Grahamstown entrepreneurs are taking the city by storm with their unique ideas. Pinkie Sobahle started her
bicycle renting business on Monday and says “the R!de Along business has done fairly well, we have five bicycles.”
Grahamstown entrepreneurs are taking the city by storm with their unique ideas. Pinkie Sobahle started her
bicycle renting business on Monday and says “the R!de Along business has done fairly well, we have five bicycles.”
People are now able to rent out bicycles at her stall, which is situated on the corner of Somerset and New Street, and take a ride to wherever the wind takes them.
Three of the five bicycles were rented out when Grocott’s Mail visited Sobahle’s stall.The prices are R15 for an hour and R50 for four hours.
Sobahle says that after seeing an article in Grocott’s Mail calling for entrepreneurial proposals she jumped
at the opportunity and sent in her application.
She is one of four successful applicants chosen by an initiative run by the Rhodes Investec Business School, Makana Municipality and the National Arts Council.
Sobahle and others like her attended business skills classes where they were given an insight into the nitty gritty of running a business.
Sobahle also said that she then did some research on bicycles being used as a mode of transport and found them to be quite prominent around the world.
A bicycle guide currently operating in Soweto finally motivated her to go ahead with the plan. R!de Along, according to Mgxoteni, is different from the Festival Hopper service as it provides one with the freedom of going wherever you want, something she hopes will strengthen her cause.
“It’s a hobby for me to look for gaps in the market,” says Sobahle, who also owns a consultancy agency. Khanya Qabaka, one of the customers, says that he was happy with the state of the bicycles as well as being able to see more parts of Grahamstown.
The business was initially due to run till the end of the Festival but Sobahle trusts that it will keep going long afterwards.
