to increased productivity and overall business performance for their valued clients
Since Bumba Technos’ inception, they have grown by no less than 37% each year and they pride themselves on recruiting young talent and growing their skills in-house.
Digemy
Kobus Louw is the founder of Digemy. This business was born out of his passion, purpose and conviction to change education in Africa. It is done in a way that can scalable give every student or scholar in Africa the opportunity to grow in academic excellence, entrepreneurship, personal development, financial literacy and memory, reading, and focus mastery.
By pivoting their business from B2B to B2C, Digemy also gained the attention of international investors and turned around a potentially terrible 2020 into a successful 2020.
Elenjical Solutions
Elenjical Solutions is a business that delivers technology and software to the African investment banking, asset management and insurance markets. They focus on hiring the cream of the crop locally and believe in continuously training their employees to keep them at the top of their game.
Elenjical Solutions are the only African partner of the world’s leading risk and trading software, Murex, and they have developed their own bespoke software for the African treasury and asset management market.
Global Unique Fabric
Global Unique Fabric is a strong upcoming fabric, haberdashery and wool retailer. They focus on interior décor, knitting and crochet, and dress fabric. They believe in impact over profit and have a community called Crafting Heroes who create much-needed goods through knitting and sewing for different charities every month.
Global Unique Fabric’s company’s leader, Shakeel Karjiekerr, started a free online platform called Aspiring Startups, in which he mentors other entrepreneurs regarding finance, the day-to-day running of a business, and guiding these entrepreneurs through the common mistakes businesses make in the first 2 years.
Honeycomb BEE ratings
Honeycomb BEE Ratings is an nationally-based, independent SANAS-accredited verification agency that conducts professional and impartial verifications of all enterprises countrywide. They assist previously disadvantaged South African women with financial help for their studies through Honeycomb trust.
Honeycomb is proud to be one of the first companies to become SANAS-accredited in 2007. An accreditation that has remained in place ensuring their clients receive unsurpassed service.
IKUSASA technology solutions
IKUSASA technology solutions focus on closing the gap of ICT illiteracy and need within South Africa and the continent of Africa as a whole. They steer curious individuals towards being visionaries that can bring about digital change in Africa.
IKUSASA technology solutions has had the privilege of catering for clients in their Corporate Social Investment (CSI) endeavours by teaching personnel about IT-centric topics and curriculums.
Imagin8
Imagin8 is one of 6 TransUnion Gold Partners and distributes data than can enhance businesses. They provide essential services to small businesses to help improve their cash flow and give the business owner more time at the helm to manage their business.
Imagin8 continually invests in systems and processes to improve value for the customer and in so doing, improve their process efficiency. They have done this for their own business and can do this for other businesses too.
Medinox
Medinox is a distributor of medical and personal care supplies to pharmacies, medical professionals and medical institutions with health at the centre of their credo. They care about people, and enriching their customers’ journey with their innovative and affordable products.
Part of their success is Medinox’s own brand, mx. Custom sourcing, packaging and marketing products is a key point of differentiation relative to other players in the surgical supplies space.
Mintor
Mintor is a social enterprise that aims to impact the lives of millions of unemployed youth globally. Through their first-of-its-kind chat-based youth development and employment platform, they enable development organisations to upskill millions of youth for work, to access career opportunities, and businesses to find the right entry-level talent.
Over the last 3 years, Mintor has supported 45,000 youth via three million messages and built an exceptional customer base with companies like BMW, Microsoft, Takealot, Old Mutual, Momentum, Pick ‘n Pay, Vodacom, and Foschini Group.
Kopano Creative Concepts
Kopano Creative Concepts is a construction company run by Melita Mohlala. She attributes her success in construction by being hands-on in her business, taking accountability for her actions, and being firm and bold.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kopano Creative Concepts launched Molobane Farms which initially was started to feed the employees of the business but has become a successful farming operation.
www.kopanocreativeconcepts.co.za
NK Innovations
NK Innovations is a creative, dynamic and innovative marketing agency that delivers problem-solving solutions and always exceeds expectation. They are a young but experienced team of highly ambitious marketing professionals.
NK Innovations looks to make a social impact and works a lot with township businesses, young entrepreneurs, and female-owned businesses.
Pro Talent
Pro Talent is a specialist recruitment company owned by Cindy Norcott. Her philosophy for her work has been hard work, ethical behaviour, compassion, integrity and abundance.
Pro Talent navigated through the COVID-19 lockdown by adding value to their clients by connecting with them and ask them how they could help.
TASK Interior Styling
TASK Interior Styling is a turn-key interior design business that not only offers interior styling but also does space planning, 3D modelling, architectural consultation, technical layouts, project management and implementation.
Malehu Anna Langa from TASK Interior Styling stands out because instead of considering others to be competition she rather views them as collaborators and uses the opportunity to uplift and work together.
The Tax Shop Hartbeespoort
The Tax Shop Hartebeespoort takes care of all your accounting needs. They ensure that you are always one step ahead and going in the right direction. They collaborate with clients to provide customized advisory, accounting, tax, payroll and other business services.
The Tax Shop Hartbeespoort is considered a mature franchise as they have been in operation for longer than five years. This is because of the service excellence that they give to clients and the professional manner in which they handle a diverse range of business skills.
The Zinto Marketing and Brand Activation Group (Pty) Ltd
The Zinto Marketing and Brand Activation Group (Pty) Ltd are mandated by their clients is to bring their clients’ brands to life in the hearts and minds of all consumers at various touchpoints throughout South Africa and Africa using various platforms to do this.
Zinto have created a textbook about brand activation from their 20-years of experience and they have various centres which teach their course. They hope to start online training soon.
Tigerfish Software
Tigerfish software is a software development company and they build applications for companies (from small to enterprise) whether they are standalone systems, web or mobile apps.
Starting a business during lockdown may sound ludicrous but that is what Tigerfish software did and they have managed by the end of September 2020 to create their first million rand turnover.
Vision Tactical
Vision Tactical is one of Yaseen Theba’s key focus areas and the company strives to deliver proactive and progressive security services to the communities it serves.
Yaseen’s expansive vision is to achieve large scale, systemic and sustainable social change, one venture at a time. He is a true social entrepreneur with an ardent interest in the wellbeing of humanity.
Xero
Xero is an easy-to-use cloud-based accounting software platform for small and medium-sized businesses and their advisors. At the heart of Xero’s innovation is its goal to reduce the burden of time-consuming tasks for accountants and business owners.
Xero has created two educational outlets for people who want to know more about accounting. They are the Business Continuity Hub, a collection of free training videos and resources for small business, and they have also developed Xerox Learn with the University of Johannesburg.
Proudly brought to you by the NSBC