Serial entrepreneur and single mom has her finger in many pies
Johannesburg – Fifi Ndaba is a woman who grabs every opportunity she can get her hands on. The single mom is a serial entrepreneur who has recently opened a pie wholesale business.
Her business, Fifi & Son Pies, is located at the Ten Flags theme park in Rustenburg and has proven to be a hit with visitors to the park.
“When I opened over the weekend it was a very good day and we managed to sell out all our inventory,” said Ndaba.
News of the opening of her business has taken social media by storm and proven to be quite inspirational. Social media users have lauded Ndaba for taking on her entrepreneurial venture, with some offering advice and urging her to expand the business.
One user, Magome Tladi, said: “Great work @Fifindaba. Keep grinding, have multiple stores and venture into franchising your start-up.”
Great work @Fifindaba . Keep grinding, have multiple stores and venture into franchising your start up.
— Magome Tladi (@MagomeTladi) February 5, 2023
Ndaba does hope to grow her business and take it to different parts of the country. Her store in Ten Flags operates on weekends only which limits the earning potential of the business.
“I have been receiving so many calls from people trying to buy my business. I do want it to be a franchise eventually and I'm planning to open in Mabopane because I realised that I have huge support there; I think people thought the business was located in Mabopane.”
“There’s an opportunity there because my prices are very low so they can afford my products in the townships. There is a new mall opening in Ga-Rankuwa so I am also planning to go there,” she said.
Ndaba’s pie business is not her first foray into entrepreneurship. An accountant by profession she also started her own accounting firm, Fifi Ndaba, in 2015. The firm provides accounting services to a Ten Flags theme park and the South African Traditional Music Awards (Satmas), among other clients.
Ndaba’s primary motivation for going into business was not purely to make a profit – she was more interested in the freedom it afforded her. As a single mom, she wanted to be able to spend time with her child and a regular job would not give her the flexibility to do so.
“The reason I started my business was that I wanted freedom. I wanted to be flexible. I do appreciate the experience I garnered working a corporate job – it is crucial, you need the exposure.”
“I make time for my son because I have so much freedom. So I’m able to move my meetings so that I make time for him. I delegate duties because I can't do everything by myself, so I can have time for myself,” she said.
While it would be easy for Ndaba to rest on her laurels and enjoy the fruits of her hard work, she has chosen to pay it forward by adding another feather to her cap, that of being a social entrepreneur.
The NGO she founded is her way of giving back.
“I started a foundation named after my son, The Enzo Foundation, where we help the less privileged, and I use the profits from my business to run the foundation,” she said.
vusi.adonis@inl.co.za
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