Impact Partner Content - Absa
Lesego Seloane and Dinah Kgeledi are co-founders of Ronewa Creations Ltd (Pty) in South Africa. This is a family business between a niece and her aunt, respectively. Lesego has a background in Botany, having completed her studies in Biochemistry and Botany at the University of Johannesburg. While Dinah has a background in the corporate world, working in the IT field using her Diploma in IT. She worked for various companies before resigning from her corporate career to fully pursue landscaping as her passion. Once Lesego completed her studies at university, she went into landscaping and Dinah followed too, having studied a few courses in landscaping design and horticulture. The passion they have for plants comes from Lesego’ s gran, Dinah's Mother, who has an eclectic small garden in Soweto. So the two have always seen her tend to her garden over the years and been inspired by her work. They are passionate about creating beautiful spaces for their clients.
Ronewa Creations is one of the 117 companies showcased at the Absa Lionesses Xpo. Co-founders Lesego Seloane and Dinah Kgeledi share their personal entrepreneurial journey to building a successful and growing landscaping business in South Africa.
What does your company do?
Our company is a landscaping business with horticulture and botany expertise. We specialize in landscaping, also offering garden maintenance solutions for all our clients. We have recently launched our online store giving customers the opportunity to book appointments, purchase indoor plants, vegetable packages and garden accessories. We also advocate for the environment with our tag "Love your Surroundings,” as all our solutions considers the environment first.
What inspired you to start your company?
We had the edge to start the business after learning so much about the biodiversity of our country. Also, the opportunity to fuse the scientific side to plants with the creative side seemed very interesting to us. We saw that most people really don't know how to go about looking after their gardens, how to make them functional, how not to destroy ecosystems by taking down trees and paving up communities! We wanted to ensure that people can enjoy the outdoors, and in turn we felt that this will strongly help in leading us in the direction of a developed country. Our environment is very important and looking after it should be key. We would always see how different communities are when you drive out of the townships into the suburbs, with the tree canopies, fresh air, amazing aesthetics, and we really wanted all people to see and experience the value in having green communities. With our company we get to uplift communities as we employ and teach environmental consciousness to our staff. This has been truly fulfilling!
Why should anyone use your service or product?
Our business is very special as we are women in a very male dominated industry, We bring our nurturing trait into every garden we work in. We have an experienced team to execute every task, we are professional and really know different plant names and their needs compared to other informal garden services. It's a hassle free experience with every client we engage with, plus we are very reliable!
Tell us a little about your team
Our team is divided into two: our office staff and our ‘on the ground’ staff.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
When we first started out in business, no-one ever believed that we could actually do it. We had to move plants and trees in Dinah's car to our clients houses. We bought our first bakkie in the second year in business. Before we even started Dinah sold her car so we could have capital for the business. We have had great successes along the way with various features and awards recognizing our business, namely: Forbes Africa Women Magazine Feature, Sowetan Article, Best Green Female entrepreneur (Lesego Seloane), and interviews with various local radio stations.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
We would like to grow the business and acquire more corporate clients. We see Ronewa Creations servicing four major cities in the country. This will help us achieve the goal of employing more people on a more sustainable level. We would like to start growing our own plants as we are about to start a nursery.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
It's truly satisfying to wake up every morning and become a solution to various problems. It's extremely tough when challenges arise every day, however it's very fulfilling to learn that you can come up with solutions along the way and actually implement them. It's great to see our staff develop and become better from the time we had interviews with them, to when they start taking pride in the work that they do. Gardeners are normally at the bottom of the food chain and it is very fulfilling when we can bring back dignity into the work that we do. We love interacting with our clients. The financial possibilities really keep us going!
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Women have so much to give to this world, we need to see more representatives of women in the world of business. Dinah started the company and took a leap of faith during her maternity leave. With a determined spirit you can tackle any type of business.
To find out more about Ronewa Creations, send an email to ronewacreations@gmail.com or visit the company’s website and social media pages:
