Samkelo Mdlalose Co-founder Of ‘Out To Laundry’ Shares How The Unrest And Looting Affected Her Business
Samkelo Mdlalose Co-founder Of ‘Out To Laundry’ Shares How The Unrest And Looting Affected Her Business. The looting and unrest that took place all over South Africa affected many businesses in a negative way. This unrest destroyed businesses and properties, it has been reported that the unrest was caused by the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma.
In an interview with Nedbank, co-founder of Out To Lunch and Out To Laundry Samkelo Mdlalose shared how the unrest and looting affected her business. She said, “We had to close down, I lost out on money, I lost out on profit so it was a tough time for us. We have been able to recover, step by step but we are still pushing. The community has helped as they are people who bring their clothes weekly and monthly so we have been able to push through that.”
Mdlalose also highlighted that her dreams for her businesses are for them to be successful and she hopes to open franchises one day. She also shared that the pandemic also affected her business in a negative way and it was also one of the reasons they had to shut down. Small business owners have had to face the pandemic and the looting in the same time period, most businesses did not survive, and fortunately for Mdlalose she was able to revive her business through the support of her community. Since the pandemic started, entrepreneurs and small business owners have had to rethink how they do business as most of the trading methods needed to change to accommodate the no physical contact rule and social distancing rule, this has forced many companies to embrace the internet and digital way of doing business.
When business owners use the internet for their business transactions they can be able to work on their business remotely and stay safe while making sure that their business does not suffer. Mdlalose has been able to utilise this as she was able to make sure her business doesn’t stay closed forever.
