Nkululeko Mahlangu is a man who has been tailor-made to make suits. The 27-year-old from Pretoria is the founder of Busanimen, a suit-making business based in the inner city of Johannesburg.
"We run a clothing and textiles business and have a suiting brand which focuses on making custom-made suits for special events like weddings, matric dances and graduations as well as day-to-day professional wear," Mahlangu said.
The young businessman said he started off by making his own clothes for work and colleagues would ask him to also make their suits. "This is a business that started as a need. I was working in the corporate space and just didn't have suits or professional clothing and because I'm a fashion person, I just thought I should dress myself and people loved what I was doing and I thought I could actually turn this into a business."
The business was founded when he was only 19 years old, and he has managed to keep up the business while continuing with a corporate job.
Mahlangu said his biggest challenge right now is the Covid-19 pandemic, which has negatively affected many businesses.
"I think consistency with Covid-19 is that one month can be very busy and the other month can be very quiet. We are trying to scale as well and it's tough scaling a niche business that is personalised and custom. We are also facing challenges of finance from a funding and growth perspective," said Mahlangu.
He has had to think of innovative ways to keep up with the changing needs of customers during a period where people want to dress more comfortably during the pandemic.
“What we’re trying to cater for at the moment is a more comfortable fit, a lighter fit, not always using [conventional] suiting fabrics, especially for weddings and special occasion type of events,” said Mahlangu.
He said they make 50 custom suits per month on average which retail between R4,000 and R7,000. But he said despite success, it's important for small businesses to remember to save money.
“In good seasons, save, save, save… Secondly, make sure you take out some type of business insurance, because a lot of people depend on your business for their jobs, and those people have families – so you have to have wage protection.”
In future, the young businessman wants to become more accessible to other markets in the country.
"I think the future is scaling the retail side of the business so we are accessible across the country... the plan is to scale three times bigger than we are now," he said.
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