#STORIES | 1 MIN READ
Nondumiso Nhlangulela, affectionately known as Miso, is the founding director at Jay Berry Group. Based in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, the group of companies is made up of Jay Berry Consulting, a digital marketing, advertising & social media consulting service, as well as the Jay Berry food group, which manufactures and distributes healthy foods like smoothies, juices and ready-made soups.
The Jay Berry Group started shortly after the onset of Covid-19 in 2020. Before the company’s launch, Miso ran an events company that she decided to shut down due to lockdown restrictions. It was her entrepreneurial resilience and eye for opportunity that led her to venture into digital marketing and wellness products.
In looking at how the pandemic was changing the way ordinary people live and work, as well as what they prioritised, Miso saw a gap in the market for digital marketing and health products. During a time when people were becoming more conscious of their health, and the dawn of an increasingly digital era, launching Jay Berry Group made perfect sense.
She admits that unlike the experience of most businesses, the pandemic worked in her company’s favour. “If the pandemic hadn’t come about, I would not have been pushed to start these businesses,” she said.
It didn’t take long to realise that her group of companies had the potential to scale and grow significantly. Within three months of operation, Jay Berry Consulting had already hired four employees, and the food manufacturing arm of the group had hired three. Currently, five people are employed under Jay Berry Consulting and three under the Jay Berry food group. “I knew there was a gap in the market, but I didn’t realise just how big it was,” she explained. “When I started, people were eager to learn and grow their digital marketing efforts, which contributed to the growth of the company.”
Speaking on her experience in the Black Umbrellas programme, Miso is thankful for the opportunities she has had to meet like-minded entrepreneurs, learn from a dedicated mentor, and strengthen her operations through valuable training. Networking with other entrepreneurs on the programme has had a notable impact on her business, as it has opened up new avenues for collaboration and connecting with prospective clients.
The future looks even more exciting than the past few months for the Jay Berry Group. The food manufacturing arm will soon be working from a warehouse to increase its capacity, which will in turn allow the company to hire more employees. Miso also has intentions to branch out into retail, where her products will be sold to a larger market.
As a dedicated and passionate entrepreneur, Miso believes that the business landscape is ever-evolving, and that businesses need to keep up with these changes in order to grow. Her outlook is one of perseverance, dedication and focus. Black Umbrellas looks forward to seeing the JayBerry group of companies grow from strength to strength in the coming years.