The first female entrepreneur is Sarah Jane, who
created the brand ESJAY SPORTSWEAR. She
is a 26 year old go-getter from Durban who loves the ocean and being active. Her hobbies include playing hockey, surfing,
running, drawing, and photography. Sarah
completed a 4 year Honours degree in graphic design from Stellenbosch
University, and used this skill, and love of sports and all things creative as
the momentum for establishing her own sportswear brand. One day she would love to take it further and
open her own health shop, too.
Sarah says that not much has changed from when she was
a young girl, as she still spends much of her day in shorts and takkies. She believes that if you look and feel good
in yourself, you are able to train better.
In her words, “you need to be confident and comfortable to get your best
results”, which is exactly what ESJAY aims to do. In providing comfortable, and stylish workout
gear it also provides you with the ultimate workout experience.
Sarah is grateful for her support system that helped
in getting her small business off the ground.
She has had family and friends (her day 1 Esjay babe Kelly Evans
deserves a shout out) supporting her from the start who helped in kick-starting
it, as well as helping Sarah to make adjustments in the ranges in order to reach
a stage in the brand where she is proud of the product and the response. She is grateful for the support from them
all, and that they wear the brand with such pride (and keep coming back for more)!
Sarah has also used her products and her platform to
create awareness for causes that are close to her heart. Her
latest endeavour is what caught my interest, as she has created
her newest set of sportswear based on the designs of a 14 year old boy, named
Luca, who is battling leukaemia. Luca
drew the pictures of the sunflowers, and Sarah worked with Sarch Designs in
order to turn them into this beautiful print.
Accompanied with this range is the plea for people to register as blood
stem cell donors, as Luca is still desperately looking for a match. Her hope is that after a run or yoga session,
when someone compliments the sportswear, the person wearing it can tell them a
bit about Luca and about becoming a blood stem cell donor. She hopes that by using his design, this can
create more awareness for Luca and help in some small way. Sarah is definitely using her brand and
platform for good, and hopes that you can become conscious of this and consider
becoming a donor too.
Find her on Instagram @esjay_sports if you would like to find out more.
Our second entrepreneur is Amy. She is presently a candidate architect, and
plans to be a professional architect after passing her board exam at the end of
the year. Amy lives with her husband,
Louwrens, and their spaniel, Mia, in Queenstown where they both work at the
same architecture firm. Their undertaking,
Honey & I, became an extension
of their shared interests and hobbies; as well as Amy’s environmental awareness
about the plight of bees in the ecosystem.
As an advocate of environmentally friendly living, Amy
decided to improve her understanding of the bee habitat by taking part in a bee
keeping course. Louwrens encouraged Amy
to pursue her interests and the two of them attended a two-day course,
conducted by John Moodie, at Honeywood Farm in July last year. After this, her curiosities grew deeper into
the intricate life of bees, which quickly turned into a new hobby. They are both now registered with the
Department of Agriculture as beekeepers, with their own practising numbers. They have since removed 12 hives from
buildings, and are happy with the new law stating that bees have to be removed
and not exterminated, which means that people are realising the importance of
bees in our eco-system.
They have started a small apiary at the family farm in
Sterkstroom, and presently have 7 hives with the hope of more. Their greatest reward, amongst the
difficulties of beekeeping, was producing their first batch of honey towards
the end of last year. They decided to
give a taste of this to the community, and the brand Honey & I was formed!
Not without its difficulties, a process of trial and error, and a
kitchen full of bees; Amy has turned this into an opportunity for
entrepreneurship, as well as environmental awareness and social change.
The name is a clever play on words of a couple working
in the honey industry, and their aims are to have the brand create awareness of
the declining bee population. While
Louwrens focuses more on the removal of bee hives, Amy creates the
products. The brand is environmentally
friendly as it encourages recycling. The
products are sold in glass jars, and if customers return these they receive a
discount on their next purchase. Many
consumers are starting to take advantage of this scheme. Amy has always been an activist against
animal testing, and makes sure to use only natural ingredients in her products
after researching their benefits in order to enhance the items that she
makes. She is also trying to create
social awareness in the community by involving a man in Sterkstroom that makes
baskets for a living. Amy is presently
building a relationship with him and buying baskets in order to make hampers for
her products, and to showcase his crafts to a new market. She hopes that her business can grow more so
that she can become involved with more people like this man, who have amazing
talents that can be taken to greater heights.
Amy is also supplying a local nursery called Kwa Majuba, with raw,
unprocessed honey; which is healthier and retains many of the good enzymes which
are often lost in the heating process of commercial honey.
Her products include:
·
Honey
·
Honey Butter
·
Body Butter
·
Body Scrub
·
Lip Balm
·
Beeswax Polish
As the Honey
& I team are young designers, they have created pamphlets that are
attached to the products which enlighten the customers about bee facts,
products, and information on how to make a difference from your own back
yard. Amy is so passionate about her endeavour and says that her passion and knowledge keeps growing. She hopes that her story can inspire
awareness of our bees and the vital role that they play in the natural
environment.
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