𝗪𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐭’ 𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐟𝐚𝐳𝐢, 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐭’ 𝐢𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐤𝐨𝐝𝐨’ - (𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧, 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤)
The phrase above, famously used in South Africa to celebrate and honour women, came to life on Wednesday (March 15) – in the back of the International Women’s Month – as beauty and grooming brand Sorbet and Bidvest Bank announced the winners of the inaugural Sorbet–Preneur competition.
Boasting a combined experience of 32 years at Sorbet, the four newly announced winners (namely Sharon Dikgale, Zimkita Yeki, Palesa Kouakou and Sibongile Dlamini) are on their way to owning their own Sorbet Salon or Nailbar. Consequently, they will receive 50% of the investment required to set up their businesses in the form of unencumbered cash from Bidvest Bank.
Who is eligible? The competition is developed for Sorbet Citizens, as the workers employed across the Sorbet Group franchise-owned stores are called, who aspire to become franchise owners but are not in a position to raise the funding. In this regard, Sorbet will waive the initial franchise fee, meaning that this portion of the funding can be used to set up and equip the store.
Bidvest Bank will also provide a business loan to cover the balance of the funding needed to get started, which will also cater for initial operating costs. The amounts will be repayable over a five-year period aligned to the franchise agreement.
Sorbet-Preneur; inspiring sustainable businesses that give back to communities
Adressing the guests, Linda Sinclair, CEO of the Sorbet Group said: “It’s an absolute honour to be here, at the most inspiring and emotional event. I just looked at our franchise partners, and the tears in their eyes drove me too to tears.”
Sinclair added: “We’ve been on an incredible journey over the last 18 months, but in particular over the last five months. The Sorbet-Preneur initiative was really about creating entrepreneurship for these women who are so inspired to be their own business owners, and Sorbet is about just doing that; touching lives and we’re going to be changing four incredible women’s lives, so that they can give back to their communities every single day.”
For Hannah Sadiki, Bidvest Bank CEO, entrepreneurship is essential to building a prosperous future in South Africa “and it is very important that finance providers are able to respond to this need” – by enabling access to finance. Explaining the importance of Bidvest role in the initiative, Sadiki says: “For us it’s about empowering young people to own their own businesses, that’s the first thing. Secondly, if you think of the most successful developing countries, it’s because of SMEs. Secondly, we wanted to create a space for SMEs to employ people; companies can only employ so many people, which is why need a lot of SMEs to create a higher number of employment.
“Thirdly, we wanted to support female entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses. We don’t just want to throw them with money, with (non-effective) mentorship and they don’t become successful. And this is why we partnered with African Pursuit, and employed a proper, tried and tested model that has been successful like that of Sorbet.”
