Lethabo Maphopha is the young and motivated entrepreneur behind BroughtCargo, an e-commerce startup that helps spaza shops and street vendors to gain access to bulk suppliers and allows them to share the cost of shipping. Although only launching in late 2022, Lethabo already employs 5 people.
His hard work and relentless effort reflects in the fact that BroughCargo won the Nedbank Green Superheroes competition, earned for advising spaza shops owners on how to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from their packaging and in the dumping of materials. He also won the entrepreneurship internal rounds this year in the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) competition. All whilst being a fourth year medical student at Wits.
Lethabo wants his story to motivate the youth to dream big, and he is keen to share his advice and lessons learned on solving problems, having a growth mindset, and being customer-centric:
Q. Tell us a bit more about what motivated you start your business, and the challenges of first starting up?
My late father was a spaza shop owner, and he was always struggling to access bulk products. So I formed BroughtCargo to help other spaza shops that face those same issues.
I used money that I get from some of my university funding to pay the people who are working with me. This was my primary funding for the business and it was quite challenging.
Another challenge was finding business mentors who aligned with my vision for the business, but luckily I ended up finding a few.
I really did not know a lot about running a business, and started reading business books. This has helped tremendously to improve the business and my knowledge.
Q. How did you land your first client?
I started reaching out to spaza shop owners last December to tell them about the benefits of using BroughtCargo. Many of them were inspired by the value it would provide them, and I ended up attracting my first client in the Tafelkop community in Limpopo, which is where I come from.
Q. How do you set yourself apart from competitors?
I have a growth mindset. I am always looking to improve my business knowledge, and am quick to admit when I need extra know-how to solve a problem. I use validated learning and customer feedback to continuously improve.
I also use different strategic pricing for our products and this attracts customers. And I love collaboration.
Q. Without customers, you don’t have a business. What are your top customer service tips?
My advice to businesses is to be obsessed about their customers to create a good customer experience. So many times entrepreneurs just focus on their competitors, and not on the customers. Being customer-centric will help you attract clients.
I use social media and television shows such as Daily Thetha and SABC news to market myself. I also advise entrepreneurs to make good use of data analytics to improve their relationship with their customers.
Q. What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership for me means to be able to connect with people and inspire them to take action. It is not about controlling people, but rather being able to lead them on the correct path that leads to good results.
Q. What does having an ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ mean to you?
For me it’s about being able to convert ideas into reality – giving your idea a pulse. It’s also about taking steps that can improve people’s lives.
Q. Currently, what is your favourite aspect of being a business owner, and on the flipside, what is hard right now?
My favourite aspect of being a business owner is that I get to learn more about customer psychology, which I find very interesting.
What I find hard right now is having to upload products on our platform everyday. It is very time consuming and tiring, but I will soon be hiring someone to assist me with that.
Loadshedding is also making this a challenging time. My business serves the spaza shops that are mostly affected by loadshedding, which in turn affects how they buy at my e-commerce site. They are part of my value chain – when they get affected by loadshedding, my business which supplies them is affected as well.
Q. How do you stay motivated?
I rely on intrinsic motivation. There is something within me that keeps telling me to just keep going forward.
Q. Growth plans for the future?
I want to expand BroughtCargo beyond South Africa, and also supply funding for the spaza shops that need it.
Q. What are your top 3 pieces of advice for fellow business owners?
- Always seek knowledge to improve yourself and your business.
- Do not think small. You can start small, but have a bigger vision that carries you.
- Work on your communication skills as the business owner, it helps you to build a good team and also attract customers through value communication.
