Black Umbrellas incubation lounge launched in KZN to Empower Youth and Startup Entrepreneurs
Black Umbrellas has announced the launch of the Black Umbrellas incubation lounge at Regent Business School at the Durban campus. The opening of the incubation lounge will make it simple for KwaZulu-Natal startup entrepreneurs to get the help they need to expand their businesses.
This is the second of three national incubation lounges to be administered by the employment arm of Regent, RedHUB, as a partner organization of the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation. The goal of these lounges is to mainstream entrepreneurship as a career route. In Johannesburg, there is now a first-ever incubation lounge.
Aspiring business owners can contact industry professionals for coaching, mentoring, and training at Black Umbrellas incubator lounges, which offers a tried-and-true curriculum to its clients. The location is designed to suit the demands of students and entrepreneurs in terms of both business and education, giving them access to boardrooms, printing equipment, professional receptionists, and wi-fi.
The Black Umbrellas incubation lounge is open to Regent Business School students as well as non-students who can conduct research and learn at a location where they can consult and meet with mentors and coaches, according to Hoosen Essof, Manager of RedHUB, a specialized unit of Regent Business School.
Essof acknowledges that the incubation lounge is highly advantageous as Black Umbrellas have supplied an established and mature program which delivers quickly to students,” he added that the redHUB offers programmes for startups, business foundation, business management and business financial management.
According to Xolile Ndumndum, Chief Operating Officer of Black Umbrellas, the organization aims to introduce people to the business world by equipping aspiring entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills they need to build a sustainable start-up business. This is done by teaching them the why, when, and how to build a start-up business through hands-on experience and case studies.
“Black Umbrellas offers an internationally acclaimed virtual incubation programme. Through training, mentorship and business coaching that takes place virtually on the organisation’s virtual incubator, entrepreneurs are able to solidify their business practices and become sustainable in increasingly competitive environments. The business incubators offer SME’s short-term and long-term co-spacing.
“Between redHUB and Black Umbrellas, we are able to assist entrepreneurs in any stage of development, from idea generation to validating it, to regulatory compliance and growing their business and funding it, as well as facilitating procurement opportunities. This is in effective one stop shop,” Ndumndum said.