Koola

🌟 Business of the Week: Palesa's Beauty Studio 🌸

This week, we're shining a spotlight on a true gem in Emndeni, Soweto—Palesa's Beauty Studio! 💅💇‍♀️ If you're on the lookout for a spot that'll leave you feeling absolutely fabulous, this is it!

Palesa's Beauty Studio is a vibrant, must-visit spot, impossible to miss with its eye-catching bright pink exterior.

Meet Palesa, an incredible entrepreneur who started her journey at just 16. From working at a single chair, she's built a business employing eight amazing women. Her dedication and passion have transformed her studio into a haven for expert nail services and hairstyling.

What's new, you ask? Palesa's Beauty Studio has recently undergone a stunning renovation! The new interior is a testament to Palesa's vision and dedication to providing a beautiful space for her clients.

Check out her website for more info: https://palesabeautystudio.business.site

So, if you're in Emndeni or planning a visit to Soweto, make sure to stop by Palesa's Beauty Studio. Treat yourself to a pampering session and experience the magic firsthand! 🌺💄✨

Combo sale Alert 🚨🚨🚨🚨

TarVenom Bhut Vipper Mthwasa
NickYzee Queen Yamakhulu
Cardie'cee Bhut'Ogrand
ShappaCee_RSA

Applications are open for the FNB Youth Start-up Accelerator Programme with Fetola!

Are you an unemployed youth, a graduate, a matriculant or an aspiring entrepreneur? Want to turn your business idea into a feasible business? ​

Apply now and make your mark in Mzansi: https://lnkd.in/dqaiEr4V

Closing date is on Friday the 2nd of June 2023 at Midday (12 noon)

Koola is here to help, so please reach out where you can!

eKasi Entrepreneurs thanks for the plug!

Are you looking for a support in growing your township based business? 🔥

Applications for the Entrepreneurship and empowerment in South Africa (EESA) program are open! 😎

If selected, a small team of students from across the world, in partnership with the University of the Western Cape (UWC) will work with you over a six-week period to assist in growing your business 📈

Koola has funded great businesses who have been through this program and we urge businesses who are serious about growing to apply!

Drop us a DM for more information and we'll help you with all the next steps. Please share far and wide ✊

Bringing in the New Year with some new businesses and Khayelitsha Business Forum! 🥳

Yesterday we met with business owners from across Khayelitsha to discuss the challenges in access financing! January is always tricky for businesses who face low-stock levels and little cash flow. 😔

Koola is here to help businesses help themselves! We are excited to work with serious businesses on how they may be able to buy more stock and small assets to grow their business. 😎

Get in touch with Koola on 078 197 7623 for more information!

Our thoughts are with the families in Town Two Khayelitsha during this difficult time! 😥

Many of these families will have spent a lot on new school uniforms and stationary for the school year. Any support may go towards the Gift of the Givers to try and rebuild this community! 🤗

190 people left homeless after Khayelitsha fire Families devastated, with newly-bought school uniforms and stationery burnt in the fire

Great opportunity for developing your entrepreneurial skills! 🔥

Online course!

This course looks at entrepreneurship and gives you the skills to evaluate yourself and your business ideas.

Scan the QR Code or use link to get started: https://bit.ly/3SStC1I.

Got a tender that you need help to buy stock for? 🤷🏻‍♀️

We’ve got you covered! 😎

Funeka reached out to Koola to help her buy stock for a catering contract she had with the army! We know catering jobs can bring a lot of income - but they take capital to buy the stock.

Often business owners are paid a small deposit which is not enough to cover the cost of buying all the ingredients, cooking the food and delivery.

That’s where Koola can help! We can provide a top up to help you cover those costs, then when you get paid you can pay us back.

Simple as that. 🔥

We are walking a journey with our business owners! 👩🏽‍🤝‍👨🏾

Philiswe reached out to Koola for a second round of financing to buy material to make dresses. Before coming back to Koola, Philiswe took orders for her dresses to make sure she had customers to sell to. 👗

To have multiple ways of earning an income, she has a small stand at the Site C taxi rank. Here she sells a mixture of things ranging from sweets and ci******es through to beanies and dresses! 🍬🍫

On top of running her business she is the chairperson of a co-operative for businesses in the Site C taxi rank, an organisation working together to better their businesses. She is also a part of UKITA (United Khayelitsha Informal Traders Alliance).

We asked why Philiswe why she liked working with Koola?

‘I am excited about working with Koola because I want to be able to unlock higher levels of funding for my business’ 📈

We are loving building trust with Philisiwe and enjoying watching her business Koola! 🔥

If you’ve been to Harare Square in Khayelitsha you must have seen Gcogco Clothing Studio's shop! 😍

Business owner Gcogco shared that she recently had to move to a bigger location because she didn’t have enough space for all her employees! Now that’s Koola.

She has opened up a clothing store so she could have beautiful clothes ready to buy straight away! At the back of the shop she has her employees who work to create custom made traditional African clothing for events.👗

Moving and opening her shop cost a lot, so she applied to Koola for some financing to buy beads and material. We went with Gcogco to her quality suppliers and assisted her to purchase the stock she needs.

Check out her shop or her page to order!

We can’t wait to see Gcogco’s Clothing Studio Koola! 🔥

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Noluthando, owner of Kwa-Nobonke Restaurant serves breakfast plates with amazing eggs, sausages and rib burgers! 🥓

Plates are very well priced, next to the Site C taxi rank in Khayelitsha.

It is clear Noluthando is a member of UKITA (United Khayelitsha Informal Traders Association), through their workshops Noluthando has learnt to price her plates competitively and make money! She applied for financing from Koola so she could increase the number of plates she can sell each day. 🍽️

Noluthando wakes up at 2am to get ready for the busy taxi rank rush. We are so lucky to work with committed business owners.

We can’t wait to see Kwa-Nobonke Koola! 🔥

Hot Plates - Samp, Stewed Meat and Rice 🔥

Nomakathini has all the best african meals for sale. With over 20 years of experience serving her customers, Nomakathini knows how to put out plates her customers love.

We went shopping with Nomakathini during the month end promotions. She knew exactly what was on sale and where. This meant she could get the most out of her financing from Koola.

We hope to see Nomakathini Koola even more over the next 20 years!

For Nomthetho it's all about quality, at the best price! 💰

Shisanyama stalls have a lot of competition. Price is an important factor in making sure people buy from you!

We helped Nomthetho out with financing stock and taking her to buy meat, spices and sauces all in one go. 🥩

We can't wait to see Nomthetho Koola! 🔥

Local is lekker, so is Umbacho 🪡🧵

We are enjoying our journey with local designer Andy Buthane. AndyB Couture is a high quality fashion brand, bringing a modern touch to traditional African wear.

During covid-19 Andy opened a second business AndyB Sewing School & Mentoring to assist women in up skilling themselves and earn a living.

Andy got in touch with us to get some financing to buy Umbhaco, a material popularly used for African wear. We wanted to see it for ourselves, so we went with Andy so she could pick out exactly what she wanted!

Thank you for letting us learn with you Andy, we really appreciate you and cannot wait to see you Koola! 🔥

This Thursday we are throwing it back to our first client Amanda! 🍰

Back in February 2022, we received our first batch of loan applications. We met with Amanda from Mel's Cakes, a little bakery in Harare Khayelitsha 🎂

She needed financing to buy baking ingredients in bulk for her products. Going back and forth to the shops to get ingredients meant time away from her business or kids. It also meant more costs for transport!

Thank you for being the first to trust us! DM us if you'd like one of Mel's cakes 🥰

Definitely my favourite startup at the moment! 🥳

Here is a pic of us delivering some stock to our client Lindiwe in Makhaza Khayelitsha. 🥳

Lindiwe runs a Shisanyama business close to the local taxi rank. To grow her business she wanted to make use of her cooler box by selling cold drinks along with her meat.

She applied to Koola for funding, but when we sat down with her she told us buying that many cool drinks is not easy to take on the taxi and every minute away from her business Lindiwe is missing out on potential customers!

To solve this, Lindiwe gave us a shopping list and we delivered to her door! 🚕 This also gave us an opportunity to talk to Lindiwe about how much the product cost, and how much she needs to sell it for to make a profit!

We can't wait to journey with Lindiwe and see her business Koola. 🔥

Here is a pic of us delivering some stock to our client Lindiwe in Makhaza Khayelitsha. 🥳

Lindiwe runs a Shisanyama business close to the local taxi rank. To grow her business she wanted to make use of her cooler box by selling cold drinks along with her meat.

She applied to Koola for funding, but when we sat down with her she told us buying that many cool drinks is not easy to take on the taxi and every minute away from her business Lindiwe is missing out on potential customers!

To solve this, Lindiwe gave us a shopping list and we delivered to her door! 🚕 This also gave us an opportunity to talk to Lindiwe about how much the product cost, and how much she needs to sell it for to make a profit!

We can't wait to journey with Lindiwe and see her business Koola. 🔥

Kasi Business Workshop!

Jabu Stone Hair Care - Jabu decided to turn his back on the growing trend of Western style fashions and culture norms to which African people were losing their identities.

Listen to Jabu's experience - this workshop covers all things marketing with legendary SA Brand, Jabu Stone.

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/xdhA1G4CQJY

HEADLINE SPEAKER🚨

Jabu Stone the Founder of legendary and Iconic Hair Care Brand.

Over two decades ago, Jabu Stone Natural Hair founder Jabu Stone decided to turn his back on the growing trend of Western style fashions and culture norms to which African people were losing their identities. He was concerned with the extent to which African people, both male and female, denied the beauty of their own natural hair texture by flattening it with damaging relaxers, perms and similar produces.

As a young man who’d just completed studies in engineering and business, Jabu was looking for a way to leave his mark on the world. While visiting his sister’s salon, he noticed many of the woman burning their scalps and skin in order to achieve a westernized look. This hurt Jabu and he vowed to himself that his people should not have to suffer in order to look good.

He decided to look into natural African hair styles. His research into dreadlocks revealed that the style was not a Rastafarian by-product. Rather it was a style as old as the people of Africa. He realized that African hair wanted to lock naturally, but westernized society had created a community that could no longer accept this style.

Jabu believed that if he could find a more attractive way of creating the style, he could get people to embrace it. Jabu developed his product and tried to sell it to salons, but they weren’t interested in a style that did not exist and that took time and talent to achieve.

Undeterred, he approached Gery Rantseli-Elsdon (a television presenter, host, MC and businesswoman), Zenani Mandela (Nelson Mandela’s daughter),

Lawrence Dube (Talkshow host), Sipho ‘Hot Stix’ Mabusa (one of the country’s best-loved and most respected musicians) and Yvonne Chaka Chaka (South African Singer Superstar). He asked them if they would allow him to style their hair in locks. They were eager, and being celebrities, the talk of this ‘new style’ started to spread.

Full bio: www.jabu-stone.com

Want to improve your businesses performance? 📈

We are posting a series of activities you should be regularly doing in your day-to-day business.

Our third checklist focuses on customer feedback! For each point think if you have implemented this business activity in the last 1 month. 🎯

"At least one time in the past month, I have..."

Want to improve your businesses performance? 📈

We are posting a series of activities you should be regularly doing in your day-to-day business. 🧾💰

Our second checklist focuses on boosting sales! For each point think if you have implemented this business activity in the last 1 month. 🤔

"At least one time in the past month, I have..."

Want to improve your businesses performance? 📈

We are going to take you through a series of activities you should be regularly doing in your day-to-day business! 🤓

The first in our series of checks, focuses on improving your product or service. For each point think if you have implemented this business activity in the last 1 month. 🤔

"At least one time in the past month, I have..."

How much does it cost you to run your business? 💰

It is important to know are you actually making money? Do you have more money at the end of the month?

To answer these you need to know what are your costs! Some tips on knowing your costs:

✏️ Write down everything you spend money on!
(rent, paying people, ingredients, stock, electricity, marketing!)

📓 Add up everything you have written down at the end of the week or month to get a total amount! This is the total cost!

🧾 Write down all the money you earn from your business (people paying for a service or buying one of your products). This is your sales amount.

📊 Is your sales amount bigger than your total costs? If yes, you're making a profit! If not you might be making a loss!

Let's dream big!! 🤩

Working out where you want to go can help you to understand how to get there. Be as detailed as possible when writing down where you want to go! ✏️

Do you want a bigger stall that holds more types of products? Is there a specific brand you would like to sell? Would you like to sell more items together?! 🥑 🍎 🍕

Drawing a picture is a great way to think about what you want!

How do your customers hear about you? 👂🏽

Marketing is so important for making sure people know what your business is all about. It can be expensive, so we've listed a few different types of marketing to help you out! 🔊

Our thoughts go out to all those affected by the floods in Cape Town. 🥲

We recognise that it is not easy building up your business when you have to face these challenges! 🙏🏽❤️

A list of organisations assisting the city with donations can be found here: https://www.capetownmagazine.com/.../do-your.../10_22_11347

Cape Town Flooding | Flood Donations Cape Town City's Disaster Risk Management Centre Calls for donations

Are you facing a lot of competition? 😣

An important part of staying ahead of your competitors is ensuring your business has a competitive advantage.

Let us know how you've been competitive! 💪🏽

World Environment Day! 🌱

We want to extend a BIG thank you to all waste pickers! You play such an important role in keeping our communities clean and our planet healthy. 🌎

Asking yourself, how can I make more sales? 🤔

Do you track your sales? ✏️

Sales form the lifeblood of any business. If you don’t have customers buying from you, unfortunately your business will not survive. Check out some of our tips for creating and tracking your sales below! 👇🏽

Koola has been learning from businesses in eKasi, as well as successful entrepreneurs. 🤓

Check out these tips below to see what we’ve learned and how it applies to you! 💭