It was 11 years ago when Ketshabile took a bold decision left his paying job, sold his car and cleaned his savings to start a business Braintec Cleaning Services. Kebatshabile said he was mostly inspired by government’s decision to promote local entrepreneurship and support local businesses. “I saw a window of opportunity, as government was promoting local entrepreneurship through various schemes.
I jumped into this as I was at a time in my life where I felt the need for social change, freedom, self-development and independence,” he said. The conception of this establishment is 100% self-funded. According to Ketshabile, he wanted to build his business without backing from investors as bootstrapping can be advantageous for founders that are looking to retain more control of their company. “I would have retained equity in the business without saddling it with ongoing debt payments during its early stages,” he said.
He said his first client was a family friend who later referred their friends and colleagues to his business after being satisfied with the cleaning service. Since then, they never looked as the company expanded to servicing businesses along with its existing clientele. To date, the company has clients in the hospitality and health sector, where they provide institutional contract cleaning, laundry services and grounds maintenance.
They also have corporate and individual (home residents) clients who source cleaning detergents and supplies from his business as well as other cleaning services. Besides offering cleaning services and hygiene supplies to various clients across different sectors, they also manufacture cleaning products and distribute premium cleaning chemicals ranging from kitchen, housekeeping, personal hygiene and laundry products. Ketshabile said the road had not been easy as they face stiff competition from well-established brands that dominate the retail market.
“Our mastered one-stop-shop advantage for all cleaning needs makes customer satisfaction our prime mandate. We continue to build and grow our brand aggressively through various marketing tools, like the use of social media, newspapers and radio adverts,” he said.
Touching on their prospects, Ketshabile envisions Braintec being a recognized as the leading and most trusted hygiene supplies and cleaning services provider who consistently caters for customers’ personalized needs. “We plan on building brand awareness, efficiency, increase client satisfaction, employee growth and community engagement to fulfil our objective. Having seen the swift expansion of our business in the past few years, there is absolutely no reason to doubt the possibility of our goal becoming true,” he said.
