{"id":219351,"date":"2022-03-15T11:06:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T09:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/furniture-maker-is-no-couch-potato\/"},"modified":"2022-03-15T11:06:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T09:06:29","slug":"furniture-maker-is-no-couch-potato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/furniture-maker-is-no-couch-potato\/","title":{"rendered":"Furniture maker is no couch potato"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Written by Silusapho Nyanda<\/p>\n

A recipient of the Social Relief of Distress Grant is sitting pretty after using her monthly R350 to start Lady Q Designs, a furni\u00adture-making business.<\/p>\n

Single mother Maquo\u00adalesa Lekheakhoa Qwali (27), from Bethlehem in the Free State, used her artistic flair and entre\u00adpreneurial spirit to make a couch from old tyres.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to start a business. When President Cyril Rama\u00adphosa announced the R350 grant, I told myself that this was the per\u00adfect time to get started. I was sitting at home unemployed when I got the inspiration for the business,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always complain about needing capital. My capital was my R350 government grant. We must make the most of these scarce resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qwali\u2019s ideas were inspired by YouTube videos. She used her grant money to buy a second-hand power drill and couch stapler.<\/p>\n

The rest of her equip\u00adment was found at home \u2013 old wooden boards and clothes that she used to cover her first couch.<\/p>\n

She was not happy with her first attempt and went back to the drawing board and kept on trying until she suc\u00adceeded.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I made a sofa that I was happy with, I started advertising my services and got an order for a two-seater couch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, she has sold her furniture to residents of Bethlehem and other parts of the Free State.<\/p>\n

She said customers pay a deposit, which she uses to buy the mate\u00adrials she needs.<\/p>\n

Qwali also does re-upholstering of old couches and invests her profits into growing the business by buying additional equipment.<\/p>\n

She also supports her child and grandmother.<\/p>\n

One of her challenges is pricing her furniture properly, so that her products are affordable but her business does not run at a loss. Qwali’s couches are sold from R1 500.<\/p>\n

She has also learnt that waiting for start-up funds can sometimes kill dreams. People need to take a leap of faith and start a business, she advised. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong>*This article appeared the March 2022, 2nd edition of Vuk\u2019uzenzele<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Silusapho Nyanda A recipient of the Social Relief of Distress Grant is sitting pretty after using her monthly R350 to start Lady Q Designs, a furni\u00adture-making business. Single mother Maquo\u00adalesa Lekheakhoa Qwali (27), from Bethlehem in the Free State, used her artistic flair and entre\u00adpreneurial spirit to make a couch from old tyres. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-219351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/furniture-maker-is-no-couch-potato.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}