01 May 2017

Some markets are hard to penetrate, but with a distinctive concept some creative entrepreneurs can have a leap forward to do business with avid buyers.

One such entrepreneur is 30-year-old Tebatso Tshilo who discovered a lucrative niche in selling carefully-packaged premium biltong to long distance commuters who mostly travel along Trans-Kalahari Highway.

While many young people are still competing for the limited employment opportunities around, Tebatso did not want to add numbers to unemployed youth but decided to follow a different business path.

“I accumulated more than 36 points in BGCSE, which could have taken me to varsity but the fact that unemployed graduates are roaming the streets absolutely stub out my desire of going to tertiary in favour of venturing in this exciting business,” he said in an interview .

Radigwapa, as the young merchant is commonly known to his customers, has settled well in his vocation and speaks about it with passion.

 “My initial concept was to identify feasible market in supermarkets and lodges. Then I happen to come across overwhelming biltong craving from the commuters during the course of my first delivery trip to one of my customers, that was when I discovered that I can make a kill out of that business opportunity,” he said .

He then began to buy fresh meat from butcheries then carefully seasoned it with different flavours and let it dry to perfection before finally cutting it into smaller pieces and packaging it.
 He subsequently got the support from Seabelo Express management who allowed him to sell his spicy dried meat to their customers during the commuter trips.

As the saying goes; ‘an early bird catches the fattest worm,’ so does Radigwapa, who starts his day as early as 5am with the necessary preparations such as packaging his biltong and later catching a 9am Seabelo bus from Motokwe to Kang.

On these routine trips he often exchanged buses on the way to sell more biltong to commuters travelling to different locations at the price of P10 per packet.

Looking at the prospects of his enterprise in 2011, he began to invest more energy and time by selling carefully selected varieties by introducing a hint of Chilli flavours, toothpick and a sweet.

Tebatso makes more than P8 000 monthly but he is not only into profit making, as he understands the concept of healthy eating; as such he has decided to only purchase meat originally from inspected slaughter facilities.

The business has enabled him to buy three cars; two of which are operating as taxis. ENDS