Evidence’s Hobby Becomes Her Career
They say selling is meant for the poor, not for Evidence Manaha (23), who used to be a hustler by hobby during her schooldays.
Evidence could smell money at a tender age, which distinguished her from her schoolmates at Masereni Secondary School, where she matriculated in 2017.
Despite lacking for nothing, she was sighted selling some sweets, chips, and cakes to other learners for the sake of enjoyment, and little did she know that hustling would be her way of making ends meet in the future.
Born in Gombani, Limpopo, Evidence, who is currently running a small baking business in Alexandra (No. 56, 9th Selbourne), told Mapepeza that she has poured her passion into hustling after realizing that she was academically ungifted.
She said she did not make it to varsity due to lower grade matric results, adding that she tried her best to boost her matric results, but all her efforts went in vain.
“With peer pressure and the hunger to succeed, I enrolled for electrical engineering and some computer courses with Central Johannesburg College in Blue Valley, but it took me nowhere,” said Evidence.
“I recall working in one of the Chinese restaurants in China Mall where I was getting paid R350 a week. Things were hectic. But I opted to go for plan B, instead of sitting on my buttocks and complaining.
“In 2020, during my stay with my brother and uncle in Alexandra, I started teaching myself how to bake. I used to bake scones and give them to people to taste, and then I started a baking business after being bombarded with several wow remarks on my scones,” she said.
She said she has been making all kinds of scones for a while, and she now trusts her skills when it comes to baking for commercial purposes. “There is nothing I cannot bake,” she said, calling on big names to consider doing business with her.
She added that her business is growing day by day, regardless of stiff competition. “There are more than ten people selling scones next to my place. I thought my business would never prevail, but baking like a pro has made me stand out from my competitors.”
To young women, she said if education is not working for you, try hustling.
