For many entrepreneurs, the challenge is not creating a great product or delivering a valuable service. The real hurdle often lies in finding customers, building credibility, managing operations, and growing a business with limited resources.
Increasingly, South African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are turning to a tool they already use every day: WhatsApp.
What began as a simple messaging application has evolved into one of the most accessible and powerful business tools available to entrepreneurs. For many SMEs, particularly those in the early stages of growth, WhatsApp has become a virtual storefront, customer service desk, marketing platform, sales channel, networking hub, and business management system rolled into one.
According to DataReportal’s Digital 2025 South Africa Report, WhatsApp remains the country’s most-used mobile application, while WhatsApp Business continues to rank among South Africa’s most downloaded business tools. Its affordability, ease of use, and accessibility make it especially valuable for entrepreneurs operating without a website, marketing budget, or physical premises.
“WhatsApp has become indispensable infrastructure for South African entrepreneurs,” says Palesa Moeletsi, SME Business Development Support Manager at FNB.
“What we are increasingly observing through our SME development programmes is that entrepreneurs are not only using WhatsApp to communicate. They are using it to market their products, engage customers, build business networks, access opportunities, and generate sales. For many SMEs, it is becoming the primary platform through which they run significant parts of their business.”
The platform’s appeal extends far beyond instant messaging. Business profiles help entrepreneurs establish credibility by displaying trading information and product catalogues. Broadcast lists enable direct marketing to customers, while features such as quick replies and customer labels help businesses manage enquiries, orders, and relationships more efficiently.
Yet perhaps the platform’s most significant contribution lies in its ability to foster community.
This has become increasingly evident through Monetise Your Business (MYB), FNB’s national entrepreneur development initiative delivered in partnership with Hetty the Entrepreneur.
What started as a series of community workshops has grown into a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem connecting more than 13,000 entrepreneurs across 43 WhatsApp communities nationwide.
The programme has highlighted WhatsApp’s growing role as a business-enablement tool. Beyond communication, entrepreneurs are using the platform to market products, source suppliers, identify business opportunities, collaborate with peers, access support, and connect with potential customers.
The MYB initiative uses WhatsApp as the foundation of a broader entrepreneurial education ecosystem. Through workshops, webinars, podcasts, networking opportunities, market-access platforms, and digital learning resources, participants gain practical business knowledge and ongoing support long after formal interventions have ended.
“WhatsApp is our core anchor and primary communication platform,” says Hetty the Entrepreneur.
“Whether we’re announcing a workshop, releasing a podcast episode, or hosting a masterclass, WhatsApp is often the starting point. It is where entrepreneurs first hear about opportunities, where they register, and where they stay connected long after a session ends.”
More importantly, the platform has enabled collaboration on a scale that traditional networking channels often struggle to achieve.
Within these digital communities, entrepreneurs regularly share customer referrals, recommend suppliers, exchange advice, identify opportunities, celebrate milestones, and support one another through challenges. Many of the groups have evolved into active business networks that continue creating economic value long after the initial engagement.
“We see the real-world financial impact of these networks every day,” says Hetty.
She points to the example of an entrepreneur specialising in stone kitchen countertops who was approached by a client seeking a full kitchen renovation. Needing a skilled woodworker to complete the project, he turned to his local MYB WhatsApp community and partnered with a carpenter within the group. Together, they successfully delivered a project valued at more than R100,000.
In another case, the founder of a local juice company was preparing to scale her business but required a specific food safety certification to qualify as a supplier to major retailers. Through her regional MYB WhatsApp group, she connected with a compliance consultancy that guided her through the certification process. Today, her products are stocked in two local SPAR supermarkets.
“These aren’t simply networking chats,” Hetty explains. “They are active trading floors where entrepreneurs are finding customers, securing partnerships, accessing expertise, and unlocking new growth opportunities.”
The broader lesson for SMEs is clear: business growth does not always require expensive technology investments.
Often, the most powerful tools are the ones already in entrepreneurs’ hands.
As WhatsApp increasingly becomes the place where SMEs market, sell, network, and transact, it is also where support ecosystems and financial services need to meet them. This thinking informed FNB’s launch of eWallet on WhatsApp, enabling customers to register, send and receive money, make EFT and PayShap payments, purchase prepaid products, and withdraw cash through a platform they already use daily.
South Africa is not short of entrepreneurial talent. What many entrepreneurs need is greater access to knowledge, customers, markets, networks, and financial tools. WhatsApp is helping bridge those gaps.
Through initiatives such as Monetise Your Business, entrepreneurs are using the platform not only to communicate, but also to learn, collaborate, trade, and grow.
For many South African SMEs, WhatsApp is no longer simply a messaging app. It is rapidly becoming the digital backbone of their businesses.
