Nkosi is 33, and married with one child. In October last year, he left a job at Sanlam (a large South African insurance company) to follow a long-held dream of running a business, using his savings to start it. The business sells cleaning products. For now, stock comes weekly from a detergent supplier. His customers include schools and crèches buying on monthly accounts, as well as walk-in customers who are served from a small shop in Langa. As Nkosi grew up in the area, he knows almost everyone there.

Nkosi’s business faces a number of challenges. One is figuring out how to increase his sales. Foot traffic in his part of Langa tends to be lower than in other areas. Nkosi has hired an assistant to run the shop while he does deliveries around Langa. In weeks when sales targets aren’t met, he has to pay his assistant’s R500 weekly wage out of his own pocket. Rent adds another R2,000 a month. Because the products belong to the supplier, Nkosi also can’t put his own brand on them.

Nkosi’s main goal is to make his own cleaning products instead of buying them from a supplier. That would mean more stock, better margins, and his own branded packaging. With a brand of his own, he hopes to open more stores in other parts of Langa where more people pass by.