Retrenched Soweto Man Turns Braai Skills Into Flourishing Smoked BBQ Venture

• A man named Mpho Nkomo beat unemployment by turning to entrepreneurship as he started his own venture in the food market 
• Mpho Nkomo shared his journey after starting a unique cooking business from a backyard in Soweto 
• The businessman opened an eatery specialising in adding a twist to cooking meat outside of braaing

One inspirational man, Mpho Nkomo, got candid about transitioning from employee to business owner. His career hit a wall after he was retrenched in 2019. 

Since then, Mpho Nkomo has used his passion for braaing to start a business from his family home. The hard worker shared the ups and downs of his journey to success. 

Man finds success after rentrenchment 

Mpho Nkomo was inspired to start his Something Smoked Roadhouse BBQ business after he was retrenched as a boilermaker in 2019. Initially, he started a furniture business, which failed, but he used his work experience to design a meat smoker. According to The Citizen, he explained how it all started: 

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“I often manned the braai stand, and it became a tradition among our circle of friends, without knowing a seed had been planted." 

From his passion for braaing, he was able to practice smoking various types of meat using the smoker he designed. The entrepreneur explained that smoking meat is different from a braai, as it is a long cooking process, taking up to 16 hours for some cuts. Watch a video of his meat operation below:

How Mpho Nkomo runs smoked meat business 

The impressive business is a one-man project. He aims to make Something Smoked Roadhouse into a restaurant called the Amazon of BBQ. He said: 

"I learned everything on the street. It is reaffirming when people come from outside the province to try this crazy idea and have it sell out because there was a point where we had little to no sales."

4 others who beat unemployment

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• A young woman struggled in the job market until she ventured into farming by working with a major supermarket.
• One man was unemployed for years and started as a vendor selling fatcakes.
• A professional was job hunting for a while and got emotional after she received an employment opportunity.
• Unemployment was a blessing in disguise for an interior designer who became her own boss after struggling in the job market.

Source: Briefly News