Being an admitted advocate didn’t stop Ntika Maake from spending 18 months in the driver’s seat of his fledging company’s bakkie delivering toilet paper products to stores.
Maake is proof that you shouldn’t underestimate a South African’s entrepreneurial spirit, and he was not going to let a factor like not being able to afford a driver stop his Mothersoft tissue paper company from growing.
He left his legal practice to finish his doctorate in law, but that plan was put on ice in June 2022 after he spotted a gap in the market to invest in a business that would give him a return on investment while helping him achieve his dream of creating employment for others.
“My philosophy is that when you do business, you should sell something that is needed every week or every day. Mothersoft’s slogan is ‘Who doesn’t need a tissue paper daily’”, Maake said. He took a leap of faith, rented premises in Midrand, bought a machine to produce tissue paper and hired three staff members. “We produced on a low scale for the first seven months, without having any contracts. I started knocking on retailers’ doors and was rejected but I did not lose hope.”
His patience was rewarded when he was stocked at his local Pick n Pay in Midrand, and the franchisee allowed him to supply their five stores around Gauteng. “Today we supply our ISO 9001 certified one-ply packs to 96 Pick n Pay stores in Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo, Northwest, and Free State. Not only has Pick n Pay increased our volumes by 150%, but we have also expanded our staff complement to four, with four part-time workers.”
Maake’s entire family is involved, imparting a sense of entrepreneurship in his children. “It is important that children be exposed to business activities at an early age so that they know where money comes from.” He relies on his wife Refiloe’s financial acumen, as an MBL graduate, to assist with the company books.
“Having Pick n Pay as a customer has helped us to get access to government funding so we can expand into mini tissue paper, serviettes and facial tissues – I want to buy more machines and open a branch in Limpopo so we can reduce logistics costs.”
Maake’s dream of creating employment has come true in more than one way. “Six students from Ekurhuleni East TVET joined Mothersoft last month to complete their internships in retail and marketing. They will be placed in the Pick n Pay stores which I supply to get work experience. This is part of my plan to help young people who have completed N5 and N6 who critically need the corporate world exposure and enable them to complete their studies.” The businessman believes that “a position of influence is meaningless if you cannot change at least one person’s life for the better”.
He hopes to be able to appoint an operations manager for Mothersoft which will allow him to return to his doctorate and law practice. “I did not realise my side-line business would blow up the way it has.”
Not only will Maake’s legal counterparts be glad to see his return, but his back will also be relieved of the pain from doing physical factory work.
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