The process, my process

by Vuyokazi Giyama (South Africa)

A leap into the unknown South Africa

About 8 years ago I was seeking more from life. I didn't want to get to my fifties and still work hard as my mother. I had a vision to make decorated coffins put some fashion in the industry. For years the was a battle in my mind. Beauty, clothing or manufacturing coffins. The idea took me to a training facility where I was taught to make a coffin and while I was employed full-time I was still planning my business success. I then met a "business mentor/ funder" in June 2017. I was so excited to meet him and join his business network that was giving funding and other opportunities to start-up and helping with business development. I was attending Saturday session which where focused on mind set. I was blown away by the program I mean taking plus 200 people to Cape town giving us 5 star treatment and various hotels and venues around Johannesburg Sandton. I believed this was a real deal. So come end of 2017 I resigned from my bank position to persue this new entrepreneurial journey. Open committing full time to the project I was promised a director position in the engineering field as it has few women representative. I was partnered up with a young company struggling to get deals due to the government's requirements to do business with Braod Based black empowerment deal structure. The company was excited to have a passionate female who wants to contribute towards their growth by introducing their company to new business opportunities and growing their sales. While we were supposedly being helped into business we were getting 1 percent share while the mentor took up to 51 percent. It didn't bother me as I would still benefit in the future by acquiring more shares in my own capacity. The purchase of share deal didn't go through in the event I got to learn that my so called mentor was a scammer scamming companies to give him their company shares on 0 rand. Imwan