Nonkululeko Mdlalose is 23-years old now, and she started her business 3 years ago, in December 2018. She is the owner of Skip It Laundry, a washing service that was formally registered in April 2019. When Nonkululeko started the business, her objective was to get at least a small amount of income. At that time, the unemployment rate was high, and she didn’t want to be part of the statistics. Hence, she started offering washing services at her place. She lacked business management skills, as well as professional equipment. The business started operating with a domestic washing machine and a domestic ironing.

Later, she visited the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) in Secunda to get business advisory. Short after, she enrolled in the SYB training, which was an important step for her business development. Now, Skip It Laundry has reached a more mature business stage. The company offers a wide range of services, including washing, drying, folding, ironing, leather cleaning, among others. The business has grown and increased its clientele. The training assisted Nonkululeko in aspects such as dealing with staff, financial planning, and management. She became better in managing finances, which had a positive impact in her company’s growth, and she learnt the importance of building networks. In addition, the training sessions helped her building self-confidence as a young businesswoman. Thanks to it, she became better in pitching her business project and she won an important amount of funding from the NYDA. This capital gave her the possibility of acquiring industrial equipment, which now allows Skip It Laundry to serve 5 companies per day. Currently, the company has 3 permanent employees (including her) and one temporary.