When sneaker and shoe lover Nkosoxolo Ndaba saw that more and more people were rocking dirty kicks, he saw that as an opportunity. The entrepreneur in him saw a gap in the market and decided to tap into the shoe and sneaker washing business. He realised people wearing dirty sneakers was not necessarily a trend but rather a case of people either being too busy or too lazy to wash them, so the 24 year-old started Spotless Kicks Shoe Laundry.
Please share some background on yourself and how the business was started?
I am a postgraduate student at Nelson Mandela University. I was born and bred in Mthatha. Our business was started in 2018. We were five friends in university and we did not have money, so we decided to try this business and share our profits, [but] we had challenges and decided to go our separate ways. I then decided to venture into the business with my brother, we rebranded and renamed the business and that is how Spotless Kicks Shoe Laundry was born. My brother operates in the Bloemfontein area and I am based here in Gqeberha.
What is your core service?
We provide a shoe and sneaker laundry service, we clean, polish and repair old sneakers and shoes.
What makes your business unique?
What’s unique about our business is the exceptional customer service we have — we consistently over- deliver on our promises. We ensure that our customers are more than satisfied so that they can always trust us with their shoes and sneakers.
If someone wanted to copy your business model, how would they start?
Being passionate about what you do is important. Do market research and find out if there is a need for the service where you are.
What are some of the biggest inhibitors your business faced before getting off the ground?
People invest a lot in shoes so it was really hard for them to trust us with their shoes and sneakers.
Do you have any tips for budding entrepreneurs or new business owners?
Planning is very important — don’t be scared to take risks and strive to build a strong team.
What is the best advice anyone gave you on success?
Run your own race.
How do you measure or define success in your business?
Success for my business means having happy customers who will refer us to new customers. People don’t just trust anyone with their kicks so with good referrals the business succeeds.
What are some of the best practices that have made your business successful?
We consistently provide the best services and we ask our clients for feedback so that we can improve.
What kind of advertising do you do?
We use Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp to advertise. We will soon be going out to the streets of Gqeberha handing out flyers as we try to reach a bigger audience.
What is your company’s vision?
Our vision is to consistently provide the best services in shoe laundry.
What is your target market?
With our extremely affordable prices, we’re targeting everyone who owns a pair of shoes, be it students, working people or pensioners. If you have dirty shoes and sneakers, we are your guys.
What have some of your highlights been in running your business?
One of our highlights was receiving a call from Lonwabo Tsotsobe, former South African cricketer, requesting us to clean his kicks. We spent the whole day at his house and we were able to speak to him and get to know him better.
How important is social media and an online presence for your business?
Social media can influence buying decisions, it gives the potential customer an opportunity to engage with your brand directly online. Social media is one of the powerful tools in running a business these days and if your business is not online, there are high chances that it can fail.
How many people do you employ?
Currently we have two employees and myself, so we are a team of three.
Do you have any plans for expanding the business, and how would you go about this?
Yes, we do have plans of expanding but we don’t want to rush into that. We first want to win about 70% the market here in Gqeberha, then after that we’ll look into opening more branches in other towns and cities.
How did you acquire funding for the business?
The business is self-funded, which is not easy. I have been knocking on a lot of doors for funding but I have not been successful yet.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from your business journey so far?
Take care of your customers. Make sure that your customers are always happy with your service, because happy customers can help you reach an audience that you did not expect to reach. We believe very much in word-of-mouth referrals.
What have been the greatest challenges and advantages of running your business in a city like Gqeberha?
I currently run the business from my res room because I was scammed in trying to get a container to operate from, which I wanted to be more visible in the community I am in. Getting a place to operate from has been very challenging because we lost a lot of money when I was scammed.
An advantage has been because Gqeberha is a small city, getting word out there is not as difficult as in bigger cities.
What do you say are the three key traits of a successful entrepreneur?
You must have discipline. Have a vision of what you want to see the business growing into and be innovative.
What do you say are the key traits of a successful employer?
Be a leader to those who report to you. Communication and honesty with your employees will take you very far.
What do you wish people knew about your industry?
Being trusted in our line of work is very important.
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