Founded by South African-born businesswoman Jessica Whitcutt Fagan, a new virtual business networking community – Business Networking SA – was launched on July 12, offering South African businesses affected by Covid-19 a much-needed resource to help them continue trading.
Business Networking SA provides business owners the opportunity to network with like-minded people within a virtual community, find potential business leads and access expert business advice.
Business Networking SA meetings will be held virtually every two weeks beginning with the launch event on August 6.
Whitcutt Fagan, now living in the UK, previously worked for large South African corporates, including FirstRand and South African Breweries, before setting up her own business. She extracted key learnings from the various business networking groups she is a member of in the UK to develop a best practice model for Business Networking SA that she believes will resonate with business owners in South Africa.
She says that moving to a new country and having absolutely no business network has been a “very humbling” experience. “I found that the best way to build a business was to connect with others within my business community. I am not certain why, but formal networking has never been big in South Africa. I think it’s time for that to change.”