Page 142 - KZN Top Business Portfolio 2024/5 - ebook

SKY TENTS SA

Date Established: 2015
No. of Employees: 75+
Accountant / Auditor: Coastal Accounting
Bank: Standard Bank
B-BBEE Status: BBBEE Level 1
KEY PERSONNEL
CEO: CEO: Mr Isaac Mbatha
Mr Isaac Mbatha Financial Manager: Ismail Lockat
Full Name of Company: Sky Tents SA CONTACT DETAILS
Nature of Business: Manufacturer and wholesaler Physical Address: 47 Westmead Road, Westmead,
Products and Services: Tents, including party tents, Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal 4001
wedding tents, stretch tents, dome tents, jumping Tel: +27 (0)31 700 2863
castles, tables and chairs, mobile toilets, mobile cold E-mail: Isaac@skytentsa.co.za
rooms and mobile freezer rooms Website: www.skytentsa.co.za

CONSISTENCY IS KEY TO SUCCESS ground. This meant that, at times, Isaac was often
alone in very remote areas where his personal
Isaac Mbatha’s strong entrepreneurial spirit led him safety was at risk.
to establish Sky Tents in 2015. His entry into the tent Isaac hit his biggest challenge in 2015/16, when
business began with washing and mending tents he felt that everything was going wrong, and
as well as, on a small scale, acting as a middleman he had accumulated a large amount of debt. He
in the tent hire business. The establishment of commented, “What you plan for in your head and
the tent manufacturing business was in response what happens on your road to success are two
to the many requests from people who had done different things.”
business with him.
At that time Isaac hit rock bottom and he struggled
Sky Tents was the name chosen for his business enormously with stress, anxiety, and insomnia. He
venture as he said the name would encourage him said, “I learnt that I had to be brave. There was only
to push his business’s growth as much as possible. one way to get out of the predicament I was in and
Isaac explained, “There is nothing above the sky that was to pick myself up.”
– there are no limits on the road to growth and
success.” Isaac had always enjoyed listening to Ukhozi FM
radio station and he saw a means to both help
Isaac faced many tough challenges in the first people to change their lives and to get his name
year of operation including opposition from his in the tent business known. He approached the
competitors. As his profit margins were slim, each head of Ukhozi FM with a plan to be the first
tent he made relied on the 50% deposit paid by the radio station to give away businesses to aspiring
customer in order to purchase material. entrepreneurs, which was a concept accepted by
He spent much time walking the streets and the station with much enthusiasm. During 2017, in
handing out flyers at robots, and in townships as what became a highly successful radio campaign,
well as sticking flyers on taxis windows in order Sky Tents gave away 100 tents that could be hired
to get his name out there and his business off the out by entrepreneurs to create a business and

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