Ayanda Mbanga

What does your company do?

We advertise jobs on behalf of our clients. This involves writing and designing job advertisements for our clients who want flight in various print, digital and electronic media forms. The scope of our services includes the media buying element of the process. Because of the extent of high unemployment in our country, our services also include providing a career coaching service to help aspiring new job entrants navigate the world of work. Four years ago we were approached by LinkedIn Talent & Learning Solutions in Dublin, Ireland to represent them in the Southern African market. As we turn 25 years old, this has given us a new opportunity to bring much needed global talent and skills development solutions, but with a local flavour.

What is your biggest success?

Our biggest success has to be being approached and appointed by Linkedin to represent them in the Southern African market. On the back of our trading track record, reputation and solid integrity, they extended us with credit lines that would allow us to on-sell their products locally and get paid whilst doing it. This has provided us with a new revenue stream in a market where print media advertising, in particular, is on a steady decline. From an individual career growth point of view, this has enabled myself and the team to learn to deal with other teams across the globe, operating on different time zones and cultures. This is a mean feat for what would otherwise be characterised as an SMME in South Africa.

What has been your biggest hurdle?

Our biggest hurdle has been the slow death of the print media market, which we have relied upon for many many years for revenue. Our shrinking economy and high unemployment rates have also had a negative impact on our business, particularly when it comes to impacting negatively on decision making. When overall sentiment is negative or pessimistic, everything suffers.