BY: LERATO MOTEANE
To get where he is today was not an easy journey, however, he was determined to make a success of it and took the decision to be his own boss.
A young and dedicated entrepreneur from Buhle Park in Germiston, Thamsanqa Mathenjwa, has ventured into woodwork and found his passion within that field after working several jobs. His business began in October 2019 when he wanted to do his own thing of designing and constructing unique TV stands.
Working for a carpentry company enabled him to realise his passion, and later went on to pursue his dream of starting his own business. Thamsanqa says that “I was raising funds for my own thing and I then came to a conclusion of resigning from the company I was working for. I had no clue of what to do until I went on the internet and started looking for various designs of “working with wood”; I wanted something different from others so I got to a point of designing TV stands.”
Through doing his research, he came across a few designs online and went on to ask from those who had been doing the job for years. His inspiration also came from his late friend who kept on pushing him to do more and show his capabilities to the world. Thamsanqa designs and makes his TV stands, and he works from his garage at home. Currently, he works with two people who are his younger brother and a friend, but mentions that he hopes to employ more people as the work piles up at times. His style is what makes his business different from others and he added that “I strive for perfection in every design I set my mind on and I bring in something unique.”
Being new in the business, Thamsanqa has encountered some challenges like any other business. “At some point they stole our equipment but we managed to buy new ones and since then we have tightened the security. Another challenge that we face is when a customer request his/her own specific design we struggle a bit to form it but as usual we overcome that because we strive to win,” he said.
The business is doing well thus far as they are getting orders from people as far as Pretoria. “In a month we are able to make at least about 15 TV stands when it’s busy but when it’s slow we make roughly about 8,” Thamsanqa said. One of the things that he likes about his business is that it empowers people and shows them that anything is possible through hard work and dedication.
His future plans include marketing his business to high profile companies. “I’d like to see my work go further to all furniture shops and getting homes comfortable on the choices they have made of selecting my TV stands; even though the competition is high but we shall prevail, he concludes.