Maxum Business Incubator, at The Innovation Hub, in Pretoria, welcomed new graduates from its business development programme.
Jan-Hendrik Otto, MD of Versec Systems; Mark van Diggelen, CEO of SkillPod Media; and Dawie Janse van Vuuren, founder of Periseo, will benefit from Maxum Business Incubator's mentorship.
Paul Bisogno, Innovation Hub manager for marketing, business development and value-added services, says: “The whole idea of this initiative is collaboration and maximising young start-up companies to make a success [of their businesses].”
Patricia Dlamini, manager of Maxum Business Incubator, says the programme's business specialists aid an entrepreneur from the stage of investigating the feasibility of the idea, to the development of a practical business plan. Entrepreneurs are then provided with office facilities and business opportunity exposure for their start-up companies.
Dlamini notes: “We are not seeing a growth in entrepreneurs coming forward, so Maxum is getting involved in a number of projects; one initiative in particular is aimed at developing women entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are the visionaries and the future of the country - we need to celebrate them.”
Mthunzi Mdwaba, CEO of Torque IT, says new businesses need to be persistent and to overcome each obstacle as it arises. “We have an entrepreneurship problem in this country. Many South Africans look for jobs, but we are not seeing enough of them actually creating jobs. Entrepreneurship needs creativity, innovation, risk and sacrifice. The key point is to propel yourself and to keep going - you need to deal with the challenges as they come.”
Dr Jill Sawyers, manager for entrepreneurship at the Innovation Hub, says: “The mentors involved in assisting the graduates are business advisors, to help strategise and complement the paradigm change. They are instrumental in the role of helping start-up companies learn new business skills.”
She adds: “It has been internationally proven that incubation does not only improve the survival rate of new businesses, at 76%, but fast-tracks their growth. And Maxum Business Incubator is proud to form a community for such new creators of our future.”
After undergoing an evaluation, the Maxum Business Incubator offers new businesses expert advice from business mentors, ICT infrastructure, subsidised leases and data storage facilities. The business concepts have to be associated with ICT, bioscience, electronics or advanced manufacturing and engineering.
Dr Rudi van der Walt, director of Innovation at the University of the North West, concludes: “South Africans are resourceful, resilient and are willing to adapt to the challenge of today. I want to wish the best of luck to the new graduates and may they have great success ahead of them.”
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