Brand goddess Mbali Bhengu stops at nothing to grow her businesses. She now plans to extend her award-winning MindSwitch to national heights.
The creative brand consultancy opened its doors in 2016, while Bhengu, 35, was still working in corporate. At its infancy, the business bagged a deal from Durban Tourism.
“After my first university talk, which was at the Durban University of Technology, my former lecturer asked me to come back to coach more on youth empowerment in entrepreneurship.
“The students liked this. I do the talks at local universities, also partnering with various higher education institutions and corporates. I make sure I am always inspired so that I can inspire others.”
Creative brand development agency MindSwitch, which was founded in Durban where she lives, is focused on spreading its wings to more provinces. It has already acquired a corporate partnership with a Pretoria-based business.
Bhengu also runs a lockdown-inspired business called Zizwe Hygiene, which started operation in 2020 when the country went into Level 5 lockdown. It was after she left her former employer, and used her pension money to build a company that feeds 15 families.
This was motivated by the sudden need for hygiene brought on by Covid-19, granted that everyone needed to sanitise their hands at all times and public and private institutions needed to be kept clean at all times. I had established a cleaning company in 2016 but it failed. But this time around I knew that it would succeed because I had a clearer vision of what to do.
“I went for training on how to use products and learn technical analysis of the environment we would be involved in. I made it a priority to register with the KwaZulu-Natal cleaning council and this has been successful.”
Bhengu was awarded a working deal with a government entity in education, and this motivated her to write Self-ish: Mastering Self in a Selfish Business World.
The book addresses the pitfalls and challenges encountered in starting a new business.
“I am happy I can feed families. Not only that, I also teach members of the community how to start their own businesses. In this way we all grow,” she said.
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