Roar Impact is a mobile eco-car wash company that renders its services to office buildings, and services companies with vehicle fleets on-contract basis.
Founded in 2016 by two social entrepreneurs, Siphe Booi and Simphiwe Lou, the idea came as a result of wanting to address key social issues.
“Then, the Western Cape was threatened with Day Zero in a fight against the water crisis,” explains co-founder Siphe.
“Also, unemployment is still our biggest fight as a country. We wanted to come up with an idea that would address these two social issues.”
Since then, it has been quite the journey, says Siphe.
“We started a company with no formal education and we have been learning since. In 2017, we were initiated to 20 Young Entrepreneurs according to the City of Cape Town’s youth start program. We found our first building in Century City where we get bookings and call outs. We have an organisation called VPUU in Khayelitsha that has been helping us quite a lot, from exposure to funding along the way. It has been a blessing.”
But the journey has not been without its challenges.
“ We have faced a litany of challenges,” says Siphe.
“We have lost a third partner, lost all the chemicals we work with, and we have lost money in the bank. Our main challenge since we started is cash flow. We started with no capital, with just the equipment and the chemicals we are using. We are still trying to make the cash flow catch up with where the business is right now. The second one is transport. One of the directors is on Bolt just so we can have transportation to Century City and back.”
The young c-founder is grateful for the opportunities brought on by the Youth in Business programme.
“Youth in Business is helping us so much,” says Siphe.
“We are social entrepreneurs and we always wanted to be a paperless business but always thought that’s for big businesses. YIB is pouring ideas on how we can achieve that, from marketing to cloud computing.
The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is the mindset, says Siphe.
“All you need to get to where you want to be is 24hours a day. Fix your mindset and never stop working on your dreams and you’ll see that there is no limit to what you can archive.”