Meet the guest
Zibusiso Mkhwanazi is the Executive Chairman of M+N and CEO and co-founder of Avatar, a black-owned integrated marketing and advertising agency. An entrepreneur and author, he built the business from humble beginnings and limited resources. Bootstrapping is his…
View speaker profile →About this episode
Zibusiso Mkhwanazi made his first million at 21 and lost all of it at 23. The advertising executive, who later co-founded Avatar and grew it into one of the continent’s biggest black-owned agencies, says the second time round the discipline that mattered most was not financial.
R2,000 and a way forward
Speaking to host Lungile Msomi, Mkhwanazi traced his start to selling sweets to classmates, an early lesson that money is “the ability to have more choice than what you did yesterday.” In Grade 11 his mother told him she could not afford to send him to university, which he describes as the moment he had to make a plan. She gave him R2,000, which he spent on taxis to the library and to organisations where he hoped to find help, along with the basics for a business: he had no car and no suitable clothes.
A self-taught computer enthusiast, he started by repairing computers, but found that corporate clients would not trust a teenager with their networks. Web design carried no such security risk, and while the market treated websites as an IT product he argued they were a business’s most important brochure. That positioning let him work through advertising agencies and reach corporate South Africa. “I call it leaning in,” he said: moving with the process and turning problems into opportunities.
Losing it all, and Avatar
He was frank about what followed. The business reached its first million when he was 21, and by 23 he had lost it, which he blamed on poor decisions and losing his humility. He later bought into a digital agency and, in 2012, co-founded Avatar with a business partner. His idea was an agency that works across every channel under one strategy, since a consumer meets digital, television, radio and billboards in a single day.
It was too early, he said, because clients were organised by channel, and nobody knew which department to send him to. But that early start made the agency an authority and, he said, it grew by more than 100 percent a year for seven years running.
Discipline at scale
Asked how he handled that growth, Mkhwanazi named emotional discipline first. He recalled a mentor’s advice never to listen to your praise singers, because they say what you want to hear, and a client whose finance team resisted paying Avatar because of the cars its people drove. Growth, he said, invites admiration and resentment alike, and a calm temperament lets you decide well.
Scale also changed his appetite for risk. In hustle mode he took bigger gambles; once big brands relied on the agency, risk had to be calculated and governance had to match. During COVID-19 he and his partner chose not to retrench staff. He called the work for the presidency on the pandemic his favourite campaign, because it was about changing behaviour to save lives, and the messages had to be simple enough for an elderly woman in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
Grace, giving back and standing out
The title of his book, Business by Grace, reflects his view that decisions that should have ended the business did not, and he credits his faith for getting him through bankruptcy and shifting his focus from the next rand to what difference he can make. Proceeds from the book and his speaking fees go to the Mkhwanazi Foundation, which backs young people with potential in townships, including through music programmes.
Asked what young people should hear, he turned to mentorship. He gets requests every day and said the way to earn a place is to stand out by offering value. He told how he got his first corporate door opened by offering to carry a speaker’s bag to the car park, which gave him 20 minutes of the man’s time and a business card. He also warned against a sense of entitlement, urging that “your work ethic should be bigger than your ambitions,” and spoke openly about a period of depression, telling anyone close to giving up that the future may be far better than it looks.
Mentioned in this episode
- Avatar Agency Group: The agency he co-founded.
- The Mkhwanazi Foundation: His foundation supporting young people in townships.
- Business by Grace: His book.
- Why bootstrapping builds better businesses: Our look at building a business with little capital.
Questions this episode answers
How did Zibusiso Mkhwanazi start his business?
With R2,000 from his mother in Grade 11, after she said she could not afford university. He used it for transport and basics while he researched and hustled, starting with computer repairs before moving to web design.
Why did he name the agency Avatar?
Because an avatar is a digital representation of oneself, linking the physical and digital worlds. He wanted an agency that spoke across all channels under one strategy, at a time when most agencies were built around a single channel.
What does he say is the most important discipline for fast growth?
Emotional discipline and humility. He says praise can make you lose your way, and that staying calm and humble lets you make the right decisions as the business grows.
How does he suggest young people ask for mentorship?
Stand out by offering value, not simply asking for help. He says he is one person receiving the same request every day, and that the people who get his attention are those who bring something to the table.