DURBAN entrepreneur Scelo Nciki was frustrated that he had so little spare time to run personal errands like renew a car licence or buy groceries for a party when he worked for a multinational fast-moving consumer goods giant.
The innovative chemical engineer, who had wanted to break out of the corporate routine for some time, decided to solve this problem by starting a service business to help busy families, executives and professionals who faced the same problem.
Nciki worked as an operations manager at Unilever South Africa’s Durban factory when he decided to test the market for a concierge-type service helping his friends with errands for free over weekends.
“People warmed up to the idea and it got so busy that I thought I should take it seriously. Just like that I quit my job. I bought an old car, branded it and started driving around and all of a sudden people started calling me. I placed an advert in the Mum’s Mail and got a lot of calls,” Nciki said.
He opened his business, Errands Master, which he later renamed The VVIP Concierge in 2014.
It’s run on a similar basis to Uber, but offers a personal and business errand and concierge service.
He employs seven permanent staff, including two administrative workers and four drivers who run errands that include doing grocery shopping, collecting prescription medication, making online bookings, paying accounts, delivering documents, renewing car licences, standing in passport queues at Home Affairs and shuttling children to and from school.
Nciki believes his move from chemical engineering into the business world is connected by the common thread of creativity, one he is stretching further to launch a new mobile app that will enable customers to book his services on the move via their cellphones.
He was recently awarded R500 000 in seed funding from the Technology Innovation Agency via Durban’s SmartXchange hub to develop the app, which he plans to launch in July.
He is currently in negotiations with developers.
But it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Nciki, who says that despite extensive networking it has been an uphill battle to change mindsets and grow his regular clientele who are now concentrated in La Lucia, Mount Edgecombe, uMhlanga and Westville.
“We have divided our market into four segments, namely families who are busy and use us to shuttle their children from school, business executives who are travelling and often stuck in meetings, small business owners who don’t have time to do a lot of things like drop off tender documents and the corporate employee who has just a one-hour lunch break and doesn’t want to go out because of queues in malls,” Nciki said.
“One client called me to say a neighbour had called to tell of a burst geyser and they were both doctors stuck at work. They asked me to check and get a plumber to fix it,” he said.
But Nciki said it had not been easy to market his services as many people were not open to the service and did not place a monetary value on the the many personal hours spent in queues. He also faced a strong learning curve after initially charging unsustainable prices.
“You have to have the staying power no matter how bad things get and you must have a passion, supported by practical business sense,” he said.
Nciki plans to expand his business nationally and globally within three years.
“I’ve had so much interest from people asking when the app will be out – it’s going to make the business fly. The trick with tech business is speed to market – you have to be fast or someone will overtake you with the same thing.
I can’t relax and say that in the next six months no one is going to do this. Some people look at it and see an opportunity, so I can’t sit on my laurels,” he said.