JOHANNESBURG - Young black Africans need to start their own business empires in order to conquer and be liberated.
That’s the advice of 26-year-old Johannesburg businessman Tshepo Moses Mosiedi. He founded his accountancy firm TMMBS Accountants in 2013 which he formally registered in 2016.
The company, which is headquartered at Africa’s richest square mile of Sandton, offers payroll services, accounting, bookkeeping and financial reporting, taxation advisory, secretarial services, and BEE advisory/certificates.
The firm was previously headquartered in Krugersdorp, with another office in Kagiso.
“We are here in Sandton to compete and not open a small practice. The Sandton move is for big businesses,” says Mosiedi.
He says they are keeping the Kagiso office open because their services are very popular in the township, west of Johannesburg.
Businessman Tshepo Moses Mosiedi, 26, is founder of accounting firm TMMBS which employs students from the University of Johannesburg. Image: Supplied.
“We don’t want to neglect the SMEs in the townships,” says Mosiedi, who started his first business at the of age of 16, washing garbage bins for his neighbours in the township.
Since then, he’s worked for MM Accounting Services as a junior bookkeeper for a year in 2010, followed by a stint at a reputable construction company turning over R80 million per annum.
Mosiedi, who holds a national diploma in accounting from the University of Johannesburg (UJ), says they also provide mentorship to UJ students with the sole purpose of absorbing them into the company fold.
The young entrepreneur, who is a member of the South African Institute of Tax Professionals, is currently studying towards an advanced diploma in accounting sciences at Unisa.
He says one of his proudest moments was being crowned as Kagiso’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the first Kagiso Achievers Awards in 2017.
Running the business has been a rollercoaster ride for Mosiedi. “There’s been ups and downs but it’s been a nice process and journey. I’ve learnt a lot because everything we’ve done has been self-funded, we’ve faced many budget constraints.”
He says the company’s vision is a Pan-African one, aimed among other things, at uplifting other black academics.
“Our Pan-African vision is about us becoming the biggest accounting firm in Africa and then the world. Our plan is to branch into the Sadc region, that’s our five year goal,” he says.
“We want to be in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, etc. We want to partner with other black accounting firms in these countries.”
Mosiedi explains that they are mentoring UJ students who subsequently join the company in leadership roles to lead divisions and take up positions as project managers.
“We have Luyanda Duma who is studying BCom in industrial psychology at UJ. She’s doing her last year, we’ve employed her as a business strategist. Most projects that we have to pitch to government will be handled by her,” he says.
The company is also mentoring UJ second year marketing student Moshe Ndlovu to become their marketing manager when he finishes his studies.
“We are pushing the young ones because part of our Pan-African vision is to uplift other black academics. For us to rise, conquer and be liberated, we need to uplift each other,” says Mosiedi.
“Young black Africans need to start their own businesses, there are lots of graduates but few companies employing them. We must start building our own African empires.”