“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 2019 NSBC Gala breakfast was sponsored by Discovery, Absa, Oracle and Google.
“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.
Top 20 winners
The Top 20 winners of the 2019 South African Small Business Awards are:
The 2019 ‘Top 20’ all received a ‘Top 20’ Winner Award, and were all automatic finalists for the champion 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.
Special Award winners
Winners of the Special Awards are:
The 2019 Top Franchisee Award went to Wayne Pilley from ACDC Express Alberton. Pilley believes that micro-enterprises have the ability to positively impact the economy in South Africa and ACDC Express Alberton is his way of contributing not only to this but also to the growth of the electrical retail space.
ACDC Express Alberton aims to set a benchmark for quality service and products in the industry as well as to create more opportunities for the job market. The rapid growth of the store as well as the opening of the first ACDC Express store in Umhlanga, Durban has been their greatest successes as well as being recognised as a leading competitor in the field. Even through the current economic crisis, they have been able to successfully overcome this challenge and even beat turnover records within the ACDC group.
The 2019 SME Solution Award went to Colin Timmis from Xero South Africa (Pty) Ltd. This award was accepted by Bronwen Dowman on Timmis’s behalf. Small business makes the world go round – it’s the heart of the global economy. Xero wants millions of small businesses to thrive through better tools, information and connections. Like all great challenges, they can’t do it by themselves: they work closely with their customers, partners, and other friends to push innovation forward, turning Xero into the online business platform for the world.
The 2019 Top Skills Development Award went to Daniel Gibhard from The Skills Development Corporation. This award was accepted by Gareth Bird on Gibhard’s behalf.
They are an accredited learning institution specialising in training and learnership initiatives focused on the B-BBEE codes of good practice. The Skills Development Corporation (SDC) renders excellent and affordable need-specific training to all companies. They have established themselves as a market leader, changing the lives of an additional 1000 learners in the past year, to reach a total of around 3000 active learners. They believe that there is strength in education and they are looking forward to the positive impact that their learners will make in South Africa’s economy.
The 2019 Top IT Award went to Gerrit Olivier from About IT. This award was accepted by Jillian Erasmus on Olivier’s behalf. AboutIT provides agile business solutions for cloud ERP, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and data analytics for small to medium enterprises. Olivier, CEO of AboutIT, is not your average CA. He has a passion for the technological advancement of African businesses - providing one world-class solution at a time.
Champion Awards
The winners for the Champion awards are:
The 2019 National Small Business Champion went to Andrew Maren from ProfitShare Partners. Maren is democratising access to finance for SMEs. He has proved with his disruptive fintech funding business that they can include unbankable SMEs in the economy with limited funding risks.
The 2019 National Entrepreneur Champion went to Virosh Singh from Construction For Africa. Singh’s dream and vision was to make Construction for Africa a stable and ongoing business, but the greatest challenge he had was creating the infrastructure and getting the business to grow without any cash flow, working capital or clients. These challenges were overcome in due time by creating a demand for their services, being better than their opposition, being disciplined in managing, and most importantly, employing great employees to take charge of things.
The 2019 National Woman in Business Champion went to Dimakatso Ramahlodi from Maledifresh. They specialise in organic grown fresh produce. Their biggest challenge was promoting healthy eating in their community and outsourcing a variety of organic products. Through their persistence, they successfully partnered with two organic farmers who exclusively farm for Maledifresh, hence they are one of the biggest distributosr of organic fresh produce in Johannesburg.
The 2019 National Young Entrepreneur Champion went to Tony McPherson from McPherson Trading. It is an agency specialising in branding and marketing campaigns as well as public relations for high net worth individuals. McPherson is a dynamic, youth entrepreneur who has built a multimillion-rand company, at the age of 19, having launched in 2015 during his Grade 9 year.
“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 very worthy winners,” says Anderson.
He says that the NSBC would not only like to congratulate the ‘Top 20’ Winners, Special Award Winners and Champion Awards Winners, but also thank them for their relentless commitment to building a better tomorrow.
