In a country where funding is often seen as the key to starting a business, one Pretoria entrepreneur proves that grit, consistency, and reinvestment can take you further than any loan.
When most people talk about starting a business, one familiar line comes up: “I’m just waiting for funding.” For many South Africans, funding feels like the golden ticket. No investor, no grant, no business. But for Masenelo, founder of Designelo Visual Solutions, waiting would have meant never beginning at all.
She started her business with nothing but a laptop, a dream, and a belief that “how you show up determines how you’re received.”
Today, Designelo Visual Solutions is a thriving branding and signage company based in Pretoria, employing a core team of four people and around five external consultants. The company’s asset base has grown to over R1 million, serving clients that range from small businesses to corporates and government institutions.
South African entrepreneurs genuinely face an uphill battle accessing finance. A recent MSME policy brief shows that 73 percent of small business owners view access to finance as a major constraint, and the MSME Finance Gap Report reveals that only about five percent of formal small enterprises successfully access credit through formal institutions.
Despite this, small and medium enterprises still contribute around 34–40 percent of the country’s GDP and about 60 percent of employment. These numbers prove one thing: the economy runs on entrepreneurs who start small.
“People think funding is the magic key,” says Masenelo. “But if you don’t know how to sell, how to quote, or how to manage clients, funding can actually break you.”
Masenelo registered Designelo back in 2010 while studying Graphic Design and Multimedia Design. Between lectures she freelanced, designing corporate identities and branding for small businesses. After university she worked in corporate, but her entrepreneurial drive never quieted.
“I’ve always believed in the power of presentation,” she says. “In business, how you present yourself determines how you’re received. I wanted to help small companies look as professional as the big ones.”
She explains that branding isn’t just about logos or signage – it’s about positioning and perception. “Strong branding builds trust before you even speak,” she says. “It’s what makes a small business look credible, attract better clients, and compete with established brands. When your brand identity is consistent and professional, people take you seriously and that’s how you scale.”
In 2016, she made the bold leap to leave corporate employment and build Designelo full-time. It wasn’t easy. The clients that once filled her inbox when she had a stable job suddenly disappeared. “When I was employed, people wanted my services,” she laughs. “The moment I went full-time, the requests stopped. I had to learn to hunt.”
She taught herself sales, cold-calling, and door-to-door pitching – tough tasks for someone who describes herself as an introvert. There were months when money was so tight she could not pay her car instalments. Recruiters kept calling with job offers. The temptation to return to corporate life was strong.
“I had already given corporate seven years,” she recalls. “So I told myself, now I’ll give those seven years to my own dream.”
That decision became the foundation of everything that followed.
Designelo began in her home, then moved to a public library for workspace, and eventually into a small shop. Without capital for heavy equipment, she outsourced most of her production, which created challenges with quality control and turnaround time.
Instead of taking shortcuts, she reinvested every rand of profit back into the business – buying a R12 000 printer, then larger equipment, then hiring staff and formalising systems.
Over time, Designelo grew into a full-service branding and signage hub, producing vehicle branding, window graphics, outdoor advertising, large-format printing, marketing collateral, and corporate gifts.
Today the company not only serves direct clients but also supports emerging branding entrepreneurs through a reseller model, producing signage for small businesses that lack their own equipment.
“When I started, I relied on others to produce for me,” she explains. “Now I’m giving that same opportunity to others. That’s growth to me.”
The signage industry remains a space dominated by men, but that has never stopped Masenelo from carving out her place. She’s faced gender bias, inappropriate propositions, and pressure to partner with men “for legitimacy.”
“Some deals came with conditions that didn’t align with my values,” she says. “I’d rather grow slower than build on something that would cost me my integrity.”
Her stance has earned her respect and a nickname from peers who call her the “Princess of Signage.” Inside her business, the story flips: her team is mostly women, and suppliers affectionately refer to them as the “Women’s League.”
“People say, ‘You can’t run a business with only women,’” she laughs. “But we’ve been doing it passionately and successfully.”
In 2025, her leadership and innovation were nationally recognised when she won the MTN Women in Digital Business Award, an accolade that celebrated her commitment to empowering women through technology and creative enterprise.
While Masenelo started without funding, she acknowledges that enterprise-development programmes have helped her scale – in particular, the SAB Foundation Tholoana Enterprise Programme.
“Everyone wants to be in Tholoana and now I know why,” she says. “The workshops on finance, sales and HR are practical and relevant. The mentors feel like an advisory board; they help you see your blind spots.”
This programme, she adds, offered guidance, networks, and sometimes funding – but only after she had already built the foundation. “Funding should be fuel, not permission,” she says firmly. “You don’t need anyone’s approval to start.”
Masenelo is quick to clarify that she isn’t against funding – in fact, she believes it plays a crucial role in scaling and creating long-term sustainability. But she stresses that entrepreneurs shouldn’t wait for funding to begin.
“Start with what you have,” she says. “When you build slowly, you gain credibility and experience. Then, when you finally approach funders, you’re not just pitching an idea, you’re presenting a working business. That makes you more bankable and your chances of getting funded are far greater.”
For those still waiting for the perfect moment, her message is simple: start where you are. She believes slow progress is still progress. “I began with a laptop and added a printer when I could. If I had waited for funding, Designelo wouldn’t exist,” she says.
She encourages entrepreneurs to learn every part of their business – from sales and marketing to production and finances – because “you can’t manage what you don’t understand.” She also stresses integrity as a non-negotiable: “Walking away from easy money or questionable deals may hurt now, but it protects your brand later.”
Above all, she reminds aspiring founders that funding should never be the starting line. “In South Africa, where funding is hard to access and unemployment is high, we can’t wait for perfect conditions,” she says. “Build with what’s in your hands today and let funding find you along the way.”
Designelo is a participant business on the SAB Foundation Tholoana Enterprise Programme.
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About the Author
Terrena Rathanlall is the SME Media Portfolio Manager at Fetola.
