21-Year-Old Entrepreneur: ‘I Started My Business With No Funds’

AS TOLD TO

Avthar Aniruth, a 21-year-old Durban entrepreneur, was recently featured in the Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 list. The founder and CEO of Epic Motion Pictures and Audience Networks, who is obsessed with video, says he wants to see more young people in enterprise. The young disruptor who has created a business plan guide shared his story with the Daily Vox.

I run a video production business and we do all types of copy videos and animation. We have a green screen studio in uMhlanga where we shoot all videos. It’s like in Hollywood and it’s one of the first in South Africa; it hasn’t been really done here. We offer shoots for some TV shows like Mnet’s Big Brand TV Show.

I started my business three years ago straight out of school. It has grown over the years, obviously. I finished school in 2015 and went straight into business. One of the challenges I encountered with my business was securing funds because when you’re young it’s hard to bring on clients, so I found myself having to do a lot of work for free. I had to prove that I had a quality product and that we could actually do the job. However, the support from other entrepreneurs was tremendous.

Currently, the company has four employees but we are looking to expand soon. I have received a lot of support from my parents and friends, who are also business owners. 

Being named the youngest entrepreneur on the Forbes list is quite tremendous and an accomplishment; so now I’m looking at bigger things. Obviously now that I’ve made it into the list, they have certain expectations so I’m looking to push the boundaries. So for me this is just the beginning of greater things. I think some people aim for getting into the list but I aim to go for the cover.

Being into business is not easy but my passion tor video is what drives me. I’m a self-taught person whose love for video stemmed from the projects we used to do at school. My passion lies mostly on creation and business, so I learned everything that has to do with video online. I’d spend hours online learning and researching without any formal education. Everything that I do in terms of video work I was never taught by anyone but myself.

One of the highlights of my business was bringing my first client on board, I felt very proud of myself.

Getting into business is not easy and I’ve realised that many young people often don’t know where to start and that’s why I’ve started a company that offers a business plan for young business starters. It’s an information guide that has everything one needs to know to start a business, and it is to help connect more young people into available opportunities.

After seeing many young people in business space, I believe that there’s support out there, but we can do more. Young people just need to push a bit more, there’s a lot of people willing to help because it’s a tough atmosphere to be in.

My objective is to curb unemployment by helping young people get into business.

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