Pressure washing = water
Power washing = hot water

While the machines are identical a power washer contains a heating element

Pressure Washing

Pressure washing uses standard tap water, it relies entirely on water pressure to strip away dirt.

What to wash / Target Market

Vehicles
In South Africa it is most commonly used by car washes to clean vehicles: cars, bakkies, taxis, trucks. While a car or bakkie can easily be cleaned with a bucket and water, to clean a bus or truck effectively will almost certainly require a pressure washer.

Home
Wall & Surface Cleaning
Garden & Garage
Drain cleaning (drain cleaning hoses are available as an attachment)

Equipment

Pressure washing is the cheapest of the two to get into. Machines broadly fall into three categories: home machines, portable machines & industrial purpose machines. Most machines has a “foam bottle” attachment to dispense soap.

Consumer machines
Consumer machines start at around R1000 but you require both an electrical and a water source. And if you using this you should be sure the client has this available and that you will be using their water and electricity.

Portable machine
A portable machine has both a fuel powered (petrol / diesel) generator and a water tank and can be operated from anywhere. This is the machine of choice of mobile car washes that come to you.

Specialised Industrial machine

Specialised car wash pressure washer. Image credit: Kranzle

There are also purpose-built industrial machines that are marketed for a specific purpose that are freestanding or can be attached to a wall in a fixed car wash or factory.

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Housing businesses I have looked at before
Can Houses Be Cheaply Mass Produced in SA?
Start a Modular / Prefab House Business
Start a Tiny / Small House Business
Start a Tiny House Rental Business
Start a Stumbelbloc / Interlocking Block Building Business

Now this is a subset of the cold formed steel business (rolling, pressing, stamping, bending at near room temperature). However I am not going that far back in the value chain. We will be focusing on pre-engineered framing systems for light steel frame houses, the plans (design services) thereof, plot and plan and selling the complete houses.

Business Models
We will be looking at the following business models:
Designing plans for steel frame houses
Manufacturing: Engineering the steel houses from the frames
Plot and plan: Sell plots with plan (plus if you got approval already)
Selling complete houses
Build and rent out steel frame houses

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What business to start?
There are two things to consider: what business to start and how much you want to make. So you need to ask yourself, “The business I choose, can it make the amount of money I want to make?” Remember there are only so many hours in a workday: for many it is 8 to 10 hours in a workday. So if you want to make R1000 profit a day, you need to ask yourself if you can make, on average, R100-R125 per hour profit. If it’s half that, divide by two; if it’s double or triple that, multiply by two or three, etc.

Let’s assume you want to make double your costs (a metric many small businesses use), so you need to then ask yourself, Can you make (turnover) R200 to R250 an hour using the metrics above?

Now above all else, what separates the dreamers from those making their business a reality is appending the following to the above question: Can I do it with my current resources? You only have as much money as you have—or can get. We all know the bank won’t lend you money unless you have existing income or assets to put up as collateral—any sources outside of this will see you being sent from pillar to post with your dog-eared “business plan,” as there is virtually no state/taxpayer support for small businesses like in other countries. So you must always be realistic.

What business should you start?
As I just stated, your resources should determine a realistic business to start. Resources and skills. Now let’s assume that you do not have any skills, no marketable skills (maybe you have a useless qualification), you do not want to enter the industry you have skills for, and you do not have the resources to enter the industry your skills are applicable to. Then what?

Then the answer is still “it depends”; it depends on what you can learn within the parameters we discussed. But you need to remember that even if you learn a high-value skill like computer programming, you still need to enter the market at the ground floor, both in skills and clientele. A lot of people are saying these days, “sTaRt A sMmA” (social media marketing agency), but really how many companies out there want this? The fact that most people saying this are the ones selling courses to open an SMMA business tells you all you need to know. And if you know online marketing, you could make money for yourself by affiliate marketing in any case. But back to the topic: what can you start with little to no money or skills that can get traction, break even, and be sustainable in the quickest time? The answer will fall into two common schools of thought: obtain something to sell that there is demand for, either because you are the only one selling it or at that price (the cheapest), or sell something people always need. Generally speaking, the latter comes out on top: food.

Why food and related
A food business is one that almost anyone can start with limited capital and skill. But more importantly, it is one that can be sustainable and grow, providing you get the location right. Let’s be real here: most food, especially fast food places, are not excellent; you are paying for the convenience. If you are selling hot chips, chip rolls, or any other combination of related foods. You just have to not fry the potatoes for too short or too long.

But more importantly, the path is clear: you just need to consistently make something, and if you’re in the right location, you can sell it enough times to make your target profit.

But most importantly, a lot of the equipment is widely available for cheap, or you can borrow it for free. Most people starting out want to start a kota stall, or a chiproll/gatsby shop, or a boerewors roll stand—those pieces of equipment are widely available even in some homes. Below we talk about a smoothie business; you can make enough money from a consumer blender to be able to buy an industrial blender. In fact, I have seen my Phillips “Daily Collection” blender used in smoothie shops at markets.

Let me give you an example:

A blender, some ingredients, and cups, and you have a smoothie business (you can use a consumer blender starting out). Get a space at a gym or somewhere, make R10 profit per smoothie (after deducting rent), sell 100 a day, and you have a R1000-a-day profit business.

Get a fryer, buy potatoes, peel and cut them, have some salt, spices, and sauce available, and you’re in the hot chips/slap chips business.

Buy frozen samoosas, spring rolls, and pies; get a fryer and sell it.

Buy big pies by the dozen, get a warmer and a place to stand, and you’re in the pie business.

Get a donut-making machine, premix, and you can make donuts to sell in business parks. You don’t even need to sell glazed cinnamon; it’s fine.

Buy a candy floss, popcorn, and slush machine; get a place to stand by a toy shop, game shop, and play park, and you’re in business. These are low-cost, high-margin items.

Get a waffle machine, make the batter or buy premix, get cheap ice cream, and you’re in the waffle game. The high-volume, low-cost waffle with a dollop of ice cream and some chocolate sauce business is really popular right now. Make a Tik-Tok video to get the word out.

Get an electric pizza oven or a wood-fired pizza oven and sell margaritas and garlic chitas—two for R100 high volume or lower-volume, more premium gourmet options like smoked meat (you can even buy offcuts to put on as toppings).

Muffins and cupcakes are both cheap to make and can be sold at low margins in bulk or at higher margins each.

All of the above businesses can make R1000 a day starting out—even after paying for the floor space, providing you can get the location right.

The right business model

When starting any food business, you’ll need to decide between focusing on low-cost products or premium, differentiated offerings. Porter’s Generic Strategies (1980) emphasize three main approaches: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.

In the context of a donut business:

• Cost Leadership: A simple, low-cost cinnamon donut caters to price-sensitive customers.
• Differentiation: Offering a variety of glazed options (e.g., icing, chocolate) appeals to customers seeking more choices and willing to pay a bit extra.
• Focus: Specializing in fluffier, textured, filled donuts (e.g., custard, Nutella, caramel) or those covered in exotic coatings like Oreo crumbs targets a specific niche market, such as those looking for indulgent or unique flavors.

By understanding your target audience and leveraging one of these strategies, you can build a business model that aligns with your resources and goals. You can also take a combination of the two: low cost and different. If you take, for example, Switch energy drinks in South Africa, they are competing with behemoths like Red Bull (very limited range) and Monster (limited). Not only do they compete in the lower end with the mono-flavored Score and Dragon, but they are throwing every single flavor they can think of against the wall to see what sticks. Some people buy new Switch flavors just to try them, despite most tasting like they put vape flavoring in a SodaStream machine.

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In the case of business, they probably did not even read the listing properly, don’t know what it entails (and what steps to take next), and won’t even be able to answer or articulate a follow up question (to qualify them for the opportunity).

I get it, most of the country is unemployed, desperate, sick and tired of being sick and tired and will latch onto anything in desperation. But this is not the way to go about it, you won’t get anywhere, if you cannot read, understand, apply your mind, research and immerse yourself in a business, you are not going to get any help. There are millions – official numbers are approaching 10 million unemployed and that does not even count the other millions of underemployed looking for opportunity.

If you use this phrase, do not be surprised if people don’t take you seriously because 100% of the time people who use this phrase is not serious. I don’t know why they even bother to reply. But if you think that someone is going to reply and hold your hand through a business you are delusional. You need to rise above the 10 million and put yourself in a position to help yourself and for that you need to learn – on your own – what the business entails and how to apply yourself to take advantage of the opportunity.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

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A broker or agent is essentially a middleman that connects buyers and sellers. Think of it as a salesperson working on commission only. That alone should let you think of ideas: if you can’t find a job maybe work on commission only for companies that don’t want to add more bloat to the payroll. Any company sitting with stock will be open to this with a few caveats (don’t look dodgy leave the Uzzi hoodie, floppy hat and Converse All Stars at home).

In this business there are informal (anyone can sell on commission), semi-formal (loose relationships) and formal relationships (broker has a legal mandate from seller)

Part of Starting a business in 2024 with little to nothing

Let’s look at broker / agent ideas you can start right now.

But first building trust. Most of phsicaly broker/agent trading requires an element of trust, the seller or owner of goods must trust you. Why? Because you are going to be working with them in one or another capacity, you might be taking interested parties to their premises. In other cases they might front your product and give you a  deferred payment option, 30 or 60 day or whenever you get paid. Sometimes they might give you a more flexible credit line to put together multiple deals. But there will be trust involved. Which is why first impressions matters. In a country like SA, where people have been divided by race or where different religions work together, the colour of your skin or religion may advantage or disadvantage you as people are more likely if help their own “kind”. If may not be obvious at first but I can assure you, most people will judge you by your race their first time they see you.

But first broker agent industries
There are industries, in which they model is the predominant model. Yes, some of them take ownership of the goods (pay for it up front). But not all. Let’s look at the most common one: commodity traders: most commodity traders don’t own farms or mines or plantations. They simply connect the buyer and seller. Why money is often required here is what they do in terms of adding value is “derisking”. The seller want to relinquish responsibility the moment it leaves their gate, the seller wants it to magically end up on their shop floor so the broker / agent / trader takes responsibility of the logistics. The seller and buyer don’t want to worry about trucks getting hijacked and other drama so the trader “derisks” the both of them, this you often need some money for.

Common broker businesses in SA
The most common broker / agent business in SA is probably property. Accredit agent finds someone willing to sell a property, put it on Property24, PrivateProperty or both and twiddles their thumbs waiting for interested parties to show the property to. Interested party makes offer, seller accepts signs offer to purchase and if the seller has the money or gets a bond then the matter is send to an attorney/conveyencer. Agent gets their cut (usually around 5%). The thing is you can be a sub-agent. You do not need accreditation. You can work with an accredit agent, sourcing sellers and then split the commission 50/50 the commission is high enough to make even a 2% commission worthwhile (that is R20 000 per R1m).

I have spoken before of vehicles. Trucks for example it is common for multiple agents to be repping the same trucks especially on the coal belt where Eskom contracts flow like gravy.

Specialised niche broking
Other industries in SA where brokering is prevalent is specialised and niche industries. Such as logistics, print and graphics equipment etc.

Starting at the bottom
I will look at the lowest point I started to get the creative juices flowing.  As a teenager I used to sell odds and ends that was left over from the auctions of a well-known auctioneer. Only I did not have the money to take ownership so he allowed me to find buyers and bring people to his premises to buy the items. These were the stuff left over once the auction was over and the main assets, shop fittings and shelving was sold and it wasn’t worth his time. For example he had VHS tapes left over from a video shop liquidation and I advertised in the classifieds (with my markup attached) and the owner of a videoshop came, and I took him to the premises, I gave the auctioneer what he charged me and took my cut.

I had also sold printing machines on behalf of a guy who bought them on auctions, he didn’t like dealing with classified enquiries, so I would handle that, once a serious buyer makes contact I take them to the premises to conclude the sale. In both instances trust was established first.

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Why?
The goal of the subsidised pricing is to make it more affordable to the people where the vending machine is located. This can be as an employment perk, to promote a certain product, to promote a certain lifestyle (healthy foods) or to make it more affordable in certain cases.

The logic as an employment perk is two fold: one as an incentive to work there, two: to make it more likely that staff won’t go out far to drive to buy snacks due to the fact that vending machine goods usually sell at a premium to shop prices (as the vending operator wants a profit and the host location must be paid).

Who picks up the tab
It depends, there are various options. The host can offer the vending machine operator free space in exchange for agreed-upon reduced prices. But there are also companies which subsidises  it in order to push the price further down as a perk for people working there (I know of a place that does this in Century City, Cape Town). In this case the vending operator might agree to sell the goods at cost in the machine, and the company pays the vending machine owner a monthly fee for the vending machine rental and to keep it stocked. This is more prevalent in professional settings, startups than in say factories.

The other option is sponsorship’s, sometimes, subsidies come from companies or institutions (such as employers or schools) that wish to offer affordable options for health or wellness initiatives. But this can even be extended to external sponsors to cover new products entering the market looking for exposure.

Business Model
So there is in essence three ways to make money: increased volume sales due to lower prices, subsidies or sponsorship’s. This business does require a bit more work than a normal vending machine business due to the fact there is more negotiation involved than the usual “we will pay you x amount a month to put your vending machine at your location”.

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In this series:
Start a Broker / Agent Business
Start a Newsletter Business
Start a Lead Generation Business
Become a Temu Affiliate
Start an Affiliate Marketing Business
Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for South Africans

If you reading this in 2004 its likely that most small business ideas covered here are redundant. When we started we could say, this idea will work here and there but the base cost of living (electricity, rent, water, food) has increased to the point of unless you living rent free in an “informal settlement” you are unlikely do grow it to the point of success as most money will be going “to the pot” (cost of living) leaving nothing left to grow a sustainable business. There are also virtually zero places that fund startup small businesses, the taxpayer funded government funds spend most of their budgets on office space and salaries for people who are not writing any cheques.

How can you determine this? Simple: how much do you need to make a day to survive and thrive? Then take the working hours in a day: let’s say 10 for entrepreneurs and divide the amount by the hours. If you said R1000 a day, can you realistically make R100 an hour every hour? For some (the small well-off part of SA) its a laughable amount for most it is a lot of money as we see from those clamouring for R350 a month grants (a smidge over R10 a day). In theory many small businesses can reach R100 an hour including something as simple as a car wash. But how you going to get 10 people a day to your car wash? Washing one or two cars a day? That’s not even minimum wage and you better off working minimum wage at least that is stable income.

If you starting from scratch  or nothing to little or want to earn extra with little to no capital to deploy pay attention.

So if you are starting with nothing or little there is a small chance you will be successful. Even learning a new skill and then still having to market that skill in a competitive market is very difficult and even if you have the money to build infrastructure unless you know what you doing you are unlikely to be successful.

So what is the solution?

Focus on sourcing and selling and developing a system to replicate success.

Focus only on the most important things: sourcing and more importantly selling (and by extension marketing). You don’t need to look at anything in particular I don’t care what it is, its not important. Even just focus on the selling part. Just learn to sell.

How to tell people about product, where to sell it from, where to reach people interested. Sell physical products, sell virtual products, sell products on behalf of others, sell services, sell information. Just focus on sourcing and selling for now.

Then you try to find a formula that works. Where to buy where to sell. Then how to make more money: either get it cheaper, increase price or sell more units.  Are you going to sell a few high value items, or many low value items. These are all part of the formula you need to formulate.

And how do you do that?
You need to develop a structure or a framework that works, then you work on scaling that up. Develop a framework for everything so it can be easily replicated to sell more and more. But in order to do that you need to know more or less either what you want to sell or where you want to sell it. Or more broadly sourcing and selling. And then you see if and how you can pull it off.

Sourcing

When think of sourcing don’t simply think “where can I buy something” unless your business model is buying and selling. If you look at the business models below you will be asking many questions:

* Where can I source this at a good price
* Are there people who will let me sell their products/services/information on their behalf.
Where can I source offcuts, waste products that I can repurpose or resell down the supply chain.

Can you source it locally in your city, provincially in your province, nationally countrywide in other province, continentally in Africa or internationally in other countries.

Selling
Like I said previously just focus on selling. There are a few angles you can take: cheaper than existing, hard to get items (in your area), new markets.

Business Models
Sell physical
Buying & Selling physical goods (taking possession and reselling)
Agent / Brokering (connect buyer and seller)

Sell virtually, sell virtual goods, connect buyers and sellers virtually

Online business models:
Advertising products and services
Affiliate marketing
Lead generation
drop shipping
E-commerce

Sales Channels
Social media
Newsletter
Marketplaces
Own Website

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Let me start off by saying this: that you will be getting many people selling courses on how to be successful using TikTok shop showing you their proof of earnings and lambos they bought from TikTok shop etc. Ignore these people; they, like the forex guys, are making that money from selling courses and not from TikTok shop. And I will also tell you that even if those screenshots of TikTok shops are real, you will have a very hard time mimicking US success in South Africa due to supply and logistics.

The TikTok shop supply chain and where you fit in (very important)
There are two main components on TikTok shop: People and Products

People

People can be current influencers with a following or entrepreneurs wanting to sell a product. Most influencers will not be shop owners, as selling stuff is hard; you have to manage stock, do fulfillment, etc. And most entrepreneurs won’t have a large following as they are busy running a shop.

TikTok Shop has two solutions for this problem. As an entrepreneur, you can “boost” your videos by basically advertising them to more eyeballs, or you can sign up an existing influencer as an affiliate, and they get a cut of every sale. Early research shows that the former is more expensive than the latter.

Promotion
We can divide videos on TikTok into two broad categories: organic and promoted. Existing influencers usually have organic reach from the days before TikTok shop existed. New shop owners are saying that it is very hard to make their videos go viral and sell products for free (organic). So they either have to pay or ride on the coattails of an existing influencer (or operator that knows how to make viral videos better than the shop owner) and share commission.

Products

Products are the items sold on TikTok shop. I will deal with the fulfilment method and the type of product. TikTok shop must be seen as just another Ecommerce sales channel. That means someone actually has to fulfil the order. All the TikTok shop course sellers are hyping drop shipping and external affiliate marketing. Now we know in SA. This is a problem. We do not have any great products for drop shipping or affiliate marketing. Another problem is that due to a lack of post office, we use private couriers, and every package has to incur a shipping cost unless the seller eats the cost.

What products are selling well on TikTok
Lots of stats are coming out with a lot of vanity products
Health and beauty
Supplements
Toys & gadgets
Novelty t-shirts maybe?

We see sellers for
acne removal
vitamin gummies

Then there are the other asinine products like shoes for dogs the dogs probably hate

You need a reliable wholesaler. TikTok is very strict at times you don’t want account banned when you cannot fulfil orders.

Making videos
This is one of the most important factors. You need to create videos that sell. Now alot of these course gurus are telling you that you can create videos using 100% AI, AI voice, AI video. I have seen some of those videos and I aint buying shit from those videos. The making of videos that sell if you don’t have influencers promoting is very important.

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What is a sustainable fashion retailer?
A sustainable fashion retailer (in theory) often targets high-end fashion with the pitch that they will resell their clothing so 1. that it does not end up in landfills and 2. that it does not dilute their brand. This is done with a waste reduction USP.

But where does this angle come from?
Most designer brands would rather burn their clothing than have it end up in a salvage stream. This business cynically exploits both from a retail perspective and from a supplier perspective the negative publicity around fashion waste and positions itself as a sales channel that will not cannibalise new sales from the retail perspective; in fact, the opposite: from the supplier perspective, they get to crow about how they are reducing waste and they getting money no different from what they would from a factory shop or a salvage operation but without the harm to their brand of their product selling for cheap (it’s good for the environment, lads). That is because that is exactly what this business is: a glorified surplus and salvage operation for the fashion industry. The rest is all theatre. But people are lapping it all up, so you might as well stand behind a cash register.

Business Model
This business is no different from the “ewaste” guys that approach businesses looking for free computers they are going to resell or the salvage operator that says their expired foods reduce food waste. It tugs on similar heartstrings to a social enterprise but in the opposite direction: the often demonised fashion house looks good, and the (often left-leaning) millennial buyers who often complain about expensive fashion can now fulfil their capitalistic urges and buy designer fashion for less.

You already know the story, lads: Say after me: REUSE, REDUCE, RECYCLE.
Plaster that all over your website and start pitching to fashion houses how you are reducing waste for surplus, overstock, unsold stock, end of range, end of fashion, and returns. Make a TikTik for the millenials crying about having to work 9–5 and PROFIT.

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Here are some common types of 3D printing businesses:

Prototyping Services: These businesses offer 3D printing services to create prototypes of products for individuals or companies. This can include anything from small-scale models to functional prototypes for testing purposes.

Custom Manufacturing: Some 3D printing businesses focus on producing custom-designed objects for clients, ranging from personalized consumer products to specialized industrial components.

Retail and E-commerce: Companies in this category sell 3D printers, materials, and accessories to individuals and businesses. They may also offer related services such as maintenance, repair, and training.

Design and Consultancy: These businesses provide design services to help clients create or optimize digital models for 3D printing. They may also offer consulting services to advise clients on the best 3D printing technologies and materials for their specific needs.

Education and Training: Some 3D printing businesses focus on providing training workshops, courses, and educational materials to help individuals and organizations learn about 3D printing technology and how to use it effectively.

Medical and Dental Applications: Companies in this niche specialize in using 3D printing technology to produce custom medical devices, implants, prosthetics, and dental products.

Art and Jewelry: This type of business focuses on using 3D printing technology to create unique artistic and jewelry pieces, often catering to niche markets with custom or limited-edition designs.

Architectural and Construction: Some businesses use 3D printing technology to create architectural models, building components, and even entire structures, offering innovative solutions for the construction industry.

Overall, a 3D printing business can encompass a wide range of products and services, catering to various industries and customer needs. The key is to identify a niche market or specialization and provide high-quality, innovative solutions to meet customer demands.

Video
DIY Filament Extruder for 3D printer first test run!

Course
Start 3D Printing at Home – Even Without a 3D Printer!

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