Soweto Festival Expo Competition 2013

1000 Beautiful Bracelets was privileged to be selected as one of the SMME's to be part of the Soweto Festival Expo SMME Program which comprised a Stand at the Soweto Festival Expo as well as seven invaluable full-day training sessions with Bill Gibson of Knowledge Brokers International over the next six months to assist the business in marketing itself.

Many people visited our stand, where we hosted a competition which was very popular.We are thrilled to announce the Prize Winner of the "1000 Beautiful Bracelets" Gift Set today: The Winner is Gordon Leeuw, of  Molofo Village, Soweto who was very excited when we called him to notify him that he won the Competition, he said he would give the Gift Set to his wife, Ntombi!

"1000 Beautiful Bracelets" Prize Gift Set comprising two Beautiful Bracelets and Luxury Chocolates...

On Sunday, the Soweto Festival Gospel Concert attracted at least 15,000 people and there was the most amazing vibe, the music was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Gospel Music is the most popular genre of music in South Africa: there are more sales of Gospel Music at the music retail stores than any other genre!

The CathSSeta Bus - the Kind Sponsors of our involvement at this event...

Open Letter To Bruce Whitfield

Dear Bruce,

I think no one is as surprised as I am that my life could change in a spectacular way through "1000 Beautiful Bracelets" and a phone call to the Radio 702/Cape Talk Money Show a year ago.

What surprises me more is that the business seems to have developed a life of its own and continues to grow (with a new product launch at the Soweto Festival Expo this weekend) and to push the boundaries, and also that it reaches its 1st Birthday on 1 October which means it falls into a special category of between 30 and 50% of micro startups that survived longer than a year.

Over the past year "1000 Beautiful Bracelets" received wonderful publicity not just on Radio 702 and Cape Talk but also in the printed media: through articles in "The Saturday Star", EntrepreneurSA magazine (January and July issues) and elsewhere..and tonight it reaches a new high: Television exposure!

Tonight at 9pm "1000 Beautiful Bracelets" has its first TV appearance in a half hour feature on "The Big Small Business Show" on Business Day TV (DSTV Channel 412) which will air to 100,000 viewers in Southern Africa. This is an amazing milestone for a micro enterprise.

1000 Beautiful Bracelets was recently at Decorex and a couple of weeks ago received a CathSSeta (DTI) sponsorship valued at R20,000 for the SMME Program at the Soweto Festival Expo. This comprises a stand at the Expo this weekend 20=22 September, as well as substantial Business Marketing Training over the next 6 months that will really help take this business forward.

I think my favourite part of this journey is that I have been invited as a (paid/professional) Speaker at the 5th Annual Vaal SMME Conference on 2 October to speak on how I started 1000 Beautiful Bracelets with very little.

And the Book "1000 Beautiful Bracelets" should be out soon...

So I really want to thank you, Bruce, for being a catalyst for so many dreams I'd actually forgotten about..to write a book, to speak and inspire others at Conferences*... but most of all to lead an interesting life and have fun on the way. "1000 Beautiful Bracelets" and the Money Show R1000 Challenge put me on a path to achieving all this in the most amazing and unexpected ways.

Thank you, Bruce Whitfield!
(and Radio 702/Cape Talk Money Show)

* I trained myself in public speaking years ago at Toastmasters, and I'm actually a Charter/Founder member of Midrand Toastmasters: won their Humorous Speaking Contest two years in a row - I'm funny by accident..