By Charndré Emma Kippie
Founder of Green Outdoor Gyms (GOG), Tim Hogins, is paying it forward with the launch of his new cutting-edge tech solution named Blacqmarket – the newest tech game changer for Africa. Tim has grown into a serial entrepreneur with a main objective to give back to his local community and the African people, as a whole. Witnessing the challenges that informal traders experience in his local township, Tim developed this online platform to afford the common businessperson a nifty solution for safe and fair trading. Blacqmarket gives the African economy a foolproof strategy for moving businesses online.
Blacqmarket is one of the most secure Ecommerce blockchain-enabled platforms, making all transactions safe and secure. The platform offers low merchant fees so that shop owners retain more, as well as free logistics for parcels that are 5kg and less. The Blacqmarket Platform accommodates formal and informal traders, unlike other platforms, encouraging all who may have a product selection to sell, by utilising this new platform.
I was born and raised in Toekomsrus, Randfontein, and am the middle child of five siblings. Life as a kid was great, but changed for the worse as a teenager due to poverty and discrimination, coupled with your standard ‘teenage angst’. In order to survive, we as a family became entrepreneurs, and our household became the go-to one-stop location to purchase anything from sweets to baked goods. Eventually we became a café where one could buy food etc.
Due to non-existent financial resources at the time, I couldn’t pursue any tertiary education and became a security guard. Whilst being a security guard, for close to 2 years, I discovered the Cobol Computer Programming bursary course, and wrote the aptitude test. After that, my IT career commenced.
With an entrepreneurial background in hand, I always wanted to be a serial entrepreneur and used my salary to explore different concepts. Many ideas failed, but GOG (Green Outdoor Gyms) was a great success. After establishing GOG, I’m now the owner of multiple businesses, each linked to CSI, as my objective is to give back, at all times.
Blacqmarket is a mass employer and also a mass enabler/empowering platform. We’re living in a virtual world with people working remotely. Blacqmarket affords unemployed people the opportunity to create and manage online stores on behalf of merchants who don’t have the technical ability nor time to do so. These virtual shop assistants earn an income from this.
Blacqmarket also accommodates both formal and informal traders, therefore, empowering startups, especially township-based entrepreneurs, giving them a competitive edge.
We, as South Africans, have embraced tech and gaming, therefore, creating infinite opportunities for growth, development, investment and research. The market is ripe, and in some cases ahead of other global regions – allowing us to export our skills and experience at an above market related rate.
SMEs should go back to their roots and not only adopt, but master the ‘bulk purchase’ concept. There is power in numbers and the local economy, especially the township economy. I believe the township economy is currently lost to foreign traders who harness the unparalleled power bulk purchasing.
By reinventing some of my businesses. For example, one recreational park was converted into a private cemetery. I have also realigned my services and product offering according to the new ‘normal’, whilst servicing my existing client base.
I only read autobiographies of successful people. At the moment I’m reading A Promised Land by Barack Obama.
Week after week I go back to the starting point and remind myself as to why I embarked on this journey. Many times I become despondent and regret the investments made to date, but once I remind myself of my ‘why’ I’m fuelled up again.
Why am I an entrepreneur? At first I only wanted a better life for myself, my family, but it became a lifestyle. A lifestyle that allowed me to change the narrative, take on and overcome challenges, but more importantly it allowed me to explore and make mistakes along the way which I have learned from.
If it’s not online, it’s non-existent. Get online! And focus on Africa – Africa is enough and one of the largest youth populations which is bursting with potential for a bright future.
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