First Business South Africa (FBSA)

First Business South Africa (FBSA) is a social, micro-enterprise development organisation that conceptualises, develops and implements sustainable turnkey business solutions to impoverished communities in the spirit of social, economic, and human development with the intent to create a commercially viable value chain of consumer products and services.

FBSA assists local micro-enterprises by creating a comprehensive value chain of small business services right through to creating consumer confidence and to attract the loyal spending of disposable income with our locally owned businesses. This is achieved by providing our micro-entrepreneurs with turnkey infrastructural resources, business process management and business mentorship to further capacitate and enhance consumer satisfaction of products and services offered by our entrepreneurs.

The organisation works closely with economic development departments in both the City of Cape Town and provincial government in the Western Cape by providing sustainable turnkey business solutions to aspiring entrepreneurs.  Micro-enterprise development is the next generation business model designed to eradicate poverty by compensating for the huge loss of employment opportunities over the last 20 years in the mainstream business sector.

Using various technologies, including wired, wireless and cellular technologies, FBSA assists local business owners to embrace technology as a key business driver in their quest to establish consumer loyalty in their communities.

FBSA and a variety of partners, including contributions from SAFIPA, have collaborated to pilot the first  locally owned micro-enterprise business training incubator in South Africa using highly innovative technology solutions to bridge the current disparity in access to resources by the emerging micro-
enterprise industry.

i-SPAZA, South Africa’s first holistic mainstream business incubator

FBSA expresses its business methodologies in the form of social micro-enterprises trading as retail related businesses as a business incubator under the brand of i-SPAZA ®.

The business incubator is a live retail trading centre, trading in a variety of business types aligned with consumer product sales, consumer services, and community social services creating the ideal environment for hands-on instruction and mentorship.

The centre which sports 17 new franchise-type turnkey businesses, trading in consumer goods and services, provides sustainable and cash-generating opportunities in the community and at the same time a live business training environment. The centre can facilitate the training of up to 40 trainees at a time, passing on essential business and employment skills which are portable.

Trainees can choose from a variety of courses, including, among others, warehousing, distribution, retail sales, consumer networks, manufacturing, ICT, marketing, advertising and PR, bookkeeping and administration services.

In retail sales the centre will facilitate mentorship programmes in the successful business management of a variety of retail business types including general groceries, fruit and vegetables, dairy, health and beauty products, baby products, hair salon, internet café, fast foods and meat products.

Training courses include short courses from one to three weeks rolling up into a complete new-venture creation curriculum of three years. These include customer care, business management (full spectrum), business operations and industry-specific training with regard to cold chain management, stock management, logistics management and manufacturing. The renowned Northlink College assisted FBSA to identify and select the first 55 new business owners from an initial 300 applicants.

For more information contact Tim White at  info@firstbiz.org

Visit the FBSA website.