Every generation of entrepreneurs is shaped by the tools available to them.
For our grandparents and parents, it might have been access to a busy street, enough savings to rent a shop, or simply knowing the right people to access a business zone.
For many township entrepreneurs, success depended on visibility.
If people walked past your business every day, you had a chance.
If you operate from a back room in the house, you were largely limited to those who already knew you.
This reality is changing very fast, and the advent of Covid-hit the fast-forward button.
Now, as we watch, e-commerce in SA shifts daily from pipe dream status for early adopters to being woven into everyday life for mainstream consumers.
People often speak about social media as if it is simply a place to advertise products.
It is much more than that. It is changing the type of entrepreneur that townships are producing.
There’s a growing population of a once-rare breed of entrepreneurs who dare to step over the horizon.
These people simply don’t allow a scarcity of resources to block their path to success. The modern township entrepreneur is no longer just a baker, barber, mechanic or fashion designer.
They need to be photographers, marketers, customer service agents, dispatch co-ordinators and content creators as well, often all before lunchtime.
This is a massive shift.
Take someone selling clothing from Mdantsane.
Ten years ago, their market was mostly people who physically came across their premises or heard about their products through friends and family.
Today, one TikTok video or Instagram reel can put that same business in front of someone in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Polokwane, Tokyo or New York.
But although geography begins to matter less, that does not mean location is irrelevant.
Deliveries still have to happen. Customers still want to visit stores.
But digital platforms have reduced one of the biggest disadvantages township businesses have always faced: being hidden.
For years we have spoken about township businesses as though their biggest challenge is access to finance.
Yes, finance is still important, but I wonder whether visibility has been an equally significant problem, and we just underestimated it?
How do you grow a business if nobody knows you exist?
What better way to see if an entrepreneur is serious than exposure on national and even global stages?
The internet has become a shop window that -- in certain ways -- cuts Sandton, NU6, Motherwell to the same level.
But there is another side to this conversation.
The digital township entrepreneur carries far more responsibility than previous generations did.
Running a business now means answering WhatsApp messages at midnight, posting consistently on social media because the algorithm rewards consistency, learning how to take decent product photos, understanding online payments and figuring out courier logistics.
Even as technology removes some barriers, it introduces new expectations.
I sometimes worry that we romanticise entrepreneurship without acknowledging this.
We celebrate the viral success story but rarely speak about the hours spent editing videos, responding to comments or trying to understand why one post reaches 20,000 people and the next, only 200.
Perhaps digital literacy has quietly become one of the most important entrepreneurial skills in SA.
Not because everyone needs to become an influencer, but because business increasingly happens online.
Customers discover businesses online. They compare prices online. They judge credibility online. Sometimes they decide whether to support you before they have even spoken to you.
That changes everything.
Another interesting thing: digital entrepreneurship is beginning to challenge the old idea that you must leave the township to build a successful business.
Maybe the goal should not always be to relocate. Maybe it should be to build businesses that remain rooted in townships while serving markets far beyond them.
Of course, technology is not a silver bullet. Data is still expensive. We are vulnerable to load-shedding and unreliable connectivity disruptions.
Many entrepreneurs still struggle with digital skills, and not everyone has the resources to invest in better equipment or paid advertising.
But despite these challenges, something feels different. I think we are witnessing the emergence of a new kind of township entrepreneur.
Someone who understands that their storefront is as much their Instagram page, their WhatsApp catalogue and the reputation they build online as the sign above their door.
Yes, the digital age means entrepreneurs can now advertise for free.
But more importantly, it has changed the game because entrepreneurs simply have to add a whole new skill set to their tool box if they want to survive and thrive.
Buzani is a business consultant and youth empowerment advocate, as well as a founding member of an award-winning SME and of the vibrant Mdantsane entrepreneur network Kasi Konversations
