Ukuzithanda&Co
A beauty brand I started in high school. Today it's a salon, a skincare line and a training programme that turns young women into earning beauty professionals in 7 days.
The story
Every chapter taught me how money moves.
Before the awards and the contracts there was a Grade 2 learner with R20, an empty stomach and a plan. This is how I became who I am.
Grade 2 to Grade 7
I didn't eat my lunch money. I invested it.
In Grade 2 I got R20 for lunch. One day I chose to stay hungry. I spent the whole R20 on twenty lemon ices at R1 each and sold them the next day for R2.50.
That became my business until Grade 7. By then each ice sold for R3.50, and when I was down to my last five and everyone wanted one, the price went to R4.
R1cost per ice
R2.50 → R4selling price, Grade 2 to Grade 7
150%+margin from day one
What it taught meCapital, margin and scarcity pricing, years before I knew the words.
The first dealR20↓20 ices↓R50sold the next day. Lunch money, multiplied by 2.5.
Grade 9
The clothing brand that had everything except operations.
In Grade 9 I launched a clothing brand. I was popular, everyone wanted to model for it, and an influencer friend offered to post it. I had the hype and the people backing me.
But I didn't know how to manage supply or production. I made enough for one run, then rode on the hype and never produced again. The brand failed.
What it taught meHype gets attention, but operations keep a business alive. I've built everything since then on systems first.
The lesson I paid forHype≠OperationsAttention without supply chain is just noise. Now I build the systems first.
December 2020 · end of Grade 10
The month I stopped talking and started.
All through 2020 I said I wanted to sell scrunchies. It stayed an idea until December of Grade 10, as schools were closing for the year. That's when I decided to take it seriously.
What it taught meA plan doesn't make money until it becomes a decision.
January 2021 · Grade 11
I started selling consistently, and a name was born.
When I came back to school in January 2021, I started selling every week. The brand was first called Zitande, meaning "love yourself". When I found that name was already registered, I wanted something that was mine alone.
Ukuzithanda means "to love yourself". Nobody had registered it with CIPC, so it became the name I've built on ever since.
What it taught meOwn your name before you build on it.
High school
I'd spend my transport money, then sell it back.
On the last day of every month my grandparents gave me my transport fare for the whole of the next month. I wasn't financially disciplined yet, so it was usually gone in the first week.
Weeks two, three and four were on me. I put pressure on myself to sell, and every time I made the money back. On a good week I made R2,000.
What it taught mePressure can produce. I've since learned the discipline too, and that's why I'm training as an accountant.
2025 to today
From school hustle to registered company.
I enrolled in the CA(SA) stream at UNISA and registered my company in 2025 with SEDFA's support. At 21, I've won two government contracts, the SAICA #1 Student Leadership Award, and a Top 16 place in the Mr Price Foundation programme.
What it taught meEvery rand from those lemon ices was practice for this.
