Side Hustle: From teacher to egg farmer, this Polokwane man finds his niche
A school teacher who started a side hustle in selling food quickly realises that he may have chosen the wrong field. A local story that shows perseverance works.
Side Hustles are celebrated no matter what they entail, because they symbolise a person's drive to achieve a goal. When it comes to finding your way with a side hustle, sometimes people just wing it and it's a success, while other times, it can be a trial and error approach.
Which isn't a bad thing, it just means that you live and learn. But if you could do it again, the best thing to do would be to learn from your mistakes, and either get advice from a mentor, or do your research. Market research is a contributing factor, coupled with passion and drive, everything is possible.
On that note, Ntoampe Mashamaite, a 29-year-old Agricultural Science teacher from Polokwane, Limpopo, decided to try his hand at a side hustle.
In 2018 I had an idea of selling fast foods, popcorn, and takeaways at home. After purchasing equipment such as a generator, two chips cutters, a popcorn machine, two chip fryers, and a mobile kitchen, I then realised that I didn't do enough business research.
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He quickly realised that due to the lack of market research, the fast food selling business wasn't the right fit for him. He also considered his full time teaching job did not support this sort of side hustle.
It was then that he decided to take a leap of faith and venture into something that has always had his interest, farming. He decided to sell his business equipment and put that money into a poultry business, he named it Mash Mates Poultry Project.
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Mashmaite says agriculture was always his cildhood sweetheart. He was inspired by his late teacher and principal, Mr. K.H. Mphela, to pursue a degree in agricultural economics, before later doing a post graduate certificate in education.
Mashamaite has decided to keep his poultry project small for now as he is self funded, considering the level of crime and the current avian flu outbreak. He shares some valuable advice below:
Start small and scale up as time goes on because running a large poultry production can be quite challenging.
We have to say that his words are quite inspiring, as real and honest as it comes across, it can be appreciated because if anyone would know, it would be someone who is in it.
Take a look at the video below of him sorting out the eggs...
Image Courtesy of Facebook