One of these entrepreneurs is Kerryne Krause-Neufeldt, an entrepreneur with an eye for an opportunity and an appetite for seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Her company, iSlices, was recently nominated as the Most Promising company in the Emerging Entrepreneur Awards. The event forms part of the department of science & technology's annual Technology Top 100 awards.
An instruction to think laterally and look not at the cosmetics industry but at the food industry was how she found the solution to her greatest problem - the mass production of her disposable eye treatment pads, called eyeSlices.
The pads are made using a polymer hydrogel technology that was developed by the CSIR in 1993 and formulated into a cosmetic product by Krause-Neufeldt and acclaimed chemist Aubrey Parsons. But escalating the manufacturing process from her small-scale, semi-automated process to mass production introduced problems that would have stumped lesser entrepreneurs.
After developing the manufacturing process and plant from scratch, Krause-Neufeldt still had the problem that the packaging was not airtight. This meant her products dried out and were limited to a two-month shelf life. "We were restricted to supplying small quantities regularly to a limited number of beauty salons," she says.
After she had consulted every outsourced manufacturer in the country, the food industry produced the answers. There, manufacturers are used to producing food in airtight, hygienic packaging of all shapes and sizes.
Using a loan from Cape Biotech and Biopad, a government regional innovation centre, Krause-Neufeldt was able to import the required machinery, customised for eyeSlices, from a Spanish supplier.
The new plant, which will be completed this month, will enable her to produce 1,2m units a month, each with a shelf life of up to two years.
At this point she finds herself in an unusual position for a start-up company: she has pent-up market demand for her product.
"My problem was never marketing, it was getting the manufacturing process right."
Her target market is beauty salons and spas, but she is also developing the product and packaging for the retail market.
In addition, she plans to sublicense the product to multilevel marketing companies like Avroy Shlain that are interested in rebranding eyeSlices under their own brand.
Another opportunity lies with the companies that supply cosmetics bags to airlines, such as Qatar, SAA and Cathay Pacific. "They expressed interest previously, but I just could not meet their requirements."
With the export market in mind - there are potential orders from seven countries - she has partnered Sasol-sponsored incubator Chemcity to handle ongoing formulation of her products as well as to do the necessary toxicology and ophthalmological testing that the export market demands.
Future plans include having her plant ISO-certified later this year and establishing an R&D arm to develop new applications for cryogel polymers.
After years of banging her head against brick walls and walking down blind alleys, Krause-Neufeldt now finds herself in a race against time - eyeSlices are being launched at the Professional Beauty show in October. She needs to be ready because the market is waiting.
