The hustle to be the best you can be never stops – and for Standard Bank’s My Fearless Next winner, Girlz Ink founder Nonhlanhla Mthethwa of Pietermaritzburg, the dream is edging closer to becoming reality.

This initiative was launched in June 2018 to help South Africa’s budding entrepreneurs turn their side projects into their main hustles. The prize for the winner of My Fearless Next is funding equivalent to as much as one year’s salary, so he or she can run a start-up full-time.

For Mthethwa, who beat out five competing finalists, the opportunity could turn Girlz Ink and the black dolls it makes into the next big thing.

Cleo Zwane, senior marketing manager for business banking at Standard Bank, says many young entrepreneurs work eight-hour-a-day (or even longer) corporate jobs and run small businesses after hours and on weekends. This because they still rely on their monthly salaries.

“What My Fearless Next hopes to do is remove the risk and fear of being without a salary and provide a platform for young entrepreneurs to take their next step,” says Zwane.

“I wanted to improve the range of black dolls available in South Africa,” says Mthethwa.

“My Fearless Next has provided me with a key to open the door to Girlz Ink a bit wider. I am going forward knowing that, even if I won the grand prize of a R1-million salary for a year, I am wiser and better equipped.”

South Africans have always had a strong entrepreneurial streak: 73% believe that it is a good career choice, and roughly half think they’ve got what it takes to start a business. Yet only 9.2% actually do it, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2015 report.

As shown by an online survey conducted by Moneyweb in 2017, many of these side hustles are successful. It found that a third of working individuals earned more than R5,000 a month in additional income from their side businesses.

Congratulations to the winner!

For more information visit the website.

This article was paid for by Standard Bank.