u/Youcantbeseriousbro0

Hey everyone!

I am absolutely struggling with this prepaid meter. It’s eating cash and electricity. Since around 1-2 months ago it began eating WAYYY more electricity than usual and I have no idea why, and I’m not talking teeny tiny amounts. I’m talking about R500 isn’t lasting 2 days. Now I can’t even afford to get City Power to come and take a look because they wanna charge me an arm and a leg just to send out an electrician. It’s absolutely bonkers that it’s eating this much electricity when I cook with gas, don’t use the oven, don’t use an air fryer, don’t use a kettle, no electricity blankets or heaters, NOTHING. So what the hell is going on and what am I meant to do?? This thing was only installed maybe mid last year but it only began eating this much electricity within the past few months and now I have no idea what to do.

Any help is appreciated!

I don’t understand it, I’ve been applying to so many jobs with almost no luck. Sometimes it feels like there’s nobody behind these job postings.

And I’ll apply to so many different types of jobs. Grad programs, internships, admin positions, learnerships, etc. The only responses I’ve got were from one job in WC but then they ghosted me too, and some commission based stuff.

I mean I studied and got a higher certificate and an advanced certificate because I couldn’t afford to do a full degree and completed both with distinctions. I tick the box on paper for so many of these jobs. I have some experience, yet nada, not even a response.

My fellow South Africans,

How did you overcome, defeat, escape, or fight back against the societal, or community expectations/pressures that were placed on you before you were even born?

What do I mean by this? Well, specifically in the community I come from. Everything is like politics, and I don’t mean the joke that’s South African politics. I mean game of thrones type politics. You say something wrong, suddenly you’re looked at sideways. You decide to date outside your race, yohhhh it’s like you killed someone. You say no to literally ANYTHING, you be anything other than a yes man, and you’re the spawn of Satan himself.

Boundaries are literally non-existent, especially within immediate family. “Can you pay for x?” The answer must be yes or you’re the most evil person ever and you never loved your mother. “Can you drive me to the airport on a Saturday at 7 AM (even though I earn more than your whole net worth?)”The answer must be yes or else you’ll get gossiped about and everyone will look at you sideways.

Like, how do you escape this, fight back against this. I feel like it’s such an impossible task unless you completely cut them off.

So how did your year start and how is it going?

I’ll start :)

I had a car, I had a pretty decent amount of disposable income/savings in my bank account, some job interviews lined up, I was setting up my business and had the capital to do so as well.

Where has the year taken me? My car got written off at the start of the year, it was a car that was paid off from ‘04 and you can buy fokall with that in Cyril’s economy. Then my family decides, “okay let’s invest in get rich quick schemes”. So bam, there goes my marketing capital for my business and the insurance money too. I’ve got stock, I’ve got a website, I’ve got ideas, but no capital to get it out there in a decent way. The job interviews went okay, but I’ve got no car and no method to get there, nor any money, basically just living hand to mouth.

Just a quick vent! how is your year going?

Okay well, I’ll kick off with a few.

Things I miss: A decent USD to ZAR exchange rate, people actually interacting with each other in a friendly manner, not seeing a strip mall/shopping centre every 2 KMs. (I live in Jozi for reference)

Things I’m glad are gone/glad is now here: in terms of things that I’m glad are gone. I really don’t know because I miss a lot. I like having convenient delivery services though, awesome banking apps, and I guess bounce inc. is pretty cool too. I miss boogaloos though (unrelated I just miss it, if you know you know).

https://preview.redd.it/8y5pr16zeg5h1.jpg?width=709&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce0570754aee8cfe3195f73e7b703c8f5b906067

Hey everyone!

So just wanted to know for any fellow SA business owners if you used Paystack and if so, did they ask you to give them an invoice from your supplier and an inventory list?

Any useful info is welcome! :)

Holy shit what is wrong with TikTok?

I tried to get my business account verified. Uploaded all the necessary documents, it says it was denied (not even an hour later), didn’t give me a reason why but said I should reapply. When I go to check the status of the application, it loads the entire page for a whole new application every time. I have no cooking clue what to do.

TikTok can ligma balls. I opened a support ticket like two weeks ago and they haven’t responded.

Any idea what I should do??

Hey everyone!

I’m in the early stages of my business, and I’m pretty much a one man army. Been doing web design, marketing, logistics, etc. So I decided to get some outside input from people I know and was told my website looks “too professional” for a startup fashion brand(???). I’ve gotten some sales but definitely could be doing better.

So what websites have you seen, that wowed you and made you want to buy?

Hey everyone!

So I’m trying to decide on a sale to possibly get some actual sales. I’ve been getting a decent amount of traffic to my store with collabs through influencers and organic marketing but for some reason it just isn’t converting. I’ve installed heatmaps, watched some replays and it’s mostly people who window shop. Some look through the collection of items and eventually click off, some will go to a specific items and check it out but I’m also just really having trouble finding where the disconnect is in my marketing and offer.

So I thought it might be the price since for my brand and niche my prices may be scaring customers away especially in the current economy. So I’m trying to decide between a few different sales strategies.
A buy 1 get 1 free, making everything in the store the same price as a mid year madness thing, or trying something else.

Assalaamu Alaikum everyone.

So this is a very difficult thing to talk about, about two days ago my wife put her hands on me. She punched me, pushed me on the floor, and choked me.

This started because I was trying to tell her she was being irrational about certain things, and she immediately got hostile, aggressive and defensive. She said she just wanted to be heard which I can understand, but there’s times where someone needs to be heard and times where I would simply be enabling delusion. And I have been under a LOT of financial stress, emotional stress, and mental stress recently. So I was snappy and when she didn’t even bother to hear me out, when she didn’t even accept me saying I’m sorry for not hearing HER out or listening, I lost it. I told her to be quiet, I told her she’s crazy, I walked away and told her I needed some time away. She refused to leave me alone and when she came to argue with me I kept arguing back and it just kept escalating until she eventually put her hands on me.

This isn’t the first time she’s put her hands on me, she says she feels terrible about it, she said she felt terrible about it before. Yet she did it again. She said we need to divorce because it’s not working and I know that’s most likely the best thing to do as well but I’ve given so much time, effort, and love to her that it’s difficult to make a decision. What do I do. I don’t want to be with someone who can put their hands on me like that, it’s disgusting. But I love her.

Hey everyone!

Hope you’re all doing well. So I’ve been collabing with various influencers, sending out PR packages, trying to do some promos. The fact that I get responses to my PR packages and the comments and feedback that the influencers get on the vids have all been exceedingly positive and have brought traffic to my store. But it hasn’t been converting to sales, and I’m not sure where the disconnect is.

What are some of the first things I should look at to find why it is not converting? Or would anyone be able to help me find why exactly it isn’t converting?

My fellow South Africans…

Yoh I’m losing it. It’s really tough out here. Like REALLY it’s tough out here. I spent MONTHS planning so many things. Talking to manufacturers, finding the right one, finding proper quality that I myself would be happy to use on a day to day basis so that other South Africans could use the same product. I faced SOOO many setbacks with suppliers. I learned how to make a whole website from scratch. I learned about sale funnels, and all that other business jargon.

Then BAM out of nowhere my marketing capital gets drained.

Nonetheless I try to preserve, and I’m trying. Continue trying. I’m now 2 months, maybe a bit more into things and I’ve made a whopping 0 sales, even after securing ambassadors with large followings.

I mean on one hand, I don’t blame South Africans for not buying from some random unknown brand, I myself have been very guilty of taking preference to established brands time and time again but damn. If this ain’t disheartening and discouraging idk what is. I genuinely just feel like giving up and packing up because I’ve invested so much time, money, and effort.

I mean I see all these dropshippers and they absolutely COIN it with subpar products, I see people import cheap products, and don’t get me wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong with imports so long as the quality and intent is there to actually contribute and uplift the local economy (in my opinion).

But yeah, just me venting.

I’m from Jozi and we have various different ways of saying something is fake. For example when I was a kid I’d go with my fam to get groceries and what not we’d go to Fordsburg but there would be people selling bootleg movies. So fake movies and clothes got the name “Fordsburg special”, I’ve also seen, “small street/fox street edition”.

What about you guys?

Hey everyone!

So I’ve just started my own business and I’m doing everything myself, due to some unforeseen circumstances my marketing budget got cut down quite a bit.

So I wanted to ask what forms of faceless content have you seen/used that work really well for brand growth and image building? Specifically in the fashion space.

Aside from things such as “pack an order with me” or “review this item with me”, etc.

I’ve seen some people use carousels as a way to tell stories, I’m worried that will have a high skip rate though. I’m willing to give it a try but yeah, I thought I’d ask.

Any feedback is appreciated!

Hey everyone!

So I’ve started up my own online business. It’s a niche fashion accessories business. I’ve been doing everything myself. Unfortunately I’ve hit a snag in the road with my capital because I’ve had to start supporting some family members who fell on hard times which has left my marketing budget in a very hectic situation.

I’m now thinking of moving my products onto Takealot, or at least having some inventory on Takealot, I’ve heard some rather negative feedback though about the fees though.

So for anyone who has any experience with selling on Takealot I’d love to hear your thoughts!