Antonio Mhlongo: A Taking Care of Business Success Story | Repair Programme (Johannesburg)
I come from a family of 10 which is 7 brothers and sisters. I grew up in the dust streets of Ivory Park from a disadvantaged family. My mother used to be the bread winner and had to look after the whole family, then when she passed away it was worse. We used to eat one meal a day which was also something because some other days we would go to bed for days without eating. Me and my brothers and sisters, we started a business of selling sweets at school in primary which was also doing good to give us our daily bread. Sometimes we would face challenges, our teachers taking our stock saying we were distracting other kids, then our business would go down and we all would be back at square 1, sleeping with empty stomachs.
Life was not easier before I came to TCB. I come from owning a business but it was closed due to other factors. I used sell anything that on demand at the time. I finished my matric and went to school for short courses. I once owned a big car wash with an ideal of turning it into a buy n braai place but I lost it due to poor management and other factors.
When I joined TCB I thought things will be easier because the guy who told me about it didn’t tell me the full story. He told me I can get things for cheap. Then I thought to myself I’ll make lots of money here and started having ideas on how to sell them. My idea was just to come buy in bulk. When I started I realised it was so much more, there was training and classes to attend and I learnt how to repair items and manage a business properly.
For me business was always within the family so I’ve always been a good business man. So, mentoring helped me a lot with skills for managing my money and learning how to run a business on a daily basis
We get good prices for these items so it’s easy to sell to the community even though they are always challenging, we compete with someone selling new items from the box and with a warranty on it and options of refunds, so we try to be as low as we can especially with lots of disadvantaged people around and lots of unemployment. People can’t afford expensive items.
My life has changed so much with lots of improvement. Now I can afford lots of stuff financially but I know TCB still has a lot to teach me. Our lives have changed in good and bad ways. To start with good, I have learned a lot about business and life skills they have built me to be where I am today, businesswise and as a parent.
The bad is that they build us up here but with lots of competition out there, we still see prices increase, while our competition are doing specials, so how do we keep up with that with our products being second hand. There are lots of rules that I need to learn to follow and we work hard daily. We attend classes, shop, volunteer and repair items and still need to make time to sell and be with family and friends. So, we need to also learn how to manage our time.
I sell online due to time and its convenient for me. I close late and also deliver straight to your door. Always focusing on getting at least 1 item sold a day and on building stock for month-end. I also learnt to sell for cash only and no credit during month-end.
I’ve always being a street wise person so I’ve been working hard on my plan for when I graduate from TCB. I’m getting ready to go out there and do more. Being self-employed is not a joke. It needs discipline, time, focus, dedication and commitment.
