The Small Business Opinions That Made Us Stop and Think This Past Year

By Kekeletso Nkele, small.news Assistant

(small.news) — Over the past year, small business owners have written candidly about the parts of small business ownership that don’t usually make it into pitch decks—the funding gaps, the compliance mazes, the burnout, the bias. Here are six pieces worth revisiting as small.news hits its one-year anniversary.

1. Laundry Isn’t Glamorous, But It’s Impactful

By Hyacinth Tucker, Founder of The Laundry Basket LLC

2. The Realities Behind Building Destiny Creek in Botswana

By Boitumelo Felicity Ntsosa, Managing Director of Destiny Creek

Ntsosa traces the unglamorous middle of small business ownership: the scramble for affordable, compliant industrial space, and a bureaucratic maze of registrations, permits, and inspections that can eat up scarce startup capital before a business even opens its doors. She writes about the specific indignities of it, like being turned away from submitting paperwork because physical planning forms are only accepted on a different day of the week, and the tough trade-offs between paying rent and scaling slowly.

Beyond the logistics, she’s honest about the emotional cost of building something from nothing: the days of doubt and fatigue alongside the days of progress, and the difficulty of finding a team willing to grow with a vision rather than a paycheck. Her takeaway is less about avoiding the obstacles and more about how to carry them, with clarity, patience, and partnerships that can hold weight.

“The road may be rough, but each step forward brings you closer to realizing the vision.”

3. Stillness Is Hustle: What I Learned From A 1-Year Sabbatical

By Samuel Reed, Founder of Sriii Consulting

After 25 years in the classroom, Reed and his wife took a year-long sabbatical that started with an Amtrak sleeper down the California coast and eventually led them to the Grand Canyon and Botswana. He writes about what it meant to unplug from a life scheduled down to the last minute, and how a canyon’s silence and a foreign country’s slower pace taught him something no productivity system could.

The piece isn’t an argument against hustle so much as a redefinition of it. Reed came back running his business differently: choosing slower, sturdier partnerships, working with a South Africa-based executive assistant instead of doing everything solo, and filtering decisions through whether they make life bigger or just fill more of the calendar. He closes with an invitation for other small business owners to find their own version of a pause, even a small one.

“We don’t step away from work to abandon it. We step away to remember what it’s for.”

4. The Invisible Barriers for MENA Female Founders

By Nourhan Sondok, Artist

Sondok unpacks how bias follows Middle Eastern women founders even after they leave their home countries, reshaped rather than removed. She writes about investors who see MENA founders through only two narrow lenses: someone who needs rescuing, or a business that must fit neatly into crafts, cuisine, or “exotic” products, and about degrees from respected universities in Damascus or Cairo being quietly discounted next to a local diploma.

She also names the toll of the smaller, constant frictions: being judged for an accent regardless of credentials, or being asked about war and food instead of business at networking events. Her closing note reframes that resilience as an asset rather than a wound, arguing that founders who’ve adapted to new languages and cultures are, by necessity, some of the most adaptable leaders in the room.

“The barriers do not vanish; they simply change shape.”

5. The Life of a Small Manufacturer in South Africa

By Paul Masilo, Director of Freshmo Brands

Masilo, who runs South Africa’s first black-owned township mouthwash-sachet manufacturer, delivers an unflinching account of what it actually costs to manufacture locally. Banks want years of financial statements he didn’t have. Government funding applications disappear into forms and vague rejections. Loadshedding eats into production before it eats into salaries. And red tape multiplies: CIPC, SARS, UIF, the Compensation Fund, CSD, and Beneficial Ownership filings, each demanding the same documents in a different format.

Retailers, he writes, love the story until it’s time to talk terms, and even well-meaning ESD funds ask for certifications a business can’t afford until it already has the funding it’s applying for. He ultimately had to move to contract manufacturing just to survive, shrinking his own margin to keep the brand alive. His asks are specific and practical: one government portal, a 30-day payment law with real enforcement, and ESD money that funds production instead of consultants.

“Being a small manufacturer in South Africa is like running the Comrades Marathon in gumboots.”

6. Stop Calling It Sustainability If It Doesn’t Make Your Business Better

By Sian Young, Founder of Siel Environmental

Young, who runs a waste consultancy, argues that sustainability pitches fail small business owners not because they don’t care about the planet, but because sustainability has been marketed as an act of generosity rather than a business strategy. She used to leave client meetings frustrated that the data hadn’t landed, until she realized owners weren’t weighing environmental priorities against indifference. They were weighing them against survival: payroll, cash flow, staff shortages, and whether they’d still be open next year.

Her reframe is blunt: if a sustainability initiative doesn’t cut costs, improve operations, or build resilience, it’s just another expense, and small businesses have enough of those already. She’s found that waste itself, whether it’s food, inventory, or turnover, tells business owners the truth their financials and marketing often don’t, and that leading with the business case gets further than leading with the planet.

“Waste never lies.”

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