Benjamin Nevondwe has a story to tell. He turned Phumandi Power House from an idea into a lucrative business while creating a trail of accomplishments. He shares his journey and aspirations, including how he plans to expand his business operations.
After being retrenched from a construction company in 2011, Nevondwe decided to register his small company and explore the entrepreneurial playing field in his area of specialty. During his years as an Occupational Health and Safety Officer, he built working relationships within the construction and mining sector while learning about the workings of the business structures of companies’ operating in this industry. “I started Phumandi Power House with the goal of assisting small contractors with occupational health and safety compliance services. I later ventured into the maintenance aspect of the service, as I have studied electrical trade.” The company offers construction and maintenance services through a range of experienced and qualified technicians for electrical, plumbing and carpentry services. Phumandi also offers occupational health and safety consulting services to construction companies to help them comply with the Occupational and Safety Acts.
Xhead: Simplifying clients’ processes
Phumandi Power House ensures that risk assessments are carried out according to the set standards on behalf of clients and handles all the statutory documents that detail the compliance of the work space as per each client’s request. In 2019, the company was appointed as the member of the panel for Lepelle Northern Water but the role was halted due to the regulations resulting from the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. Phumandi Power House has grown in leaps and bounds since its inception. Nevondwe believes that there is still more to achieve. Although the initial goal has been reached, which is to create employment for himself and others, Nevondwe aims to scale the business to other parts of the country as there is a huge demand for his company’s services. “We aim to enlarge our footprint in the sector as we continue to service construction companies, property management agents, residential home owners, corporations and state departments,” he says. In order to achieve the desired scale, Nevondwe plans to incorporate marketing strategies with the help of local and mass media platforms as he believes that this will expose his business to investors and cross boarder opportunities. Running a small medium enterprise has presented Nevondwe with a fair share of challenges, pushing him to explore his every option in pursuit of suitable solutions.
Xhead: Diversifying service offerings is key
In order to solidify Phumandi Power House’s position as an SME, Nevondwe focused on diversifying the services offered by his company while ensuring that they are still aligned to the core promise that the company was built on. Starting off in occupational health and safety, then moving into maintenance and installation of plumbing and electrical facilities has afforded Phumandi Power House the opportunity to attract a client base that could have been elusive without the strategic offering expansion. He plans to do more! Specifically with the increasing unemployment rate and escalating statistics of jobless graduates. “I plan to build the business to reach enough capacity to offer young graduates practical experience and also create employment opportunities for experienced professionals,” explains Nevondwe. Despite the impressive run the company has experienced, access to the broader market remains a challenge. Nevondwe has been fortunate enough to lure in mentors that could assist in this aspect, through guidance and strategic interventions, positioning the company in relevant spaces and enabling Nevondwe to attract new income streams for the entity. “We are now limited to only offering maintenance in Limpopo while our consulting services are positioned to serve clients country wide. We see ourselves operating in all provinces and later expand into other neighbouring countries.” Phumandi Power House has kick-started another initiative that plays on the company’s key strengths. “We have been successful in establishing a water purifying project at Muduluni Ha-Kutama. The project has been able to ease access to bottled water for the water scarce community while operating as a refill service. We decided to call the project Pure Madi Still,” he says.