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1st Sorbet-Preneur winner handed keys to her own franchise
Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster, Hannah Sadiki, Sharon Dikgale and Linda Sinclair
Therapist Sharon Dikgale has become the first of four Sorbet-Preneur winners to open her own Sorbet franchise. The salon is located at the L’Corro Shopping Centre in Northcliff, Johannesburg.
This initiative is the result of a partnership between the Sorbet Group and Bidvest Bank to give aspiring entrepreneurs an opportunity to own their own Sorbet Salon franchise. As a new franchise owner, Dikgale received 50% of the investment required to set up her business, in the form of a grant from Bidvest Bank. Sorbet waived the initial franchise fee, resulting in her injecting this portion of the funding to setting up and equipping the salon. Bidvest Bank also provided a business loan to cover the balance of the funding needed, which catered for initial operating costs.
Dikgale used the formative years in her beauty career to hone her skills to such a point that she was employed as a therapist at the very same L’Corro Sorbet Salon that she now owns, 18 years later.
“Having also worked at other Sorbet salons in Hyde Park and Bryanston, I learnt about the different clientele in various regions. A really big lesson was realising that the purpose of what I do is to serve and improve the lives of our guests,” explains Dikgale.
As a franchise owner, one of Dikgale’s goals is to pass it forward by assisting as many young women as she can. She is also aiming to change the perception of Somatology as a career.
“I want to elevate my chosen career and highlight just how specialised it really is. For exampIe, I had to study the very same anatomy that medical students undergo for their first three years. This is so that we know how to handle every part of our guests’ bodies without inflicting any pain or damage. We also have to understand the structure of the skin in order to know how certain ingredients will make it react,” she says.