Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
02 January 2020
|
Story Valentino Ndaba
|
Photo Anja Aucamp
Refilwe Xaba, the founder and CEO of Glolooks.
Refilwe Xaba, Senior Assistant Officer in Entrepreneurship Development at the UFS Centre for Development Support, is the founder and CEO of Glolooks. This Bloemfontein-based company manufactures and supplies an organic, natural hair product range.
When she first developed the products, they were for personal use. Xaba evolved from an intrapreneur to an entrepreneur. She innovated a personal solution into a booming business idea. It was only in May 2016 that she decided to go into business, following growing interest in the way she maintained her hair. “I officially started in-depth research in October 2015, after years of making concoctions for myself.”
Business and books
Xaba reckons that a research background is beneficial for growing a business such as Glolooks that has a huge technical aspect. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Entrepreneurship with a focus on marketing and is planning to use her business as a case study.
Her undergraduate, honours, and master’s studies, which she completed at Kovsies, contributed to equipping Xaba with skills to grow her business. She believes in balancing education and business. “I have always been commerce-orientated. If there is a problem to be fixed, I fix it. However, people are at the centre of my heart.”
Growing Glolooks
In 2019, Glolooks opened a salon in Westdene, where customers can receive a holistic experience above and beyond merely purchasing the product. Xaba says this is one of the ways her business is being innovative when it comes to creating relationships with customers.
Academic takes Afrikaans to community
2009-09-11
 |
Ms Corlietha Swart, lecturer in Linguistics in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the University of the Free State, expresses her passion for Afrikaans through her involvement with various community projects like the Bloemfonteinse Skrywersvereniging, of which she is the chairperson. This project has approximately 145 members countrywide. Annually this vibrant society, which turns 40 next year, organises a national writing competition which has grown into the largest of its kind with approximately 1 054 entries this year, including those from overseas. A workshop for budding writers is also presented annually and is attended free of charge by the prize winners of the writing competition as part of their prizes. During this year’s event, the publication Inkvars 2009, which contains the winning contributions of the winners of the national writing competition, was launched. Ms Swart compiled the publication’s volume of creative contributions which also contains the adjudicators’ reports and is a handy guide for teachers of creative writing classes. Pictured at the workshop from the left, front, are: Ms Swart (Chairperson: BSV), Prof. Hans du Plessis (Presenter), Mrs Cecilia van der Linde (Vice-Chairperson: BSV). Back, from the left, are: Mr Kassie Joubert (Committee Member: BSV), Mrs Christa Jonker-Jordaan (Committee Member: BSV) and Ms Magda Janse van Rensburg (Treasurer: BSV).
Photo: Supplied |