How I started Courier Services

I've been duly asked to write about motivations behind starting Courier Services on a mbombela, of all things. I hope as intended this will help any youngster laying around without a plan in this hard life and the adversities that accompany us.

I never grew up with my parents around, neither did I have supportive relatives, so the privilege of nepotism is unbeknownst to me. I have never been recommended a job by a relative or parent, which is often the case with the employed youth who've got parents or relatives that pull some strings. For that matter I took to the streets and started selling bananas on a scorch-cart in 2019, to be frank I didn't have a direction myself or any career guidance, I didn't perform well academically too, I knew I was bound for and braced for a difficult life. Cats on my street who performed well academically even to tertiary level and had both parents at home were layabouts sinking in the quicksand of substance and alcohol abuse, so, comparatively I was conscious of how I was only going to become a worst case scenario had I indulged especially without parental supervision which sometimes gets the boys back in line if a nagging mother who just wont stop griping about your drinking and your clothes smelling of cigarettes and mbanje is present at home, some parents have even sent their children to rehabilitation centers. Conversely, I had a distant but supportive father and an absent mother, the typical "kid on the block with diasporan parents", so everything was on me and I took full responsibility of my choices to the age of 21 when I started selling bananas in the streets against the odds that stood before me. Odds such as thinking you're too young and cool to sell in the streets "it's embarrassing", odds such as coming from the suburbs and having parents in "London", my visa got declined! Odds such as not being street-like, odds such as "girls will desert you bro" things boys say, it was a lot of things that hold young people back from doing certain things "oh what will people say?", I was honest to myself and knew where I stood and looked at the bigger picture and just bulldozed myself out of comfort zones and started selling in streets in March of 2019, it took much mental effort.

In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic hit, vendors were eradicated out the city and people were in lockdown. It was not until there was leniency on stages of the lockdown and I went and bought an orange crate at the flea-market and started selling and delivering bananas door to door to my neighbors using a sporty bicycle I used to have, I used to cycle upto 45km taking stock in Thorngroove and return to deliver to residents and return to Thorngroove on a second trip, I lost a lot of weight during that time. Those days a crate returned a profit of $3 if bananas sold out without perishing. Three dollars is a depressing amount of money for a day's work but I drew my primal motivation from enjoying cycling and bringing a service to the people, I'd also branded my bananas so I functioned from a place of selling the brand with the product.

After lockdown in November of 2020 I went back to selling out of a scorch-cart in the city where I'd load upto six crates of bananas and earn more, it was tough but I pushed until May 2021 when I got mugged cycling back home after closing sales, it was a tragic night I lost my bike and everything else and was hospitalized.

A year later in 2022, after recuperating, I continued to sell and focused on delivering to more people, to which then I saw an old man riding that mbombela hoarder bike, I admired the bike from the perspective of deliveries, it had good carriage space in which my orange crate could fit, and mostly, I liked it for the plate it had in the middle. I'd loved my brand so much I'd wanted to buy a tear drop flag as an advertising strategy but it was so expensive, so this old mbombela bike having a big plate on it was just a mobile banner idea I thought would just do. I then asked around for where I could find such a bike but they were just scarce and old, it was not until I went to Bourbourfields outskirts of town where I found an artisan bicycle mechanic under a tree on the roadside, he had the bicycle frame buried under a stack of scrap metals and rejected bicycles, and wondered what in the world would a young chap be on a stern quest for such a bicycle for. We talked and I got him to clear the rust and build it to functionality, I paid him his price and also got a town buddy of mine to paint it in yellow which I later repainted to black because at the time yellow was associated with political innuendos. After cleaning the bike I got the plate branded and started delivering my bananas. The bike was a hard ride at first but I am also endowed with hard legs so iron was sharpening iron, I got used to it and rode that thing like a maniac. Imbombela idla bayi bayi madoda, kuya ngomtshovi!

In July of 2022, on delivering bananas to a resident customer, she asked for a favor that I collect some produce from a seller in the neighborhood, it then occurred to me on doing that favor that I could actually enterprise on such deliveries. I advertised on a Whatsapp market group we have, that I was offering deliveries or collections of stuff for only R5 around the neighborhood, to dip-stick the service demand. To which residents then responded with requests for different things, some requested for goods from the tuckshops, some fowl from poultry farmers, some vegetables and fruits from horticultural farmers, some requested for LP gas refills, some requested for the carriage of 20kgs of maize to the grinding mill, I loaded my mbombela with all sorts of goods and animals. 

With time I hiked my charges to R10, to $1 to $2 and to $3 for trips outside our neighborhood. I frequented the flea-market again for the taking of stock for clients this time, not to hoard my own bananas. I enjoyed it, the bike actually moved faster when it was loaded upto 60kgs, which was dangerous but so thrill. I have ridden as far as 22km to Richmond with a 40kg load of vegetables for a client, it took me 50 minutes. I have bought a live goat in Kelvin and returned it alive in one piece, I have carried six puppies to the SPCA in Thorngroove, I have carried upto 25 live chickens to Leeside. I would say I did seemingly impossible and unconventional tasks over a great mileage on that bike and it offered such a versatility I wouldn't have experienced any other way as a non-motorist. I was young fit energetic and still, I used to cover upto 130km on some days but averaged 70km daily. I then got a second mbombela to get someone to work with but the boys weren't fit and for what I was paying them per trip they weren't motivated, so I interchanged bikes myself. 

With time my market expanded in early 2023, I started advertising my services in various Facebook groups and reached further places and got more clients requesting for the delivery of legal/corporate letters and documents, payment of medical aid and funeral policies, payment of internet and Dstv subscriptions, payment of municipal bills and electricity, payment of car license radio and insurance. I carried out medicine deliveries for a pharmacy, food deliveries for a cook, and fast food deliveries for a restaurant, I was charging $3 per trip within a 10km radius. Some days I'd make upto $30 and some days just a $6 and other days nothing but I kept it pushing until I motorized my mbombela in October of 2023, an idea that my town buddy suggested to me. He had a motorized bicycle himself and gave me a test ride, I poured juice on the thing and rode 25km, I really enjoyed it and bought a new motor.

Motorizing the mbombela was a game changer, I worked less and rendered an effective and faster service delivery. It had a fuel consumption of 1L to 60km and a maximum speed of 53km/hr, pretty decent stuff for a bicycle really so I was in good business. I did not need to pay for any license and registration nor do the police flag me down at checkpoints, just free riding. I found it very lucrative and alleviating and also thrill, it's fun to ride up a hill in a sprint without paddling you know, so I enjoyed my work more but I then changed the motor from the mbombela to a mountain bike and cut down on delivering loads. 

As of July of 2024, which is exactly two years since I started I have hiked up my Courier fees to $5 per errand and $3 for multiple errands, I have realized how much value addition I have brought to my clients as a trusted individual who gets things done as opposed to the delays disappointments and inconveniences they face otherwise. I continue to enjoy what I started and have since put banana sales on standby.

I have however never been intimidated by statements such as "they will copy you" because I understand how much mental and physical investments it takes to start and commit to something wholeheartedly, you can't copy that until your mind is really attuned to the discipline perseverance and determination to make something out of the little you have. Things don't come cheap, you have to sweat and show up even on a bad day, I have ridden in the slippery and mud splattering rain in the frost biting cold and under the scorching sun sweating like a fountain, you can't copy that stuff. My clients have recommended flue recipés and offered ginger and lemon due to my terrible flues. I committed myself fully to my works and continue to work towards better. I have met kind people who offered tips, lunch and financial support. I have also met swindlers and have been swindled upto $60. It is all just a roller coaster.

So, whatever you do, take it seriously! Are you earning R5? Take it seriously whilst pursuing ways you can grow, and respect your money. If you find yourself without an idea or without work or without a qualification, just mindlessly venture into anything that seems easy to access or doesn't require much mental effort and build from there, it's usually that thing you have no respect for, but ask yourself if you're really too dignified and prestigious to do certain things and what warrants that you're too cool or great or better to pursue that one thing when you're broke and without financial security and stability, there's no such pride and dignifty. They say where the money is the ego cannot coexist. It's usually the things we don't want to engage which will make our lives better.

Just do it!