Being innovative in challenging times

Bongiwe Althea Moroke officially started Phekhu Business Solutions in June 2016 together with her business partner Pheko Moroke. They offer a broad range of services including reselling and implementing the Ubuntu School Communicator platform, the PBS Policy Admin System used by funeral policy providers as well as taking on custom software and web design projects.

But the idea behind the business began many years before as the team began seriously research the market back in 2012. Through this research, they interacted with a number of small business owners and discovered the types of services and products they would need to grow their businesses.

We sat down with Bongiwe to learn more about their business.

What is the vision for your business?
We see our business continue to attract and retain more customers as decision makers within organisations become aware of our services and the benefits we offer. We are passionate about supplying our services to small and medium companies to help equip them with necessary tools to grow their business.
What do you do on a daily basis?
I cold call potential clients to sell our product and arrange to meetings should they show interest.
How has COVID-19 shaped your business?
Our business works very well with face-to-face interaction. Explaining the whole product over the phone is not ideal and our target market being township business owners did not help. You are not able to set up a Zoom meeting with a township business owner! That meant we could not make any sales.
How did you adapt to these challenges?
We implemented a product trial option for our potential customers who were not able to meet up with us but were interested with our product and we are definitely keeping that option for our clients.
Anything else you would like to share?
The one thing that I have realized is that when there is a lot of uncertainty everyone is hesitant to make long term decisions with their money. Even if that decision would set them up for the good of their business.