You don’t need millions in investment (or even thousands) to get a successful business off the ground. With passion, perseverance and a product or service that customers will pay for, you can start a successful business on a shoestring budget.
From USN starting in a small flat in Pretoria with a hand-cranked washing machine to mix product, to UCOOK launching in a garage and sharing floor space with a Chrysler, there are many ways — and many businesses — that you can launch from your home. You just need to get a little creative.
THE GIGPRENEUR
LAUREN GOUWS Copywriter and founder of LKM Creative
Despite her best efforts, Lauren Gouws (neé Meikle) was a terrible employee. The commute from Pretoria to Joburg every day was depressing, she didn’t like the fact that whether her workload was high or low she earned the same salary, and she was realising that the inflexibility of an eight to five job didn’t suit her.
So, she did what many budding entrepreneurs have done. One evening, she got home and Googled ‘How to make money online’ — and discovered the world of the gig economy. “I couldn’t quit my job because I had bills to pay and needed an income, but I also knew I wanted to be my own boss,” says Lauren. “You need to be careful, there are a lot of traps, scams and get-rich-quick schemes online. I just wanted to have control over my earning potential. I came across an article that listed ten gig economy websites. Basically, if you have a skill that you can offer digitally, you can sign up to these websites and offer that service — it’s MacDonald’s for services, you place your order and get it within a day or two.”
Lauren is a copywriter, but gig economy sites cater for web developers, consultants, coders, designers, writers and more. “Fiverr is the website I’ve found success on. Within a few hours work started coming in.”
Lauren began her Fiverr journey in September 2015 while she was still working full time. “I couldn’t quit immediately, it was too big a risk, so I spent my evenings on my Fiverr orders and worked during the day. For three months I was sleeping two to three hours a night. I needed to match my salary before I could quit — that was the deal I made with myself.”
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